Top #20 Holiday Games of 2008

#19 Naruto: The Broken Bond

Available for: Xbox 360
Release date: Out now
ESRB rating: "T" for Teen

Sum up:
Naruto: The Broken Bond is a sequel to the Xbox 360 exclusive Naruto: Rise of the Ninja, and follows where the last left off. The base gameplay remains the same, with platforming levels, an explorable overworld (which is now more explorable--as in, less "invisible fences"--and far larger), a single-player, split-screen, and online fighting versus mode.

The biggest addition to this game is the tag-team system, which means you'll be in control of Naruto and an additional three players at any given time, who you'll be playing in conjunction, to successfully traverse the game's areas. Also new to the game are the 3D cutscenes to tell the game's story (instead of clips from the anime), and the versus mode includes a total of thirty characters (compared to the last game, which had a total of seventeen).

Recommended age:
The ESRB has rated this game "T" for Teen, listing "Mild Suggestive Themes and "Violence". Click here to read my review of Naruto: Rise of the Ninja to get a better idea on this game's content. I will say the only reason I rated the last game 13+ is because the anime snippets had a moderate amount of blood and some mild language.

But now that there will (probably) only be 3D in-game cutscenes to tell the story, there should be little to no blood. I also think the 2-player versus mode (which has no blood or language) is perfectly suitable for kids 10+ (and 7+ if you're okay with them playing fighting games). But overall, since I don't know enough about the story mode, I'd recommend it for ages 13+ (for now).


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