Summary
- Naruto video games span various genres beyond fighting games, including RPGs, open world experiences, and hack & slash adventures.
- Some unusual Naruto games include a board game, an adventure with a realistic art-style, and an action title with a focus on elemental dragons.
- Ubisoft developed Xbox 360 exclusives Rise of a Ninja and The Broken Bond, standing out for mechanics and art style.
Naruto video games are a dime a dozen, as one would expect from one of the biggest and most successful shōnen action franchises in the world. However, while most people are familiar with its 3D fighting games (like the Ultimate Ninja Storm series), this IP has also been adapted into a vast variety of different genres.
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After all, the Naruto manga has existed since 1999, which means it had quite a lot of time to explore multiple types of video games, and some of them are extremely unusual and unexpected. Whether it’s because of their art styles, their original stories or their gameplay, these are the 7 most unusual video games in the Naruto franchise.
7 Konoha Ninpōchō
The First Naruto Game Was Made For An Obscure System
- Platform(s): WonderSwan Color
- Released: March 27, 2003
- Developer(s): Bandai
- Genre: RPG
All the video game adaptations of big anime franchises have to start from somewhere, and Naruto was no exception. The young ninja’s first foray into the digital landscape was 2003’s Naruto: Konoha Ninpōchō which was only released in Japan and exclusively for Bandai’s obscure WonderSwan Color handheld.
The first Naruto game wasn’t even an action adventure or a fighter, but a unique RPG that focused on the use of scrolls with different Jutsu sealed inside them. This gameplay was surprisingly complex for its time and console, and it also featured some surprisingly detailed character sprites and environments. However, due to its exclusivity and age, Konoha Ninpōchō is not very accessible for most fans and, thus, has been forgotten with time.
6 Shinobi no Sato no Jintori Kassen
Naruto Finally Arrived To Home Consoles… With A Board Game
- Platform(s): PlayStation
- Released: June 26, 2003
- Developer(s): Dimps, Denyusha Co., Ltd.
- Genre: Board game, Party game
A few months after the release Konoha Ninpōchō, the series finally made its inevitable debut on the home console market, with Naruto: hinobi no Sato no Jintori Kassen for the PlayStation 1. But, to the surprise of most fans, this still wasn’t a conventional action experience, but a strategic board game instead.
The gameplay in Shinobi no Sato no Jintori Kassen is all about conquering an opponent’s home base by rolling a randomized number and moving around different themed boards. It’s not exactly a bad experience, but it feels slow and dull for a franchise as imaginative as Naruto. Because of these imperfections, this board game is not fondly remembered by fans.
5 Uzumaki Chronicles
An Adventure Game With A Questionable Art Style
- Platform(s): PlayStation 2
- Released: November 16, 2006
- Developer(s): Cavia
- Genre: Action, Adventure
When it comes to Naruto titles released for the PlayStation 2, Uzumaki Chronicles is without a doubt one of the most beloved ones in the collection. But this doesn’t change the fact that this semi-open world game is quite strange, especially because it ditched the cel-shaded graphics of previous titles in favor of a realistic art style and a dull color scheme that doesn’t really fit in this otherwise colorful franchise.
Fortunately, subsequent entries in the Uzumaki Chronicles subseries went back to a more conventional, cartoony presentation. Another odd aspect about the original Uzumaki Chronicles is that the English version of the game cut and altered content from arcs that weren’t released outside of Japan at the time, which includes Naruto’s iconic Rasengan technique being renamed to Power Strike.
4 Rise of a Ninja / The Broken Bond
An Xbox 360 Exclusive Developed By Ubisoft
- Platform(s): Xbox 360
- Released: October 30, 2007
- Developer(s): Ubisoft Montreal
- Genre: Action, Adventure
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja and its sequel Naruto: The Broken Bond are often considered two of the best video games in the franchise by fans, due to their intricate mechanics, satisfying gameplay, colorful graphics that perfectly replicate the anime’s art style and exciting boss fights. They even adapted the plots of some of the early Naruto arcs almost flawlessly, which makes both games an ideal way of re-experiencing these stories.
But what makes both Rise of a Ninja and The Broken Bond so special is not their content, but the context behind their existence. These were the first Naruto video games to be ever developed by a non-Japanese studio: Ubisoft Montreal, who also released the first Assasin’s Creed earlier the same year. And if that wasn’t weird enough already, both titles were Xbox 360 exclusives, meaning that Naruto was a key player in the console wars of the seventh generation.
3 Dragon Blade Chronicles
A Hack And Slash Game With A Big Focus On Dragons
- Platform(s): Nintendo Wii
- Released: November 12, 2009
- Developer(s): Tomy
- Genre: Action
Naruto Shippūden: Dragon Blade Chronicles is infamous among fans for being one of the weirdest video games in the entire Naruto franchise. For starters, it has an original non-canon storyline that introduces the concept of the Genryū, a group of elemental dragons with western designs. While this is an interesting idea, it does seem a tad out of place in this ninja-centric world.
But the gameplay is another element of Dragon Blade Chronicles that really stands out, since its combat system focuses more on the use of bladed weapons, which is quite unusual when controlling Naruto, a character who mainly fights with his fists. At the end of the day, this is a basic hack and slash adventure with a Naruto coat of paint that didn’t really need to be based off of this classic manga series and, as a result, was poorly received by both critics and fans.
2 SD Powerful Shippūden
A Bizarre Portable Fighting Game With Chibi Characters
- Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS
- Released: March 5, 2013
- Developer(s): CyberConnect2
- Genre: Action, Fighting
There are so many different action games and fighting games based off of the Naruto IP that sometimes it’s difficult to keep track of all of them. But Naruto SD Powerful Shippūden is definitely the most unusual one of the bunch, mainly due to its comedic presentation.
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Unlike other Naruto fighters, this game doesn’t take itself very seriously, since it features a cartoony art style with chibi caricatures of classic characters and also includes a lot of funny slapstick in its combat. Not to mention that SD Powerful Shippūden was released on the Nintendo 3DS, meaning that it’s one of the few fighting games in this franchise developed exclusively for a handheld device.
1 Ultimate Ninja Online
A Naruto MMORPG That Can Be Played On An Internet Browser
- Platform(s): Internet Browser, iOS, Android
- Released: July 20, 2016
- Developer(s): Namco Bandai Games, Cyberconnect, Tencent Games
- Genre: MMORPG
Anime fans often dream of being able to explore their favorite fictional universes in the form of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Unbeknownst to most of them, the Naruto franchise already had something like that, and it’s titled Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Online. Weirdly enough, this is a free-to-play game released on internet browsers, which was a common practice during the early 2010s.
Also known simply as Naruto Online, this is an MMORPG with 2D graphics that lets players explore the world of this classic anime series and take part in exciting turn-based battles. Players even start by choosing original characters with peculiar names, like Scarlet Blaze or Crimson Fist, although they can later recruit other classic heroes and villains as well. Naruto Online may not be the most ambitious MMORPG ever made, but it’s still being played by thousands of fans to this day, especially after it was released on mobile devices.
Naruto
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- October 2, 2002
- Seasons
- 5
- Studio
- Pierrot
- Creator
- Masashi Kishimoto
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube
