Pintsized ninja has pintsized game, but it's a good experiance while it lasts.
The games based on the first 80 odd episodes of the anime, with some minor bits chucked out that must not have worked and some minor bits chucked in.
The first thing you'll see is that th game is very, very easy on the eyes.
This is probably some of, if not THE best cell shading seen in a game.
The characters all look like their anime counterparts, but you have to give the developers a round of an applause for the enviroments, which really take a big slice of the visual cake here. You've seen the screenshots, you've seen the videos. You know how pretty they look. They look even better when moving and not played in some low-res crud video player on the net. Just stunning.
The same could be said for the games soundtrack, which is itself easy on the ears - with lots of tunes taken from the anime, which is sure to please fans.
The voice acting? Well, depends on how you feel about the English dub.
I for one am not a fan of it, but different strokes for different folks.
I could've sworn that prior to game release I read there'd be an option to use the Japanese voices, but perhaps that was a different Naruto game or my head was fabricating nonsence at some point.
The game plays well.
Occasionally platform sections can be a tad frustrating, particularly when they revolve around doing Narutos trademark really-really-speedy running and then jumping onto something, which can often result in careening right off a cliff or some such. But with a little practice you can avoid such issues.
The fighting game is a tad more interesting.
You've got some combos, as is standard with fighting games - and they're all pretty simple to pull off. Nothing overly complex about them.
Jutsu's are represented in game fairly well, where you have to hold the L-trigger and then move the thumbsticks in the directions specific jutsu require, which does a reasonable job of simulating the complex hand-motions the characters use in the anime.
One interesting mechanic is that of memoclips, which more or less simulate the parts of the show where all seems lost, but with some inspiring memories popping into his head, Naruto is given a second wind.
When you get beat and have to use a memoclip, you pick one all varying in length, usually the longer the better - as it gives you more chance to regain your health and your chakra. So you pick one, and then you rapidly press the a button to regain your stats, a voice over from whatever memo clip will play saying some inspiring words and you'll be thrust back into the fray.
Now comes the critisism. It's short.
I've owned the game a while, but I only just started playing it last night.
And I managed to plow through the games main story line in around six hours, not really rushing it either.
With the game now finished, I'm free to concentrate on the games side quests. Which include Hide & Seek, Ramen delivery and races.
Problem is, none of these things are especially fun or interesting to do.
So unless you're into collecting achivement points, you could probably skip them and not feel overly bad about it.
Length aside, theres a pretty decent game here and even non-Naruto fans might be able to get something out of at least a rental.