(100% of the old characters have returned, no matter how dead they are in the show.) On the other hand, all of the characters have new chaining tricks, by means of the new combo-cancelling feature.
Characters from previous games have essentially nothing for new moves, but tweaks and balance changes from Naruto 3 can be seen here and there. New characters include Kimimaro and the sound village crew, Kisame (alias "that shark headed dude"), Kabuto, and additional forms of Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata. With three-man cell, players can't just rely on their favorite single character anymore, so they must look for new strategies and clever character combinations. Some teams have special jutsu combinations that ought to excite anyone who has torrented a hundred episodes of the show (check out the Sannin characters' team-up jutsu!). It's largely similar to tagging systems that have been successfully integrated into other fighters like Tekken and Marvel vs. The "three-man cell" tag mode is new to the Naruto series. Naruto 4 has a special advantage in that it has a greater variety of characters, a tag mode, and isn't five years old.
#I NINJA GAMECUBE ROM SERIES#
And in the realm of four-player fighting games, only one other series has gameplay this good: Smash Bros.
Even though characters have simple chain combos that use the 'A' and 'B' buttons and single-button super moves, tense games of timing, prediction, and guile (not the sonic-boom kind) rule the gameplay. Each of the nearly forty characters has received plenty of attention from the designers, both in appearance and play mechanics. Naruto 4 is very easy to get into with its simple controls and instantly gratifying gameplay, but much like other great multiplayer games, its true subtleties come out after time and experience, and the game only gets better. For those residing in the "no-click-zone" of internet apathy, I'll reiterate what made Naruto 3, and now Naruto 4, so great.
In fact, the first four paragraphs of the Naruto 3 review could have easily been smuggled into this review under the cover of night, and no one would have been the wiser. Like many of the best (and more conventional) fighting games, the Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen series is essentially the same game each time, improved and expanded with each sequel. Naruto GNT 4 features 37 characters by my count, all true to their manga & anime counterparts with the same voice actors, catchphrases, and signature jutsu techniques. Now it's also on American TV, and I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it's going to get terribly popular here, too, if it can't be classified as such already. It's popular enough that you can get super cute Naruto night-caps in Japanese convenience stores. Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen is a series of fast-paced fighting games based on the popular manga and anime available in Japan. In fact, due to the sheer fun of it, I'm ready to say that Naruto 4 is the best game on GameCube. In my own circle of hardcore gamer friends, Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen (GNT) 3 and now GNT 4 have competed for our time on game nights against such rough competition as Smash Bros., LAN-ready Halo 2, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur, Guitar Hero, etc, and has won out more than enough times to be notable.