I don’t care what you think of anime-licensed games. Well…I care a little, given that I’m encouraging you to get a demo of an anime-licensed game, apparently hoping that you’ll like it. Actually, it’s one of the better licensed games around, be anime-licensed, movie-licensed, book-licensed or otherwise.
It’s a 3D fighter based on the Naruto Shippuden anime and was developed by CyberConnect2, it comes from the same minds behind the epic Tail Concerto and some obscure indie darling series called “.hack.”
It’s also totally off the chain. Fighters dash around and spam specials and tag attacks at the speed of a high-level Marvel vs. Capcom 2 match, but without all that icky “remembering how to do moves” stuff. So no, it’s not exactly a complex and nuanced experience, but it looks hyperactive and super-intense, which is probably the most important part.
And it is. The demo’s a relatively small download and features a single boss battle, with Naruto and Sakura up against Kakashi, just like the first few episodes from the anime. Yeah, this game’s got boss battles. And partially scripted ones at that, with each new “phase” punctuated by a fun little quick time event. In fact, the fights themselves play out even more insanely than in the show itself.
If you’ve got a Japanese PlayStation Network or Xbox Live account, you can download the demo now via the PSN store and XBL Marketplace. Or not. You could just check out the video for a look at the fight itself. It’s dubbed in English, but the full game should ship with both language tracks.
Expect the game to have 40+ characters (including a Tekken refugee), three story modes (covering 150 or so episodes from the series), and support for online play (finally). It should release in both Japan and North America sometime in October.
Published: Jul 31, 2010 06:00 am