Naruto, to any casual observer of Japanese animation, seems to be the new Pokemon. Sure, Pokemon still has an immortal presence in our media and attics, but things are surely a-changin’.

Here’s the formula : take an endless anime series about a kid on an frighteningly obsessive quest of their own devising that has no relevance to the real world, give it a prominent time slot on Cartoon Network, and lend the likeness to action figures, video games, trading cards and underoos. You have a formula for frenzy. Those Pokemon were just the adorable advance troops, but there are far more sinister things on the way, and their eyes are huge and sparkly.

The extensive line of Naruto video games spans dozens of titles across every current video game systems. How can the story of one overconfident kid who wants to be a super-ninja fill such a vast array of gameplay? Somehow, it does - when you transplant the same story into all genres of games - so while some of the games are turn-by-turn RPG quests across Naruto’s world, some are presented as a series of side-scrolling puzzle challenges, and some are plain ol’ classic fighting games, where two opponents face off and beat the living snot out of each other. Such is the nature of Naruto : Ninja Destiny for the Nintendo DS. I can always enjoy the simplicity of a good pummelfest, and the familiar process of knocking out one increasingly difficult opponent after another.

Of course, Naruto is a bit more complex than gems like Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat - first, because it’s presented in 3D. Since the camera always resituates itself to a level perspective, the game doesn’t breach the potentially dizzying world of the third dimension too boldly. The greatest advantage to fighting in three dimensions, besides the fact that it looks pretty, is that you can quickly sidestep your opponent’s attacks with a tap of the up or down arrows - which is a lot more stealthy and effective than blocking or stepping backwards. It’s almost a move that proves to be TOO effective, as it leaves the other fighter staring off into space and launching attacks at the air for a few moments while you land a few punches yourself. Tapping the L-button on the shoulder of the DS enables ‘substitution jutsu’, a move that’s absolutely way too effective, since you immediately appear directly behind your oblivious opponent, who is defenseless for that moment - except for the ability to do the same disappearing act to you. What results is a long series of disappearing leapfrogs until someone misses a button and gets smacked.

The second screen on the DS system is used for touch-activated controls. For this Naruto game, this aspect involves a randomly generated set of magical power-ups that are activated by tapping this touchscreen. All of the fighting action takes place on the top, non-touchable screen of the DS, and since both hands are used to control movement and fighting, the practicality of an additional set of touch controls that requires you to abandon either your left- or right-hand controls is questionable, but not as distracting as one might think. Gotta use that extra screen for SOMETHING, and it’s a better use than useless data readouts about the battle, which some games resort to.

Running below your standard life meter is a ‘chakra meter’, which builds in strength as you hit your opponent, or are hit by your opponent. When this meter is completely full, a simple press of the B button will allow you to perform your ‘special jutsu’ - a powerful move (which is different for every character) that seriously depletes your opponent’s energy, and plays a small animation of an action-filled, magical ultra-smackdown.

Fans of Naruto will see a collection of familiar characters to choose from when battling, though you start out with only 6. A total of 16 characters can be unlocked as you accomplish various victories. The instruction manual is limited to 5 pages of useful info, so much of this needs to be discovered on your own.

There are two modes of one-player action. In Story Mode, you’ll venture through a narrative of talking heads talking about how hard their lives are and whatever pseudo-political struggles they’re involved in before you get to fight each round. I have to be totally honest in saying that I blindly skipped over these, as I have no brain-space left to fill with fictional ninja clans and whether or not they’re jerks. My own willful ignorance aside, hardcore fans of the series’ story will completely dig it. While in Story Mode, the story will dictate which character you are to use for each successive battle.

Battle Mode allows you to choose one character to battle every other character with, one by one. The game also makes use of the DS’ wireless function, enabling two players with this same game disk to play against each other from across the room. The game, unfortunately, does not go online wirelessly for a worldwide ninja battle championship. Which would be pretty great. I’m a total sucker for any DS game that allows me to play against anonymous, live opponents at 4 AM when I get lonely.

Fortunately, the game allows you to choose between ‘normal’ difficulty and ‘hard’ difficulty, since I blew through both ‘normal’ modes on my first attempt and unlocked some unlockables. I’m not yet modern enough in my gaming to have a set catalogue of expectations for my handheld gaming experiences, since my brain is still enthralled with the oldschool green-and-yellow Tetris blocks dropping across my slowly disintegrating Game Boy screen - which makes the fact that I was able to pick up the mechanics of this game so quickly something of a testament to its intuitive control scheme.

I did enjoy Naruto : Ninja Destiny, as it miniaturizes the whole 3D fighting experience without skimping on any style or detail. Keep this in mind if you’ve played the other Naruto fighting games on larger systems - this is a DS, not a supercomputer, and it will behave accordingly. Unlockables make the game replayable, and 2-player action further improves the appeal - even if you’re not a fan of Naruto. We don’t even have to hear his annoying catchphrase every 15 seconds this time, which is like, a thousand bonus points.

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Article Tags: , anime, DS, Naruto, Ninja Destiny, Nintendo

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.