Saturday 9 February, 2008

Summary:
Clash of the Ninja 2 has multiply play modes including story mode. In story mode the player controls Naruto and advances through different fights that loosely follow the anime in order to unlock hidden characters. The other modes, such as Versus or Survival Mode allow the player to fight against an A.I or other players.

Gameplay Entry 1:
The great thing about this game is that you can pick it up and just start playing. You don't have to read much about the controls and it's easy to get right into it. There are certain moves that can only be acted out if you press the right button combinations, but honestly this game is a button masher. If you just hit A and B a random number of times then you can deal out a good amount of damage. The moves are pretty entertaining and match well with the characters. The chakra gauge, which allows you to pull off a powerul move (Special Jutsu) when full, is a nice aspect of the game. You can save your chakra in order to use the Special Jutsu or you can tap into the chakra gauge to automatically counterattack when struck.
I've been playing the Story Mode which is rather mediocre but fun none the less. Suprisingly, some of the A.I opponants have been rather difficult. My roommate and I have taken turns trying to beat harder characters. Its's a fun decent fighting game.



Gameplay Entry 2:
After completing the Story Mode I was able to unlock characters, but not all the secret characters. I like how Story Mode isn't the only mode that enables you to gain characters. New characters are unlocked by placing first in Time Attack and Survival Mode. However the player doesn't automatically get them. The characters show up in the Store and can only be bought depending on how many points the player receives from playing the different modes. The longer a player lasts and the better they perform, the more points the player gets. I though this concept was fun because it allowed me to play through the Time Attack and Survival Mode multiple time useing different characters. The Story Mode can be played a over and over, which was also a nice aspect.
However, once I unlocked all the characters I found that there wasn't much else to do in the game. The Verses Mode, where players can play against each other, is fun but doesn't hold my interest as other fighting games do. Since this game is a button masher it gets a little boring if there is no specific goal to attain.

This game log is missing the design section, and the remainder of it doesn't really addrss design issues in any detail. In the future, include the genre and a general overview of the gameplay in the summary section - I didn't realize it was a fighting game until halfway into the first gameplay entry.

- Ian Rickard (your TA/Grader this week)