A list of the best Naruto video games to play right now
The Naruto franchise has spawned dozens of video games, but picking out the best ones isn’t easy. We can help.
The Naruto franchise is over 20 years old, with games spanning four console generations and three handheld generations. Many of these games would have been lost to time regardless. The combination of licensing purgatory, the closing of digital storefronts, and lagging backwards compatibility features has left many games on Nintendo and Sony platforms in limbo.
There are still many serviceable games to check out on modern consoles, though. There are also plenty of games from the past that resourceful fans can track down. These are the best Naruto games from the past and present.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy is the best value among games
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is the best Naruto game of all time according to review aggregators. The trouble is that the title has a very narrow focus on the final stage of the Naruto Shippuden story. Fans wanting to take in the entire Naruto story can look to Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy to get the full tale.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy contains the remastered versions of the first three Ultimate Ninja Storm titles from Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy, as well as Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4: Road to Boruto. This hits all the major story beats of both Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, alongside the first big story of Boruto.
Each of the main Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm series titles is available individually on current-gen consoles. Legacy bundles them at a discount both physically and digitally.
Naruto: The Broken Bond and Rise of a Ninja among best games, but have been forgotten
We weren’t kidding when we said that there are loads of Naruto games and that many have been lost to time.
Ubisoft Montreal developed a pair of Naruto titles. While it’s unusual for a non-Japanese studio to publish a line of Naruto games, the real kicker is that this series is exclusive to the Xbox 360. The series is quite similar to the Ultimate Ninja series which launched around the same time as it mixes single-player RPG elements into a fighting game. Unlike Ultimate Ninja, its gameplay is more similar to traditional fighting games.
Naruto: The Broken Bond actually shares the highest average media score with Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4. It hasn’t aged gracefully but is still playable more than 15 years after its initial release. Unfortunately, the games are not supported by the Xbox One or Xbox Series backward compatibility at this time.
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 is a strong fighting game
Most Naruto games have juggled genres or spliced in mini-games to varying degrees of success. Tomy’s Naruto: Clash of Ninja series didn’t do that.
The Clash of Ninja titles on Gamecube and Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 are different. These are generally solid fighting games that’s easy to pick up for all. While they’re not on par with established fighting games such as Street Fighter or Guilty Gear, from a pure gameplay and replayability perspective these titles are very strong and introduced a number of original characters that are interesting and fresh.
Alas, much like the Xbox 360 exclusives, these titles have faded into obscurity. The only way to play these games today is to track down a physical copy. All of these games can be played on Nintendo Wii, but players can dust off their Wii U to try out the Clash of Ninja Revolution series.
All Naruto handheld titles are tied for worst games
The greatest testament to the age of the Naruto series at this point is that it has multiple games released on old the Game Boy Advance. Unfortunately, none of those games are particularly good.
The Naruto Ninja Council series ran across the GBA and Nintendo DS, and was generally awful. Though the GBA originals were serviceable at the time, the games were put to shame by other platformers on the handheld at the time including New Super Mario Bros, Kirby Mass Attack, and even Sonic Rush.
Alongside these games were the Naruto: Path of the Ninja series. These were standard JRPGs released worldwide on the DS and exclusively in Japan on GBA. The games are of varying quality but ultimately fell far short of other JRPGs on both platforms. While they’re not necessarily bad games, they’re much less compelling than the Final Fantasy remasters, Dragon Quest games, both Golden Sun games, and many others. Much like Naruto filler episodes, they’re not awful, but aren’t mandatory for any but those most desperate for more Naruto content.
Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.
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