Let's get one thing straight: if you don't like, or aren't interested in, the plethora of Naruto comics and animated series then Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 isn't going to be for you. The combat is overly simplistic and the wealth of extra content will probably go over your head. If, on the other hand, you are a fan of Naruto and his many exciting exploits then you're in for a bit of a treat. Ultimate Ninja 3 may not be the best game released this year - heck, it's not even the best Naruto game released this year - but honestly, with fan service, attention to detail and audio/visual presentation like this, you probably won't care one iota.

The Ultimate Ninja series has generally been well received, even if the fact that this is the third game to be released in less than two years might well worry many a punter - and I can't say that I blame them. Most series released within this kind of short time frame are often rushed affairs, with little, if any, change to the formula. To be fair to Namco Bandai though, while the combat may be very similar to that of Ultimate Ninja 2, with an almost identical menu layout to boot, the inclusion of the Ultimate Contest, the core aspect of the single player experience does attempt to flesh out the tried and tested formula of shallow but extremely polished beat 'em up action.

In what may seem like an attempt to follow in the hugely successful footsteps of the outstanding Naruto: Rise of the Ninja on Xbox 360, Ultimate Contest introduces an open world, RPG-lite expansion to the combat-centric gameplay of previous titles. This may look like a cynical attempt to repeat the success of the Ubisoft developed title, but Ultimate Ninja 3 was actually released in Japan before Rise of the Ninja even got out of the starting blocks, thus making Ultimate Ninja 3 and Namco Bandai the first to take the brave first steps into a new era of open world gameplay for Naruto.

As bold as these steps are, however, they simply can't be compared to the outstanding level of immersion on offer in Rise of the Ninja. Blame it on processing power or blame it on an insistence to keep the combat at the forefront of the experience; the fact remains that your exploratory, RPG style trip around Hidden Leaf Village is probably the weakest aspect of the entire game, and about the only time that Ultimate Ninja 3's presentation fails to be anything other than exceptional.

Ultimate Contest, one of the three new modes introduced for Ultimate Ninja 3, is based around a festival that's held at Hidden Leaf Village to welcome the visitors from the Hidden Village of Sand. Within this most basic of set ups you enter a three tier competition within which you must collect a set amount of crystals by defeating numerous contestants in battle. The first tier sees you entering a qualifying round where you must collect sixty crystals, the second is a semi-final where you must increase your collection exponentially, then the third and final tier charges you with defeating another ninja. This isn't all just for laughs, you understand - the victor of the Ultimate Contest gets to create a new regulation for Hidden Leaf Village with, as you can imagine, a few different ideas coming to the fore. As Naruto, your aim is quite clearly to become Hokage, while others, such as Rock Lee, seem to have the more bizarre aim of seeing each and every inhabitant of Hidden Leaf Village grow a set of Gallagher-esque bushy eyebrows - well, the heart wants what the heart wants, I suppose.

Whereas battling for these crystals is as simple as using the same fighting engine that has been a staple of the series for its previous two iterations, with numerous different win conditions depending upon your opponent, actually getting around to these battles has been expanded via the open world aspect of gameplay. In between battles, you are left to wander around the village and converse with the disappointingly sparse community. You can skip with ease between the village, the training centre and the woods, while finding other fighters is a simple task, due to the basic but useful radar. To enter battles, you need to speak with other fighters and complete basic tasks to convince them to face you. This is all well and good, and certainly an admirable step forward for the series, but you simply can't help but get the feeling that Namco Bandai have pushed the boat out just a little too far. While the battle sequences are home to some of the finest graphics yet seen on the ageing PS2 hardware, the open world sections feel desolate, bland, technically disappointing and are marred by a truly horrendous camera.

While pottering about town, you can also collect numerous items to fill up your inventory or collect ryo by smashing up the usual array of randomly placed pots and crates, in order to find scrolls and unlock new jutsu techniques. During your time spent in and around Hidden Leaf Village, you also get the chance to participate in a collection of pretty average mini-games that will keep you busy and, in one particular case, earn you a shed-load of money. The shuriken throwing mini-game, for example, should have been a hoot - but thanks to its contrived set up, it ends up feeling overly mechanical and subsequently without merit. You must press the corresponding buttons as targets appear to successfully strike them; however, as their numbers increase, the difficulty rises rather quickly and you often find yourself haemorrhaging points at an alarming rate, only for a giant target to pop with points given for simply mashing one button faster than your opponent. Simply put, victory is guaranteed, but not before you get your ass handed to you. There is also a tree climbing competition that is of little interest and Nice Guy's exercise game, which has you doing push ups and yoga.

Luckily, of all the mini-games, the one that you will likely spend the most time with (thanks to the monetary rewards of being a casino game), just so happens to be the most fun. Orochimaru's Whack-a-Snake is, as you can imagine, an event that involves the timed whacking of snakes with a big hammer. Being a casino game, each victory doles out the cash in droves, which allows for the subsequent purchase of gifts and items - gifts that you can use to go on dates. These dates, while not hugely interactive, do stand up as a pleasing distraction, especially for fans of the series who will revel in the genuinely adorable date with Hinata and the genuinely wacky date with Kurenai.

Once you have completed all three tiers, you can continue to mosey around the village at your own pace, going on dates, completing tasks and entering further battles as you continue to increase your core skills, which progress automatically through bouts of combat, supposedly resulting in improved battle stats. In all honesty though, they rarely feel like they are making any difference when it comes to battle, resulting in their seeming slightly tacked on.

The other two modes that are new to Ultimate Ninja are made up of Break Room, which is little more than a collection of three mini-games that you experience in your time within Ultimate Contest mode, and the much more familiar Hero's History, a mode which is very similar to the Ultimate Road mode from Ultimate Ninja 2. This sees you fighting as numerous characters with a story that progresses via brilliantly realised and perfectly acted cut scenes. As you play through one of the four available storylines chosen from the best that the Naruto series has to offer, including the Sasuke Retrieval story arc and Genin Training story arc, you are treated to a collection of cut scenes that successfully split these story arcs into digestible chunks, with the numerous characters that you control providing a range of perspectives on these tales.

Although the open world setting is Ultimate Ninja 3's major new feature, a few changes have been made to the core gameplay too. The combat is still a painfully simple affair that revolves primarily around basic button combinations and attempted reversals, but the introduction of Summoning Mode, where you turn into a huge, screen-filling representation of yourself, features combo finishers that do add a little - just a little - extra tactical balance to the basic mechanics. Other than these, the combat is still commanded via one attack button, one throw button, a jump button and a single button press for special attacks. Even with the new additions, the combat is still overly simplistic and largely a button bashing affair. Luckily then, it also happens to be extremely stylish, fast-paced and a lot more fun that it has any right to be.

Thanks to the sheer faithfulness to the source material, Ultimate Ninja 3's combat system will provide hours of fun for fans of the series. All twenty-one backgrounds look great, the special attacks are spectacular to behold, the epic roster of forty-one playable characters is both alarmingly accurate and beautifully crafted, while the voice acting and sound effects are as good as you will find in the animated TV series. You won't find any of the voice cast phoning it in on this one - oh no, Ultimate Ninja 3 has been treated with real respect, its sky high production values going a surprisingly long way towards enhancing the game's overall appeal.

This latest Naruto title also fares favourably in terms of lifespan; although the Ultimate Contest and Hero's History modes don't take a huge amount of time to complete, the huge amount of unlockable items and characters makes returning to the Ultimate Contest is a potentially fruitful proposition - and while battling against the CPU does get tiresome after a while thanks to the lack of range in the difficulty, battling against friends proves consistently entertaining.

Like most tie-ins to anime franchises, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 should only be considered by fans of the series - and those who have delved deep into Naruto lore will marvel at the fan service and attention to detail lavished upon this most recent release from Namco Bandai. The combat may be overly simplistic and the open world proportion destined for greater things on the PS3 and 360, but the fact remains that this is still a hugely entertaining title, and one that will certainly provide hours of fun for those who are willing to look past its flaws and embrace the beautiful, anime-inspired combat that Ultimate Ninja continues to offer.

Reviewed by Liam Pritchard for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).