BitSnark

Thats the great thing about shows that get licensed, not only do you get the show itself but you also a get a range of ass-kicking merchandise too, whether it’s models, OST’s or other such bits and pieces.

Thankfully, with blockbuster ninja anime Naruto now airing on Cartoon Network (wait for the unedited DVD’s if you want the FULL Naruto experience), we also get the range of Naruto games which, unlike many of their anime spawned counterparts are actually pretty good.

You have the Naruto Geikito Ninja Tasien series on Gamecube which is the one i’m most familiar with. This game is basically for up to four players at once as they duke it out as their favourite shinobi complete with all their trademark powers and mannerisms from the series. Great fun, especially in multiplayer. I had the second installment of this for my Gamecube as a Japanese import, couldnt understand a word of it, but the multiplayer goodness shone through to make it one of my most played games for the ole’ cube.

So that the games stay in continuity with the CN aired series, the games are being released in chronological order. So those of you who have been watching Naruto on it’s Japanese broadcast, might want to save some dough for the upcoming FORTH installment that hits the land of the rising sun this November.

A good place to order it from (or at least the place i;m going to order it from anyway) is http://www.lik-sang.com. They ship from Hong-Kong and seem pretty reliable.

Then we have the Narutimate Hero Naruto games on PS2, which i’m less familiar with although they appear to be more story driven affairs, with a better use of environments then the Gamecube games. Interesting, but the one i’m looking forward to the most is the GBA Naruto RPG… Hmmm with that coming out, Nintendogs, Advance Wars Dual Strike and Castlevania, I really am running out of reasons not to buy a DS. ^-^

Still Naruto games are headed stateside so yay for that, but it would be nice if some of these games would get a European release…. (hint, hint) =o)