The GameCube released four fantastic Naruto beat-’em-ups. They had incredibly simple fighting mechanics but with the hectic nature of the battles and the games’ great looking cel-shaded graphics showing off the amazing special moves it was really fun to play. The PS2 tried to catch up with two Naruto Ultimate Ninja games released here, but they didn’t really capture the same magic as the GameCube title. It’s probably something to do with the buttons.

So Uzumaki Chronicles dispenses with the straight-on fighting and introduces a more RPG-themed game instead. The problem with this is that there aren’t many Naruto characters to fight against; instead you’ve lots and lots of ninjas to put up with. At least some of the fighting mechanics from the beat-’emups remain so that when you’re fighting off these countless ninjas you can have some fun bashing their faces in.

Standard combos are just a matter of bashing buttons but you can augment these attacks by using your special moves. Naruto himself can make clones appear and attack whoever is closest or whoever you’re locked on to, and can turn himself into a fireball with his other special. In addition, you can charge these moves up for a more powerful, longer lasting attack. Once you start juggle-comboing and using the weapons you can pick up or buy, then you have numerous ways to dispatch the marauding enemy ninjas.

In some missions you’re allowed to create a team with up to two other characters and it’s great – and sometimes essential – to bust these guys out and make use of their special attacks. You can only use them for a short period of time before you return to using Naruto but it’s fun while it lasts.

You can level-up your stats as well by using the chip plates, which seem to be inspired by Final Fantasy X-2’s dress spheres. You buy chips of various sizes and abilities and fit them on to the plate. Eventually you get different sized plates as you can fit on more abilities.

The missions require Naruto to travel from town to town fending off the various random ninja battles and complete tasks for the inhabitants of the towns. And as the story arc expands you eventually get to play as Gaara, who is awesome.

Tim Empey