Stats time!
Picross Levels Completed 45/45
Picross Levels Completed in under an hour 29/45
Mega Picross Levels Completed 1/45
Mega Picross Levels Completed in under an hour 0/45
It’s time to take a look at a Picross game. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I’ve never played one before, but there is a first time for everything right? I earned a bunch of MyNintendo points for playing Fire Emblem Heroes, but there wasn’t a whole lot in the rewards section. I figured that this game would be better than nothing so I took the plunge. It’s a relatively simple game that can be pretty addicting as you’d expect from this kind of game. It’s very similar to Sudoku in many ways and it’ll really test your brain power. Throw in the Twilight Princess backdrop and you’re all set for hype.
There are 45 puzzles in the game and an additional 45 Mega Picross battles. I took a peak at the Mega Picross levels, but honestly they didn’t seem all that appealing. The rules were super convoluted and since I had just gotten used to the original ones I didn’t want to have to learn a whole new set of rules. As a result I stuck to the classic ones. The goal of each puzzle is to solve it in under an hour. Every time you make a mistake it adds on another 3-5 minutes to your total. I did fairly good for myself overall as most of my puzzles were conquered in under an hour, but some managed to persist.
In case you don’t know what Sudoku is, here are the Picross rules. You have 10 rows and 10 Lines. Each one will have a number at the start. The number shows you how many boxes in that line/row have to be filled out. You know the length, but you don’t know where it starts and that’s where the detective work starts. You have to cross check the numbers with the other rows and lines and that is how you’ll figure out what to fill out. It’s a pretty intense ame and this one tries to help by starting you off with some squares filled in. I don’t know how you could hope to solve it if you started with a blank board to be honest. That would be impressive though.
The graphics are good. I mean, there is almost literally nothing that you are using the graphics for so it would have been almost impossible to have been bad. Still, I’ll take what we can get. The music is also good since it is music from Legend of Zelda. That makes the puzzles more engaging and gives the game an extra bump. As I mentioned, the gameplay is a lot of fun as well. Since it is basically free, then that’s already a positive outcome.
There is only one weakness to the game and that is its lack of content. Since there are only 45 picross challenges you can finish that in a few days. Then that’s it. Of course, for the price this lack of replay value isn’t terrible. It’ll keep it from being a 7, but it’s still a good game in the long run. I wonder what a AAA Picross game would be like.
There’s not much more to say so I’ll start to close by giving a tip. When the hint roulette comes out to give you a row and a line, try to get them both in the same corner. That’ll give you a huge step forward into solving the Picross. The roulette moves very quickly so it’ll be difficult to do, but it certainly isn’t impossible. With enough practice you are sure to succeed.
Overall, I’d recommend getting this game. It is still the best prize on the MyNintendo Rewards site so you may as well. It’s also a good way to relive the Legend of Zelda adventures while stretching your mind as well. Solving these puzzles will make you think and that’s always a good thing. If you’re going to get some exercise, it may as well be while you’re having fun. Hopefully Nintendo adds some more game rewards to the site though as it is sad that Picross is all by itself the whole time. It needs a partner.
Overall 6/10
Stats time!
Play Time 15h 10m
15060 Credits
Character Levels
Van Level 47
Amy Level 42
Kaz Level 44
Justin Level 45
Hanz Level 41
Dak Level 42
I’m always up for a good robot game. Mega Man and Custom Robo were always exceptional titles and so naturally LBX looked like a winner from the get go. I actually got to watch the TV show way before the game so if anything this version feels pretty nostalgic while playing through. The anime adapted the game pretty faithfully to be honest and the quality is sharp since it’s by Level 5. Those guys really do a great job of completely building a game around its concept. Layton is the perfect puzzle game and this is the optimal robot experience. You just can’t go wrong with buying this title.
The story follows a kid named Van. He’s really interested in the new game that everyone is playing. It’s called LBX and you buy a mini robot that you can use to fight with other people. Think of it like those classic Rock em Sock Em toys that used to be around, but 1000X cooler as the robots have weapons with live ammo and you control them with your phones. Unfortunately his Mom is against it for reasons unknown and Van’s Dad may have created the LBX franchise, but he died in a plane crash. A mysterious lady gives Van a one of a kind LBX one day though and after he stops some burglars from stealing it, he ends up joining a private faction who is trying to stop the villain organization from using it for their own means. They tell Van that his Dad is actually alive and being held hostage so Van quickly goes on board. His two friends Ami and Kaz agree to help as well. They’ll have to win multiple tournaments, break into enemy territory, and hone their skills. The risk is high, but there are lives on the line so the heroes put on their game faces and get ready for action.
It’s a pretty long game at 15 hours so that’s really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the plot. There are 12-13 episodes in the game and the length varies for each one. There is also a lot of replay value as you have many parts to buy and quests to complete. I did a few quests here and there and got a bunch of weapons, but getting them all would take a long while. There are also online battles that you can play so content is certainly not lacking in this title. You can have fun playing the game for a very long time and it’s worth the full price.
The soundtrack is stellar. It was pretty cool hearing the tunes from the anime even if they technically came out in this game first. It was still nostalgic and most of them are quite memorable. LBX spared no expense in this department and the same goes for the graphics. Not only are the in game graphics sharp, but there are a number of fully animated cutscenes at the ready as well. They really help you dive into the game. It used up a bunch of these cutscenes early on and I would have preferred for Jin to get more of them, but it’s how it goes. It’s really impressive that they added so much in and I feel like we got more animations than Layton. It just feels that way so I can’t confirm it, but a quick Youtube search would give you the answer to that.
As you can imagine, the gameplay is really sharp. It’s in full 3D like Custom Robo and you can equip two weapons at a time. I always went with a good Machine Gun and an electric sword. Even if it’s not the strongest, I like the electric sword because it stuns the opponent so you get more hits in. More hits = More damage or at least that’s how I saw it. The gun can be safer, but the opponent can use the downtime between rounds to get in close and take you down. You have to use a lot of strategy here. You can carry health items to help yourself out as well. There are also a number of final smashes that you can equip. You can use a weaker one to try and get some damage in, but the catch is that the enemy might dodge it. You can instead use an ultra attack which is impossible to dodge, but you can’t move for around 5-8 seconds which is a long time and if an opponent deals enough damage during that time you will lose the attack. I was able to use it successfully in the final boss which was helpful. It seems to always happen that the boss gets me to my last bit of health and then I clutch it out. It’s an amazing feeling, but also super stressful. The final bosses were definitely incredibly powerful so I recommend training a lot so you’re prepared for it.
I still think the concept of LBX was borrowed heavily from Megaman Battle Network, but it certainly did a good job of making a name for itself. It had a lot of its own unique features which differentiated itself from Megaman. It’s also a good move to be like Megaman since Capcom isn’t making any new games at the moment so we can get our Megaman fix this way. Imagine a Megaman game that was 3D like this one with a bunch of hype cutscenes. Hopefully Capcom can learn a thing or two from this title and incorporate it into future titles.
The cast is basically the same from the anime, but I’ll briefly mention some of the big ones. Van is a solid hero as you’d expect. He’s always ready for a fight and is very proactive in trying to save his Dad. He has a brief lapse in confidence, but gets over it right away. At times he can almost seem too happy like when they arrive to the toy store to buy things which felt like a contrast to his rather serious self, but at the end of the day he’s still just a kid. It’s hard to say if he beats Lan Hikari or not as they’re both very similar. He’s a lead you can get behind.
His two friends aren’t bad. Kaz is always low on confidence which can be a little grating, but he still helps out when he can. Ami is always supporting Van and doing her best to get in on the action. The school friends are pretty bland and underwhelming though. I can see why they got such tiny roles in the game since they didn’t add anything to the dynamic. Jin is a great rival and his LBX has an excellent design. He’s pretty reasonable throughout and does a good job of balancing this while still acting really confident the whole time. He’s an ideal rival and his team up fights with Van at the end are a blast.
Dak and Gouda are two other characters who help out a bit. They’re a step below Jin and Van when it comes to ability, but the more allies the better right? I thought Dak was an enjoyable supporting character, but Gouda is a little too weak to be taken seriously. He was good as an opening boss though. Mr. Kaido is a solid main villain. The fact that he can actually fight goes a long way since he doesn’t have to hide when the fighting starts. His robot is also really cool and has a great design. One villain that came in towards the very end was Kirito and he was exceptionally good. Taking out almost the whole cast on his own was certainly a hype moment and the fact that his LBX had a Super Form was really cool as well.
I have to say that I liked how the super forms were incorporated in this game. When you get below 25% health you can activate it and heavily boost your attack power. It helped a lot in the final boss and just looked really cool. When an opponent would use it, it would up the stakes as you had to focus on defense a lot more. Since some fights would give them all of their health back, the game really didn’t hold anything back. You need to be pretty good at the game and be at a high level to win. It always feels fair and balanced with just the right amount of difficulty to make things interesting.
Van’s Dad is okay at best here. I still think he tends to run off too often and leave Van behind for no reason. He gets a lot of hype so he’s a good scientist, but seems like a bad father. I wasn’t impressed with the Red Haired guy and his Team Rocket homage members. They’re the only part of the cast/plot that I couldn’t take seriously. I just never liked them for some reason. The true final boss of the game was great though. His origin story was definitely pretty intense and his LBX even more so. It was a pretty nice/explosive way to end the game. It’s great to see Level 5 get to go all out with the ending here as most of their other titles are a lot more down to Earth. Now we know what they can do with a good action title. I didn’t even totally get how the final boss worked and just had to keep on buying time and using hit and run tactics. You can probably see why I just barely defeated him.
Overall, LBX is without a doubt an excellent game. There are absolutely no negatives with it. The gameplay was completely on point. It felt balanced and it was easy to lock on to an opponent. The levels were huge which was a lot of fun but you can move fast so you don’t have to worry about matches dragging out. The plot was really engaging and kept you alert with all of its twists and turns. You felt like you were playing a big RPG and I think this probably would fit in the genre considering that you do have to backtrack to various areas and you explore as you go through the game. The cast of characters was a lot of fun. It’s a little hard to get used to the American names so in this review I mainly used the ones I was familiar with but not all of them were downgrades. The main case where the English name definitely loses is with Justin though. The graphics and audio were definitely well above average and there is a lot of content in this game. It’s the definition of a AAA title and I’m convinced that Level 5 is one of the best studios of all time. It’s hard to see them churning out a game that isn’t great at this point. I highly recommend buying this game. You’ll be glad that you did.
Overall 9/10
It’s time for a big Dragon Ball game. The concept of fusing characters together to form even stronger ones is certainly nothing new. People have thought about that for years with Marvel and DC even getting in on the act. Until now fusions were quite limited though, but this game changes things on that regard. It’s finally a game built around the concept so you can fuse everyone together for quite a lot of interesting results. While it’s a very different kind of Dragon Ball game compared to the others, it certainly ends up working out quite well.
The story follows a Saiyan Warrior named Terry. (At least that’s his name in my version) His rival is Pinich and they have decided to enter the Intergalactic tournament. Fighters from across time and space have been invited to attend but each group must have 5 members. Terry decides to form his team with Goku from the original Dragon Ball series, Pan from Dragon Ball GT, Goten, and Trunks. It’s a pretty potent team and they will be the ones who appear in all of the cutscenes but you will be able to switch them out pretty early in the story. Alas, getting to the tournament will be difficult as the heroes must get a lot stronger to prove that they are ready. To this end, they must recruit a great number of fighters and shatter all of the sky barrier preventing them from reaching the tournament. Legendary villains like Broly, Omega Shenron, Frieza, Cell, Buu, Janemba, and many others seek to block their way. Fortunately Terry has more potential than the whole franchise put together so there’s no way that these guys could hope to stop him. Will they win the tournament or does Pinich have a good plan up his sleeve?
The stakes may not be very high until the end, but the story is still fun. The game certainly chose some unique members to be on the main team. I can see why Goku and Vegeta didn’t make it since they’d probably be a little too strong. The series seems to take place around the Resurrection F arc of Dragon Ball Super. It’s cool seeing Terry have allies from the various Dragon Ball titles. We got to cover the original, Z, and GT. I suppose we didn’t get any Super characters because most of them are still technically DBZ characters. The climax is pretty fun as we get a really cool super form for one of the fighters. It was also a very challenging boss fight. The real final boss wasn’t quite as difficult compared to that one since nobody had healing abilities, but it was still tricky.
Lets talk about the gameplay. Instead of the typical beat em up DBZ style, this game is more of a strategy title. Think the Mario/Rabbids game coming up or Yu Yu Hakusho. You move the characters around and attack. When you attack, you decide what direction to launch them in and the opponent gets to guess which way he should block. You always have to tactfully decide which direction is best based on where you think the opponent will block. Bouncing opponents off of each other will get you bonus damage. YOu also have an Ultimate Fusion attack which can defeat most foes in a single hit, but be warned that it means all of you teammates lose a turn so you have to fend off 5-10 consecutive attacks. I’d recommend only using it when you know it will defeat at least one character. You also have Zenkai Attacks which quickly turn the game into a 3D Brawler like Tenkaichi 3 for 10-20 seconds. It’s pretty neat although it clearly wasn’t the game’s focus so it feels hastily put together. You must defeat an opponent with this attack to recruit him/her to your team.
What makes the gameplay a lot more exciting than other tactic styled games is that you aren’t limited to moving your characters one turn at a time. You can attack from anywhere with a few exceptions so the game is very fast paced. The weakness of this style is typically that battles can take forever, but this one feels more exciting. Yes, the battles still can be quite long so you’ll have to have a lot of patience with the game, but it’s usually very fun. The only matches that I don’t really enjoy are when the opponents have instant regeneration. Then you have to win in one turn which can take a while to set up. Sadly the later levels started spamming this quite a bit, but the battles like this are still few when looking at the grand scheme of things. I definitely got hooked on the gameplay by the end.
The graphics are quite good as well. There are a lot of character models in the game and they did a good job of making most of them look unique. The made up characters do look like rip offs at times, but some of them weren’t bad. It was cool seeing so many characters from Dragon Ball history as well. Everyone’s chibi style worked well without being too cartoony. I can’t say that I was as impressed with the soundtrack though. It’s pretty limited and since the game isn’t too short you’ll hear the tunes a little too often. It would help if I liked the themes, but I didn’t for the most part. I liked the epic theme for the final boss though. (Not the actual final boss, but the one that threatened the multiverse)
There’s a lot of replay value here so you’ll have a lot to do. Doing everything in the game should easily take you 40-50 hours I’d say. The main story mode is about 18 hours long. After that, you can get to work recruiting everybody. There are a ton of actual characters to recruit and then all of the NPCs as well. Then you can fulfill all of the training requirements, buy all of the clothes, and beat all of the secret bosses. I wouldn’t bother with some of these things, but recruiting everybody sounds like a lot of fun. I recruited over 50 people by the end of the game, but no named characters. I didn’t actually do any side quests although I imagine most of them will be quite easy at the moment. I certainly would have done it already if there were trophies involved and as it stands I’d probably like to go ahead and do some more of the bonus content someday. Likely not anytime soon though.
It feels pretty good to play a high quality title like this one after a lot of average-below average games lately. This one I would play for fun to level up and prepare for future bosses or just recruit extra people. It’s a game that I would look forward to playing each time. It may not be up there as the best DBZ game because there’s just too much competition but it may be the best DS/GBA/3DS DBZ game aside from Extreme Butoden and even then this game could claim victory. That one had the better gameplay but it was a little limited due to the 3DS control scheme. Fusions was just handled really well and having a full original story certainly helped. While Terry didn’t have much of a personality, Pinich felt like a real character by the end and he wasn’t bad. Perhaps a tad generic and lacking in honor, but at least he never went down the dark path or blamed Terry for anything. He took his losses better than expected. There are some power level issues in the story, but we’ll just say that Goku and friends were holding back so they wouldn’t hurt Terry’s feelings. Then everything makes more sense. I am a little upset that Terry never became a super saiyan though. That was a huge missed opportunity since everyone else basically could by the end.
If there’s such a thing as too much content, I’d maybe say that there are too many attacks in the game. It’s not such a bad thing, but you get to learn new attacks after every fight. You can save them for later, learn them, or just drop them. I usually learned the ones that looked good and dropped the rest because saving them felt like such a hassle. There are various loading screens for each action and I just didn’t feel it was worth it. The problem is that each attack has a ton of different variations. There can be over 10 different Kamehamehas that have different special abilities. That isn’t even counting other versions like the Super Kamehameha. It would be nice if you could just level up your abilities instead of hoping an enemy can drop you a better one at some point. It’s not a big deal though because you can ignore this for the most part and do quite well. It’s not really something that you have to worry about.
Overall, I would definitely recommend Dragon Ball Fusions. It may not look like it would be your thing from afar since the whole strategy turn based combat thing isn’t for everyone, but it’s pretty fast paced. I think they did as good a job with this game as they possibly could have. The huge amount of content in the game is also quite impressive as well as it assures that you won’t run out of stuff to do. It’s going to be a little rough not having a DBZ game to play for a while, but maybe it’ll be time to finally go back to the Card games that I own for the GBA and DS. That gameplay may not be quite as good as Fusions, but maybe it’ll have aged better than I gave it credit for. Perhaps…..
Overall 9/10
Stats time!
Play Time 19h 12m
Gold 26731
Boos: 18
Ghost Container 5672W
Gloomy Manor Gems 12/13
Haunted Tower Gems 6/13
Old Clockworks Gems 4/13
Secret Mine Gems 1/13
Treacherous Mansion Gems 3/13
Level Stats Clear Time, Ghosts Captured, Rank
A1 9m 25s 6 2Star
A2 13m 37s 17 2Star
A3 11m 36s 10 2Star
A4 26m 48s 15 1Star
A5 16m 15s 14 2Star
AB 4m 6s 1 2Star
A6 10m 36s 18 2Star
B1 19m 25s 11 1Star
B2 47m 4s 20 1Star
B3 10m 2s 9 2Star
B4 12m 51s 16 2Star
B5 9m 19s 13 2Star
BB 11m 37s 14 3Star
B6 –
C1 11m 11s 10 1Star
C2 11m 21s 16 1Star
C3 15m 12 2Star
C4 10m 35s 6 2Star
C5 31m 59s 22 1Star
CB 13m 20s 31 2Star
C6 –
D1 38m 31s 9 1Star
D2 11m 12s 8 2Star
D3 22m 28s 12 1Star
DB 4m 43s 1 2Star
D4 –
E1 9m 30s 11 2Star
E2 21m 47s 17 1Star
E3 16m 46s 13 2Star
E4 7m 30s 0 1Star
E5 12m 8s 52 2Star
EB 2m 15s 1 3Star
E6 –
It’s been a while since I got to play a new DBZ game so now I’ve finally gotten to end that draught. It’s great that the Butoden series has finally reached America. DBZ has had many great series like Budokai and Tenkaichi so this just adds onto that list. The fact of the matter is, DBZ has a great track record with the video games. Battle of Z was a little disappointing and likewise with Ultimate Tenkaichi, but most of the games are all stars that didn’t just start out as amazing titles, but have withstood the test of time. This one is a portable incarnation so it may not have the same amount of depth as some of the other DBZ fighters, but certainly enough to keep you going for quite a while and the gameplay is solid.
There is a story mode in the game, which briefly covers the manga series. They cover it all in 10 battles so you can imagine that this is a heavily abridged version. It can be quite funny to go through if you pretend that you’ve never seen the show since you would be seeing a very different version of the events. There are also “What If” stories for many of the main characters like Goku and Vegeta. I use the quotation marks since they can barely considered What Ifs as you are mostly just going through the story mode from their points of view. A pretty big missed opportunity if you ask me. A fun What If was the final story that you unlocked after beating the others though, which shows it all from the villains point of view. We get to see Broly and Bardock with new origin stories to fit them into the canon universe and it’s pretty fun. The story doesn’t make a whole lot of sense though and most of the events have no real logic or rhythm to it, but these things happen.
The soundtrack is solid and there are quite a few good tunes to be found in the game. The action themes are memorable and there are a few good villain themes as well. It’s a very small soundtrack, but one that works quite well. The graphics are good as well and should remind you of the classic DBZ arcade games. It’s fun to see the characters standing tall, which makes the fighting gameplay more fun. It’s part of the appeal for the Street Fighter games. You like to have tall 2D fighters who aren’t minified so that you can really feel the combos. The opening cutscene that plays when you turn the game on is also really good and it’s always great when the DBZ games add this in for that extra impact. You can see some cool hypothetical battles this way.
As far as the character roster goes, there are 25 playable characters. You’ll be able to play as just about all of them in the story modes, but not all of them so that gives you an incentive to play some regular battles or enter the Adventure Mode. Adventure Mode greatly helps the replay value of the title since it’s quite long and should provide you with a bit of a challenge. There are around 75 support characters who will jump in to help you if things get rough. Naturally, these allies are extremely useful if you decide to increase the difficulty or if you want to play the game competitively. I never really used them and just focused on my standard combos, but that’s not technically the right way to go about this.
As for the core gameplay, think of it as your average 2D fighter. You have your normal combos and projectiles to mix things up. Each combo can be extended and you can also knock an opponent into the sky to start following up with some aerial attacks. The two dimensions are fun and having support characters naturally deepens the actual combat system. On easier difficulties, you can get by with just spamming the Y button over and over again (Which is what I did) but naturally that won’t work against stronger opponents. The gameplay is definitely solid and that’s certainly the most important part of the game.
As referenced earlier, there is definitely a lot of replay value to be found here. You can play through all of the stories and complete Adventure Mode. Doing all of the stories should take around 4 hours and I’m not sure how long Adventure Mode is. There are a variety of other modes to delve into and the fact that this is a fighting game also strengthens the replay value since it can be fun to just pop it in and start winning once in a while. If you have a friend who owns the game, then all the better!
I looked around and it seems like Japan has online play for this game. At the time, the U.S. version did not and I can’t tell if we ever got the mode. If we didn’t, that’s a little unfortunate, but certainly not a dealbreaker as I wasn’t really planning on doing online all that much anyway. If it does/did get patched in, that’ll still be a fun bonus though. Online play is the future and as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of local play, then it’s always worth it.
Overall, Dragon Ball Z Extreme Butoden is a solid fighting game and a nice way to continue the DBZ saga. It’s good to see the series alive and well as the franchise is getting its second wind with the new Dragon Ball Super anime and other merchandise that is now readily available. I look forward to getting some more Dragon Ball Z games eventually. I definitely recommend this title and any fighting game fan should definitely enjoy it.
Overall 8/10
Stats time!
Play Time 4h 7m
Power Level 933, 742
Play Time 6h 59m
Naruto Level 75
Rock Lee Level 100
Keys
Naruto 7
Rock Lee 7
It’s time to finally review one of the newest Naruto games. As you may recall from my Rock Lee review, I was not a fan of the manga series and I actually gave it a 0 for effort. The game’s story is pretty bad to be honest and shows me why the series didn’t know what it was doing, but the gameplay is good. This raises a pretty big issue that I’ve never really had to tackle in a video game before. What wins out, the horrendous plot or the gameplay? It’s a tough call so it’s time to explore this issue in the review.
There are two story modes in the game, but it may as well just be one since you have to keep on going back and forth between the two. The story modes belong to Naruto and Rock Lee. Each character will have 4+ missions at the ready when starting and you can keep on completing the missions until a gate appears. The gate can only be opened by a certain amount of keys. Let’s say you’re in Naruto mode and the door will only open if you have 2 Naruto keys and 2 Rock Lee keys. Can you guess what that means? It means you have to go to Rock Lee mode and beat some missions to get the necessary keys. It’s odd because this sort of defeats the purpose of having two different story modes right? It’s just not right!
Naruto mode plays it straight for the most part and actually adapts the manga. It covers the Shippuden series all the way through the Kage summit, which is pretty impressive. There are also a lot of filler missions that you have to play along the way to defeating the final boss since you need those keys. It’s slightly luck based as to when you will beat the game as well since there are a lot of paths that just lead to more filler missions and keys. It’s why I completed Naruto’s story at level 75 without beating Rock Lee’s, where I got to level 100 a long time ago. You just have to try and pick the right path or you may complete just about all of the filler missions along the way.
Rock Lee’s story is the one that decides to include as much low quality humor as possible. Those certainly get old fast and you’ll want to just focus on the gameplay so you can ignore the plot. Remember how I mentioned that I got to level 100 very quickly with Rock Lee? Well, wait until you make it to the Kisame boss battle and then use that one to grind with the expert criteria “Don’t get hit” Completing the mission while following that guideline will give you over 4000 exp points per battle and that’s enough for 3-5 level ups. You can easily just keep on beating that boss until you are at level 100 and it should take you about 30-40 seconds to beat the boss each time. It’s an incredible grinding level and I felt pretty proud of myself for figuring that out. I’m sure that there’s somewhere like that for Naruto, but it’s barely even needed. Just beating all of the filler will likely get him to level 90 or higher.
The levels follow a specific formula depending on the objective. There are survival missions, where you must survive for 30-90 seconds without fighting back. Those are certainly the toughest missions since a few hits can typically down you if you’re not prepared. It’s always good to have an ace up the sleeve for these missions. (Meaning a level up that you haven’t bought with your EXP yet) The best missions are the boss battles since they’re just a classic 1 on 1 fight where you can overwhelm your opponent with pure power. The only boss battle that wasn’t too enjoyable was the Deidara one and that’s because he just hides in the sky the whole time. Not very sporting of him is it?
Another fun mission type is the one where you just have to defeat 30 enemies. Simple and to the point. Another tricky type is one where you can’t let enemies pass you to the goal line. For the most part this was easy, but towards the end it got a little dicey. The minions are just so fast and it’s hard to stop them all. The most annoying missions are the ones that play out like a platformer. You have to find scrolls, minions, or just the goal line. You can actually get lost with how many rooms are available and the levels are just a little too long for my liking.
The gameplay is smooth though and it should remind you of the original Naruto Ninja Council games. It’s essentially the same concept so it’s cool to see them making a comeback into the modern day. Just keep on attacking and the bosses will certainly fall before you. As for the graphics, I’ve heard that they were great from one reviewer, although I’m not sure if he was serious or not. Regardless, they’re all right, but all of the characters are drawn really small with disproportionate bodies so it’s a little hard to say for sure. Everything is fairly bright and clear so I suppose that I’ll give the game kudos for that. Aside from the PSP, there still aren’t any extremely powerful portable consoles yet so you have to weigh in your expectations accordingly. I will say that the graphics are pretty good when you really think about it. They hold their own and then some.
As for the soundtrack, it’s typically just the same themes over and over again. There is not a whole lot of variety , but there is one or two really good themes that managed to sneak in there. When those scenes arrive, just be sure to savor them and to remember the good ole times of Naruto as you defeat whichever boss is before you.
As far as replay value goes, the game has a little. By the time you will have beaten the game, there shouldn’t be a whole lot of missions left, but enough to last you 2-3 hours. After that, you’ll probably be at level 100 with both characters so then the game will be over. Considering the size of the game though, I’d say that it’s not lacking in content. There’s enough here to certainly warrant your purchase.
Overall, Naruto Powerful Shippuden is very good from a video game perspective. The gameplay is solid, the graphics are good, and the soundtrack can also be pretty epic at times. Unfortunately, story mode really drags it down. The game has a constant stream of bad jokes that would only make the cast of Pixels smile and it really drags on. You’ll enjoy the game more if you just skip all of the cutscenes and jump right into the gameplay. I definitely have to deduct a pair of stars for the story. That means that this is probably the most positive Rock Lee product that I’ve reviewed since the show will probably get a 1-2 at best and the manga was a big 0. So, the gameplay is good enough to recommend this title, but I’ll recommend picking up Naruto Clash of Ninja 2 instead.
Overall 5/10
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