As one of the most internationally popular anime series of all time,Naruto’sname has garnered some incredible acclaim over it’s storied 25 years of existence. And with such a timeless story to accompany its many unforgettable and relatable characters,it’s easy to see how.
Since the manga’s debut in Weekly Shonen Jump back in September 1998, Naruto games have varied wildly in popularity, thanks to the fact that a fair number of them never left the shores of Japan. Meaning that many die-hard fans might not even know that some of them exist. What follows are just some of those titles.
10Naruto: Ninja Destiny
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.76M
Traditional fighting games could be hit or misson handheld systems. ButNinja Destinymanaged to find its footing, partly becauseNarutogames tend to follow a fairly simple blueprint of easy to pull off melee and jutsu attacks, as well as ninja tool usage.
Relegating those ninja tools to the DS' touchpad makes things a bit easier to handle, while a sizable roster ensures that players stay engaged. Which is definitely an important trait for a game that is so slim on a story and additional modes.
9Naruto: Path of the Ninja
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.40M
A turn-based RPG is probably one of the last directionsfans would have imaginedNarutogames to be taken. And yet,Path of the Ninja,the first entry in this three-RPG run, was generally successful in retelling the first few arcs of the anime, while proving that the genre was a perfect fit for the series.
Players familiar withNaruto’sescapades will get to experience the battle in the Land of Waves, or the defeat of Shukaku, the One-Tail beast, from an entirely new gameplay perspective. Complete with many random encounters where players get to put their jutsus and items to use in grid-based combat.
8Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja: Impact
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.35M
Impactis interesting because it coopted theUltimate Ninjamoniker while taking the series in an entirely different direction. To be fair, though, the Musou genre fits extremely well with theNarutofranchise, regardless of how lightly present the genre may be here.
The story covers a good chunk of the series, starting at the beginning ofShippuden, and ending at the Five Kage Summit. Included is also a fairly large pool of playable characters, each equipped with their own gloriously animated ultimate jutsus.
7Naruto: Ninja Council
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.22M
As one of the firstNarutogames to be released to a western audience,Naruto: Ninja Councilhad a lot riding on it. Thankfully, it delivered, providing an excellently madehandheld pixel-art brawler.
The game had players make their way through eight stages that covered the anime story up to the Chūnin exams. The game would inevitably spawn a number of sequels, carrying it all the way through to the Nintendo 3DS.
6Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.18M
Dragon Blade Chroniclesis an anime-based game that provides its own original story, telling a story from both Naruto and Sasuke’s perspectives. Both ninjas are on a quest to defeat the “Genryū”, a fleet of destructive dragons, for their own reasons.
Hack-and-Slash is often thegenre of choice for Wii games, and that’s exactly whatDragon Blade Chroniclesprovides, with some easy-going combat and light platforming. A rather simple explanation, for sure, but it’s a simple game, and one that was panned for being so run-of-the-mill.
5Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja 5
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.17M
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 5is the only game in the series to not have a U.S. release. It’s a shame though, especially because Ultimate Ninja 4’s story mode ends in the middle of an arc. Though, fans are probably not playing these games to experience the story for the first time.
Gameplay-wise, this entry was the first in the series to introduce assist characters that added another level of strategy to battles, and additionally allowed for cool tag-team jutsus. Assist characters would be a feature carried over to thegame’s next gen iteration,Ultimate Ninja Storm.
4Naruto Powerful Shippuden
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.16M
Spin-offs of popular shows often fail to capture the magic of the original work in their pursuit of another avenue of storytelling. However,Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth Full Power Ninja Chroniclesworked becauseNarutoas a series tends not to take itself seriously already.
Based off that spin-off,Naruto Powerful Shippudenis just as silly, with its side-scrolling action gameplay and chibi art-style. Playtime is split between two stories—a cutsie version of the events of theShippudenanime, and an original Rock Lee-centric one.
3Naruto Shippuden: Naruto vs. Sasuke (Ninja Council)
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.11M
By the timeNaruto Vs. Sasukewas released, theNinja Councilgames had seen a number of moderately popular entries. Though with the sheer number of these games, and with them not really following a common naming convention in their English releases, fans would be forgiven if they lost track of them in the shuffle.
Naruto Vs. Sasuke’smain incorporation is the ability to cycle through playable ninjas mid-mission to access their unique power-sets. Characters even have special team attacks that sometimes change depending on the player’s selected team members.
2Naruto Shippūden: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! Special
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.06M
The final game of the bunch,Naruto Shippūden: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! Special, was a culmination of everything that came before it. Unfortunately, as a Japan exclusive, many international fans of the series never got to experience the final stage in the series' evolution, at least in their native language.
Shake-ups to this entry included some welcome additions to the roster, landing at 41 playable ninjas. The game also makes many tweaks to gameplay, like the addition of a dedicated substitution meter that changes up the way players battle, and would go on to be a staple ofNarutofighters.
1Naruto: Shinobi no Sato no Jintori Kassen
Sales According to VGChartz: N/A
Similar to a game likeMario Party, minus all the mini-games,Naruto: Shinobi no Sato no Jintori Kassenis a board game,of all things. Victory seems to come down to a bit of chance, as movement along the game-board is determined by the spin of a wheel.
The rest is a bit tough to make heads or tails of. That’s largely due to the fact that there is no official translation, having been released a few years before the show debuted in America. It was most likely thought that the gameplay style would be a bit too boring for Western audiences and that makes total sense.
