Naruto: Ninja Council

Rating ESRB: Everyone Genre action Publisher D3 External Links Official D3 Website

When Naruto: Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu was released in Japan in 2003, the Game Boy Advance was the only major handheld system on the market. The Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable were still eighteen months away. In the gaming industry, three years can be an eternity - especially when a generation gap is considered. The Game Boy Advance is now outdated, playing host to little more than licensed games for children. So the question at hand is this: can this old game, rechristened Naruto: Ninja Council for North America, teach an older system any new tricks?

Ninja Council is a fairly basic action-platform title. At the onset of the title, players can choose to be either Naruto or Sasuke, though a third character is unlocked if the game is finished with both characters. There are seven levels, each with two similar stages. Each stage must be completed within five minutes, though it will rarely take you more than two minutes. After completing the stage, you must defeat one of a handful of boss characters before progressing onto the next level. Other than little bits of story, the title is mostly made up of this routine.

It doesn't sound bad - and it isn't. Ninja Council may not do anything terribly unique, but it has some nice touches. Your character can pick up conveniently placed scrolls to enable elemental powers, and the B button can be charged to do special moves. The characters can also run up walls in the game, which is absolutely essential to finishing these stages. While there are several worlds, the differences are mostly visual: one level has you putting out fires with water; another has you setting fire to dead trees. It is essentially the same thing.

In fact, the worst aspects of this title are its length and challenge. The game can be completed in less than two hours, which is absurd for a game of this sort on any platform. A big reason for this is the game's general lack of difficulty. The stages can be completed in half the time allotted, and most of the bosses are easily defeated with special moves. When I say it can be completed in an afternoon, I am speaking as literally as possible: I started it and finished it in one extended sitting. When all is said and done, Naruto: Ninja Council is merely a sub-par action/platformer that does little to justify its long-delayed translation.

(This review is for a Game Boy Advance title, but it is also playable on the Nintendo DS and DS Lite.)