As one of the most internationally popular anime series of all time, Naruto’s name 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.
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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.
10 Naruto: Ninja Destiny
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.76M
- Platform(s): Nintendo DS
- Released: December 14, 2006
- Developer: Dream Factory
- Genre(s): Fighting
Traditional fighting games could be hit or miss on handheld systems. But Ninja Destiny managed to find its footing, partly because Naruto games 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.
9 Naruto: Path of the Ninja
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.40M
- Platform(s): Nintendo DS
- Released: July 24, 2994
- Developer: Tose Software
- Genre(s): RPG
A turn-based RPG is probably one of the last directions fans would have imaginedNaruto games 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 with Naruto’s escapades 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.
8 Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja: Impact
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.35M
- Platform(s): Playstation Portable
- Released: October 18, 2011
- Developer: CyberConnect2
- Genre(s): Action
Impact is interesting because it coopted the Ultimate Ninja moniker while taking the series in an entirely different direction. To be fair, though, the Musou genre fits extremely well with the Naruto franchise, regardless of how lightly present the genre may be here.
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Fans of Musou games should take a crack at the following titles if they haven’t already.
The story covers a good chunk of the series, starting at the beginning of Shippuden, 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.
7 Naruto: Ninja Council
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.22M
- Platform(s): Gameboy Advance
- Released: March 22, 2006
- Developer: Aspect Co.
- Genre(s): Action
As one of the first Naruto games to be released to a western audience, Naruto: Ninja Council had a lot riding on it. Thankfully, it delivered, providing an excellently made handheld 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.
6 Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.18M
- Platform(s): Nintendo Wii
- Released: November 12, 2009
- Developer: Eighting
- Genre(s): Action
Dragon Blade Chronicles is 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.
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Hack-and-Slash is often the genre of choice for Wii games, and that’s exactly what Dragon Blade Chronicles provides, 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.
5 Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja 5
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.17M
- Platform(s): Playstation 2
- Released: December 20, 2007
- Developer: CyberConnect2
- Genre(s): Fighting
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 5 is 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.
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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 the game’s next gen iteration, Ultimate Ninja Storm.
4 Naruto Powerful Shippuden
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.16M
- Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS
- Released: December 30, 2012
- Developer(s): CyberConnect2, Inti Creates
- Genre(s): Action
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 Chronicles worked because Naruto as a series tends not to take itself seriously already.
Based off that spin-off, Naruto Powerful Shippuden is 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 the Shippuden anime, and an original Rock Lee-centric one.
3 Naruto Shippuden: Naruto vs. Sasuke (Ninja Council)
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.11M
- Platform(s): Nintendo DS
- Released: July 4, 2008
- Developer: Tomy
- Genre(s): Action
By the time Naruto Vs. Sasuke was released, the Ninja Council games 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’s main 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.
2 Naruto Shippūden: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! Special
Sales According to VGChartz: 0.06M
- Platform(s): Nintendo Wii
- Released: December 2, 2012
- Developer: Eighting
- Genre(s): Fighting
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 of Naruto fighters.
1 Naruto: Shinobi no Sato no Jintori Kassen
Sales According to VGChartz: N/A
- Platform(s): Playstation
- Released: June 26, 2003
- Developer: Dimps
- Genre(s): Board/Card Game
Similar to a game like Mario Party, minus all the mini-games, Naruto: Shinobi no Sato no Jintori Kassen is 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.
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Players will need to brush up on their Jutsu techniques to even stand a chance of completing these tricky Naruto games.
