Naruto: The Broken Bond demo now on Xbox Live

by Justin McElroy { Nov 3rd 2008 at 11:00AM }

If there's one thing we love in our demos it's disembodied Republic Commando heads. But if there are two things, they're disembodied Republic Commando heads and bitter, cruel irony. Take, for instance, this morning's announcement of an Xbox Live demo for Naruto: The Broken Bond, which included the following line:

"Not available in Asia."

Really? Asia loves Naruto. Did you know that Sakura Haruno was recently elected mayor of Asia? It's true. So, denying them the demo just seems ... mean. In fact, we're not even sure the game's being released in Asia! Of course, North America never got Pepsiman, so we guess it all works out in the end.

Tags: demos, naruto, naruto-broken-bond, xbox-live

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jakka @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:07AM

There needs to be a Bleach game....

Chin-Poh @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:15AM

There is the "Heat The Soul" Bleach series fighting games for the PSP, eithe 4 or 5 games in the series but of course Japan/Asia only.

But now that Bleach is becoming popular here like Naruto, hopefully we'll see the games come over here.

I don't care about any of these properties, I fucking want Rurouni Kenshin back! Why did you have to cancel it Japan? I liked the fillers. : (

Jakka @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:18AM

Then again, Bleach would have to be "popular popular" as opposed to being a "popular niché" and that'd would involve being raped by people from 4Kids.

On the other hand, I can live without a Bleach Game...

Mr Khan @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:22AM

There are a handful of fighting games for DS and Wii that have made it stateside, with more to come

jimmygotsmack @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:36AM

The only problem I have with the bleach fighter is just how dumb the AI is. No matter what difficulty I set it out, I could still win with more then half health, and that was me playing it for the first time. Other then that its a solid fighter. Maybe a bit on the simple side, like the Naruto fighter, but then again its made by the same people. Lots of fun to play, if you can actually find someone to play it with. Damn you "imports"!

BananaBoat @ Nov 3rd 2008 12:32PM

@chin - You liked it when they pulled a story about him fighting jesus out of their butts? You are probably the only one, but atleast someone got enjoyment from that. If you haven't seen the Samurai X (renamed due to American licensing issues) OVA's, they are amazing, and are definitely worth checking out.

@jakka - If you have a PSP, there are 4 or 5 Heat the Soul games, and you don't really need to know Japanese to play them. If you are willing to find a manual, you could also probably play Bleach: Soul Carnival for the PSP. Unfortunately, all of the Bleach console games so far have been terrible, and I can't remember one that wasn't some sort of a fighting game. I'd much rather have an RPG or Action Adventure style Bleach game, but game devs for anime games never have the budget, so it's no use waiting for the impossible.

Oh, one last thing, does it look like the cast of Naruto is in Blood Gulch in that screenshot above? (or whatever Blood Gulch is called in Halo 3, I forget). The resemblence is uncanny

Chin-Poh @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:04PM

BananaBoat, I don't understand how RK could be cancelled after the 30 episodes of filler after the Kyoto Arc yet Naruto has had 80+ filler episodes and still is going. I haven't watched Naruto, so maybe the filler episodes are better.

By "Jesus", you meant Shogo Amakusa right?

BananaBoat @ Nov 3rd 2008 4:20PM

Well, RK came out in a different era. There weren't nearly as many fans as there are of Naruto, and they weren't children, so they refused to be force fed filler for years on end. Unfortunately, instead of just going on hiatus like an American TV show, the Japanese feel the need to keep something going even if they have to create stories themselves, so we get 50-100 episode filler arcs of Bleach and Naruto that seemingly go on for an eternity, and filler arcs of things like Hellsing and Rurouni Kenshin that instantly fail and get pulled off the air due to low ratings.

Was that the guys name? I forget, it's been too many years. He was the guy who magically was better at the Hiten Mitsurugi style than Kenshin, despite Kenshin being the only pupil of Sajiro Hiko. That was really a shark jumping moment if I've ever seen one. Then again, the third volume of the OVA is worse, since the *spoilers if you haven't seen it* producers felt the need to create an ending for Kenshin, and decided that having him and Kaoru die of some unnamed disease would be a good ending. They were sorely, sorely mistaken.

Well, whatever, atleast Bleach is done with it's filler arc (for now). I just hope Soul Eater never decides to go into a filler arc.

Pedobear @ Nov 3rd 2008 9:54PM

How about some good games based off good anime instead? And its not like they decide to go into a filler arc. What else are they going to do while waiting for more material to be published?

BananaBoat @ Nov 4th 2008 6:33AM

They should go on season hiatus. Dragonball Z went on season hiatus in the United States about 40 times (it seems like) and it kept it's viewership up throughout it's entire run. I don't know if it would work in Japan, but it would be worth trying out, instead of putting out worthless filler that noone is going to want to buy on DVD.

F1 @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:07AM

Talk about a bitch slap!!

jarhead906 @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:13AM

Ultimate Ninja Storm plays and looks better.

**smirk**

And yes, we need a Bleach game that isn't restricted to portable gaming. My hint would be to make it similar to how they created UNS in respect to making the visuals resemble the manga and providing Japanese as the games primary language. I hate English translated anime.

Chin-Poh @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:16AM

Isn't Naruto for instance one of the few series that kids and adults enjoy? So for the kids here, they can enjoy the English dub whereas the older fans can enjoy the Japanese-dub right? There has to be a reason the licensing companies are bothering to make dubs for the shows.

Mr Khan @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:24AM

http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/09/25/bleach-versus-controls/

MattBFD @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:23AM

Have you heard about the other special edition that comes with the anime books and a DVD?

It's called: "Naruto: The Broken Bond, I've Never Kissed A Girl Edition"

Mr Khan @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:26AM

going by the screenshot, it details the Sasuke retrieval arc?

ehh. That arc all seemed kinda forced to me. Leagues better than the endless Filler that followed it, but it didn't quite wow like previous arcs did

jimmygotsmack @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:57AM

How could you not enjoy spending half an episode watching the same 15 frames of animation of them jumping through trees, and then another 3 minutes of flash backs of something that happen just 2 episodes ago.

How could you not like fillers about ninja chefs, and post office ninjas! THEY WORK EVEN ON SUNDAY!

Deeznuts420 @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:27AM

the enviroment looks good and everything looks nice until you see the uberugtard faces of the characters....

yes i made uberugtard up just for the uglyness.

theturtle363 @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:32AM

we didn't get pepsiman but we did get that one game where you played as the red dot from 7up

baby sea tuna @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:38AM

Which was surprisingly awesome, btw.

bvhj @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:47AM

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's not available in Asia because there are no Weeaboos there.

jimmygotsmack @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:49AM

I have never heard of this game, but I assume it is good enough to download the demo since there will be no charge to me for doing so, there I will make an informed decision of whether or not. I will not assume this game is garbage because it is based off a license franchise. Also, apparently it's predecessor did well apparently.

jimmygotsmack @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:50AM

"Also, apparently it's predecessor did well apparently."

F^CK!!!!!

NaeemTHM @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:55AM

So I tried the demo out yesterday and LOVED it. It's a gigantic leap forward from the first game (which was also excellent)

Chase @ Nov 3rd 2008 12:24PM

Man, the U.S. dub is so far behind.

Mr Khan @ Nov 3rd 2008 12:32PM

With Toonami gone (sob) the US dub's future remains in doubt. Basically they crammed it into a 10:30 time slot on Saturday nights, and that's only if their weekly movie is 1.5 hours instead of 2 hours, if its a 2-hour movie, they don't show any Naruto at all

And they're noncommittal about picking up Shippuden period, since they have nowhere to put it

FAT MAN @ Nov 3rd 2008 12:45PM

i know this about adult swim and not naruto but hasn't adult swim stop showing anime except for bleach? they got rid of two really good series recently that weren't even finished yet( there Japanese so i refuse to spell them and embarrass myself)

Zertoss @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:04PM

I liked how Funimation took One Piece from 4Kids (proof of a loving God), only to have Cartoon Network show like 2 episodes of their work and cancel it.

Chase @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:40PM

Zertoss, I really liked the improved, less-censored One Piece dub. That was a quality import.

It's a shame it took so long/companies neuter these series while importing them.

Nytemare @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:43PM

FAT MAN,

[AS] is now showing Code Geass and Moribito at 5:00am to 6:00am. Ridiculous.

Good thing I have TiVo!

Zertoss @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:53PM

Chase, yeah it was a HUGE improvement. The characters didn't have retarded accents anymore, and the original music was in, that was enough for me.

Now Cartoon Network shows hours of Goosebumps. What a brilliant executive decision! Let's show even more live-action shows on a network that specializes in animation!

It's only a matter of time before they cancel Naruto, Bleach, anime in general, old cartoons, new cartoons and become TBS2.

FAT MAN @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:55PM

what? who stays up that late to watch a t.v show? i dont even have a DVR, do you know why they did it? they did this with Yu-YU Hakashoe too(i know spelling) and to this day i have never seen the end of that series.

FAT MAN @ Nov 3rd 2008 2:01PM

sorry for all the extra space.lol my arm was on the space key for like 2min. and instead of the backspace button i just used up(didnt know you had to delete space)

Mr Khan @ Nov 3rd 2008 2:05PM

The One Piece thing was an exceptionally low blow by Cartoon Network. Ratings apparently were way up for the show after they started showing the Funimation dub

Certainly it got me interested in the show, so much so that i'm now addicted to watching subs online where CN left off. It was almost like watching a whole different series

Though i still prefer Robin's Southern accent that she had on 4Kids. Seemed more fitting for her

ToRo @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:45PM

I find it funny how this pathetic excuse of an Anime is more popular than the masterpiece they call Cowboy Bebop. That Anime puts every form of visual media to shame. And it's only 26 episodes long.

jimmygotsmack @ Nov 3rd 2008 3:47PM

Not really, naruto is an anime intended for children. So, like all cartoons made for kids, they backed it up with all sorts of merchandise. Cowboy Bebop on the other hand, was made for more of an "artistic" view point, as someone worded it.

Plus, it also didn't help that the games that where actually made based on it kind of sucked, and/or never made it over.

Want a better example, Yu-gi-oh. The fate of the world depends on a children card game....... At least pokemon attempts to make sense of it. Although, not very good. "Enslaving sentient creatures, ok. Having ten year olds enslaving sentient creature, huh?"