Naruto: The Broken Bond (Xbox 360)

After the Sand Village’s attack on Leaf Village was beaten back, it looks like things in Leaf Village might calm down for a change…until Orochimaru appears, eager for vengeance in his quest for power, and makes an attack on Leaf Village of his own. Now Naruto, along with his friends and teachers, must help to rebuild the village and stop the plans of the nefarious figures who would threaten their peace.

Naruto: The Broken Bond is a direct sequel to Rise of a Ninja, and is a similar action-platform game. It directly follows the anime’s story, picking up right where the previous game ended. The player controls Naruto and up to two teammates exploring the world around Leaf Village, taking missions from Jiraiya and the Hokage. Battles play out as a one-on-one side-view fighting game, and new in this title is the addition of tag play and team attacks.

There are many small changes to the way the game works. The use of many jutsu has been simplified: chakra focus is now activated automatically when climbing walls or walking on water, and the addition of other playable characters brings a much wider variety of abilities to make use of when exploring or fighting. The game also has a substantial variety of mini-games and side quests, including fishing, bounty hunting, hide-and-seek, and of course the game booths in Tanzaku. Completing these quests will improve Naruto’s fighting abilities.

In addition to the game’s story mode, there is also a straight fighting mode for up to four players. It can be played either locally or online over Xbox Live. As the story mode is played, new characters and stages are unlocked for use in the fighting mode. The game features three difficulty levels, as well as full voice acting in both English and Japanese.