Depending on when you started gaming or started watching anime, you would have either played a game in the Naruto Clash of Ninja series or have never heard about it, let alone seen it. The series began in 2003 with “Naruto Clash of Ninja” released for the Nintendo GameCube and their next installment “Clash of Ninja 2” released in 2005 which was actually the first video game I ever owned.
There are many ways to describe this series; the most authentic Naruto game series; a Tekken-like Naruto game, an anime intro game, so on and so forth, but none of that may mean anything to you if I don’t do a bit of describing.
BACKGROUND
Naruto Clash of Ninja 4 follows the Naruto Anime until about episode 134 and focuses more on the Sasuke retrieval arc as the other games had covered prior events in their story modes. The unique feature that part 4 brings is it’s 3-man cell mode that allows you to fight in teams of 3 with a tag in feature and team ultimates in a fashion that I would say is more similar to leader switching in Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4.
If you already aren’t aware, the Clash of Ninja series is probably the most accurate Naruto game in terms of dialogue and mechanics with Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm almost being equally accurate only because of the way the game is played. Things from the series regarding character dialogue and interactions with specific characters are present in the intros and outros and for some characters, there are even special animations in their ultimate attacks, Rock Lee as an example using his primary lotus against the cast and using it against Gaara. Mechanics like Hyuga chakra drain, Samehada’s chakra drain, Kakashi’s copy technique, and Tsunade’s confusion are all things that can be found in the game and the developers did an excellent job integrating these components of the show that made each character unique and maintaining that uniqueness in a fighting game. Many of the stages in the game have interesting background details and locations that were seen in the anime which is also very nice to see as a Naruto fan in addition to alternate costumes for those who want to recreate cannon fights from the series. The details even go as deep as characters switching their front foot while punching and remaining in that stance until further movement. Lastly, and a critiqued component in all fighting games is the in-game music. Aside from the battle game music being loud and unchangeable, the music for every stage is a 10/10 as they stay Naruto-themed and make every fight more intense.
GETTING STARTED
Firstly you will need a strong enough PC to be able to run this game (the lowest end gaming PC should be fine), and an ethernet cord if you plan to enjoy the fun online. This mod is supported by a discord server with a variety of players who have been playing the game for years, and ones like me and you who just got into the action coming from different regions, and gaming backgrounds. Like most anime-fighters, this mod is supported by fans of the anime, but you will be surprised to see that many of the players have never watched the series and aren’t even anime fans but began playing from a recommendation or their interest in the fact that this was a different fighting game. Developers in the server are constantly working on making the game more enjoyable for new and experienced players and are open to taking suggestions regarding the game. The community is grateful to have developers that revived a once dead game into a game with version updates, patches, new features, music and stage changes. The next most engaging thing about this discord is the frequent online tournaments that are commentated and streamed by veterans of the server bringing as many people together to watch, learn and participate in the game. Anyone is free to participate in whatever themed tournament there is available unless it is region-specific, and anyone in the server is able to create a tournament and even add cash prizes! If you would still like to lay low, the matchmaking section will allow you to request games with anyone willing to play and if you’re lucky, you may find people offering training opportunities to get you “cracked” for more competitive play.
SUPER GNT4
Now that we’ve gotten some background info out of the way, I will be introducing you to why this mod takes the game to the next level.
The original Naruto Clash of Ninja 4 was a game that wasn’t necessarily fair or balanced for competitive play with many characters being ridiculously broken and some that got left in the dust. The modders of this game have successfully made every character at minimum “playable” with so many characters having something overpowered about them that unusually makes the game very entertaining, gives characters individuality and makes matchups interesting. Characters have had moves, movesets, and characteristics changed, added or removed to make the competitive scene as competitive as possible with an effort to even physically create moves and transfer moves from other game series into this game. Do not forget that every character can be subject to changes as the developers are constantly looking to balance characters, Shino being an example of a character who has been experimented with over time. Although the game is easy to play casually, the work done by the modders and the effort by the community to find tech and push characters to the max allows room for skill development and mastery of the game and different ways to play characters. Character guides and tournament footage can be found on the community’s YouTube channel in addition to the helpful community of players that are welcoming to newcomers.
CONCLUSION
Now that you know how to get started and are excited (hopefully) to start the game, the Discord and YouTube links for the game are posted at the end of this post. I’ve left enough for you to discover on your own and I hope to see you in the Discord soon, feel free to reach out to me for some training!
Discord Community:
Community YouTube channel:
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