Quite surprising for an anime license, the Naruto series has spawned some really excellent games both in the U.S. and Japan, though the Japanese release of Naruto: Ninja Destiny as Naruto: Shinobi Retsuden was pretty mediocre, with a crawling frame rate, poor graphics, and an extremely limited cast of characters. Rather than release the same crap stateside secure in the knowledge that Leaf Village headband wearing fans everywhere would buy it anyway, developer Tomy went and fixed it first.
"We've listened to the fans and made a slew of improvements to the Japanese original, including a much faster frame rate, additional characters, and never-before-seen content," said Laura Yoshioka, director, consumer software of TOMY Corporation.
The 3D fighter now boasts an impressive 16 different characters, with storylines up to the 140th episode of the anime, which I am about 80 episodes away from seeing currently. The new and improved Naruto: Ninja Destiny will be in stores next month. Much love to Tomy for going above and beyond for the U.S. release!
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