Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 review

This 3D brawler is clearly the most ultimate-est ultimate ninja of all

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The developers likely had to employ some high level tricks to get the game running on the PlayStation 2, so we weren't too shocked when we ran into problems trying to play it on various PlayStation 3 models. The older 20GB and 60GB models fared fine, for the most part, but we did encounter random graphical glitches every now and then. On the more recent 80GB model, which emulates one of the PS2's chips through built-in software, the results were much worse: the game simply froze during story scenes and whenever certain special attacks were performed. Hopefully, Namco-Bandai will work with Sony to fix these issues in a future system update.

There's no denying that Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 is a textbook case of "been there, done that." But, so what? The crazy, flashy fights are still as addictive as ever, and all of the little changes and improvements do ultimately render the previous installment obsolete by comparison. That sure sounds like a solid sequel to us.

Mar 28, 2008

More info

GenreFighting
DescriptionTurns out that the last two games were anything but "Ultimate," because Ultimate Ninja 3's got 40 playable characters, nearly 60 missions, and the all new Summoning mode. We're inclined to believe it.
Franchise nameNaruto
UK franchise nameNaruto
Platform"PS2"
US censor rating"Teen"
UK censor rating""
Alternative names"Naruto: Ultimate Ninja III"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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