Naruto Shippuden: Gekito Ninja Taisen Special is the fourth Naruto fighting game on the Nintendo Wii (7th, actually, if you consider the changes between the English and Japanese releases to warrant separate mentions). It’s a Japanese-only release, but it’s a fighting game so there’s really no need to understand the story in order to enjoy the game, especially considering that anybody who’s interested in the story of Naruto Shippuden already has the anime and the mangas.
The menus in Naruto Shippuden: Gekito Ninja Taisen Special are in Japanese, but a little bit of exploring and looking at the icons will allow anyone to memorize how to navigate the game and get into fights. So basically, if you have a Wii that can play Japanese imports (remember that the Wii is region-locked), you’ll be able to enjoy the game to its fullest.
Visually, Naruto Shippuden: Gekito Ninja Taisen Special is a feast. It uses cel-shading so the Wii’s limitations when it comes to 3D rendering isn’t a factor, and while the game doesn’t really look anywhere near the anime, it does the franchise justice and the characters and environments do look good.
The game has a sizable roster, with a total of 44 characters available to players after getting access to all the unlockable content. However, one glaring flaw is that there’s no sign of pre-timeskip versions of the characters, so you won’t be able to play as young Naruto or Sasuke – you’d have to go back to a previous installment of the game franchise to do so. On the other hand, you DO get access to updated (at the time) versions of characters, new transformations, and additional characters that have never made an appearance on the Gekitou Ninja Taisen/Clash of Ninja series of fighting games before, such as Sage Mode Naruto, Minato Namikaze as the Fourth Hokage, the Raikage, and Killer Bee.
Gameplay-wise, it retains the Clash of Ninja mechanics, where there is a single button for attacks, another for special attacks, one for throws, and the another for Super Attacks. It’s not the most complex of controls so if you graduated from the school of Tekkens and Dead or Alives, you will find Naruto Shippuden Gekitou Ninja Taisen Special a little bit lacking on the gameplay depth department. That is not to say that the game is too casual – the complexity is there even with the simple controls – there are guard cancels, attack priorities, and startup times that need to be taken into consideration if you want to play on a higher, more strategic level. The Super Moves come out as cut-scenes, but unlike the extremely long and over-the-top FMVs in the Ultimate Ninja series, the ones here are short enough that they won’t ruin the flow of the matches, while still looking impressive enough to warrant their use.
In terms of replayability, Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen Special has the advantage of being a fighting game, which means replayability is high when you compare it to RPGs and platformers. You can breeze through story mode and unlock all the characters but you will still have fun popping in the disc from time to time and enjoying a quick match with CPU-controlled opponents. You can bump up the replay value even further if you have a friend or a family member to play with or if you can take advantage of the game’s multiplayer.
At the end of the day, Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen Special is a welcome addition to your Wii library whether you’re approaching it as a Naruto fan or a fighting game fan. The game is playable via emulation on Dolphin, but nothing beats the feel of using authentic hardware. Thankfully, copies of the game are still in abundance and can be imported easily via Amazon.
