Naruto ultimate ninja heroes 2 the phantom fortress psp
Unfortunately, these mini-games feel a little lightweight and superfluous next to the fully fleshed out battles that make up the bulk of the game. It's basically a level select mechanism whereby you can decide to engage in a fight or have a go at one of the mini-games on offer. On each of the tower's levels you'll have a choice of which magic scroll you want to open for the next empty room. The story is nothing spectacular, and the dramatic scenes consist of still images as opposed to fully animated snippets, which is a shame. It consists of you, as Naruto, making your way up the titular Phantom Fortress, viewing dramatic scenes and engaging in fights against the other characters. The Mugenjo story mode itself is a bit of a mixed bag. It's an option we see all the time in films, so why not in video games? We were also delighted to see the option to choose between English and Japanese dialogue for the story mode. The sound, too, is fantastic, consisting of a fine score and an array of beautifully executed sound effects, from the meaty thwack of a punch connecting to the explosion of an outlandish special move. If you squint a little you could be watching a zoomed out episode of the anime series.
It's rendered in an incredibly slick, cartoonish style that perfectly reflects the source material. In short, from the start you'll be fighting your opponents rather than the controls.įortunately, for a fighting game based on movement and attention to the environment, it looks and moves fantastically. Each arena contains a number of breakable objects which yield bonus items, whether they be health boosts or some kind of pointy object for lobbing at your opponent from afar. The skill instead has been pushed to the timing of your moves, an effective defence and the utilization of your environment. Whilst this could prove overly simplistic, it really isn't. Special moves are activated by preceding an attack with a double press of Up or Down. Though each character possesses an individual style, everything is centred on a single attack button, with variants and combos achieved by adding different directional presses into the mix. Retaining the original's side-on one-on-one fighting gameplay and adding a healthy lick of spit, polish and new features, Phantom Fortress provides a heady mix of kinetic brawling and light adventuring, with a smattering of simplistic mini-games thrown in for good measure.Īs a fighting game Phantom Fortress forgoes all of the usual mind frazzling button combinations and thumb-cracking joypad gymnastics in favour of a simple, uniform move-set.
#Naruto ultimate ninja heroes 2 the phantom fortress psp series#
Thankfully, Namco-Bandai's Ultimate Ninja series has been consistently excellent, and (deep breath) Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress is no different. Perhaps the worst problem young Naruto has had to face, though, is being plonked into a series of derivative and sub-standard video games such as the ones found on the Nintendo DS. Whilst others his age are out smashing up bus stops and getting drunk in public parks, Naruto Uzamaki has to console himself with practising his ninja skills and getting funny looks from people in his village.įor those of you unfamiliar with the immensely popular Naruto series of manga and anime, that's the basic premise. Being the living prison of an evil six-tailed fox can't be much fun for a young lad.