Naruto: Ninja Council

"Good Cover, Bad Content"

The cover of this game is well done, and certainly a good hook. And even more so, if you are a fan of the anime itself. It's similar to the saying, "never judge a book by its cover." But in a sense that the cover is good, the book itself is bad.

This game is like most side-scroller games out there. Go through a stage filled with enemies, kick some ass, collect power-ups, and fight a boss. Very simple and common game concept. As you know, most of these games rarely ever have a storyline. They just tell you what you're going to do and the end-game result after a few hours of pounding some enemy-ass. And they usually provide very little replay value. This game is no different.

Now let's start with the content. First of all, the stages. There's only 7, and that's it. No more, no less. Each stage has 2 parts to it, same background, the maze is just slightly different. At the end of each maze is a boss. That's the layout for EVERY stage. There is also a 5-minute time limit for every part of the stage, and the boss fight.

Now, deeper into the game, you'll get to stages with elemental scrolls. They put a puzzle throughout the stage and you usually require the scroll's power to get through. Most of them just being some sort of wall you have to destroy in order to pass through. Such as stone walls for example, you require lightning to destroy it.

Other power-ups you can get are the throwing weapons. There's only 3, and that includes the one you start with. The other 2 have a slightly different effect. Also, you have an unlimited supply of these. Getting that power-up just changes your current type. And you can't switch between them, so careful what you pick up. There's this healing kit you can get from killing the stronger ninjas with the green vest. This refills about 1 whole bar of health.

And finally, the leaf symbols. There's a hundred in total, throughout the whole 7 stages, 7 in each part. Except the last 2 which have 8 symbols to total 100 leaf symbols. I believe collecting all 100 just unlocks the sound mode so you can listen to all the (horrible) voice actors and the gradually-becoming-annoying background music.

Now for your characters, you only get to choose between Naruto and Sasuke. There's a 3rd one you can unlock by beating the game with them both. Each of them have a different way of attacking, and their own set of "Jutsus" or ninja techniques. Each having 3 and a 4th one, which can be unlocked by getting a by scroll hidden throughout the game.

Well, I guess that's about it. You start the game, choose your character, and just pound some ass. Get to the boss, beat it, move on. Not much else I can think of.

As for myself, I have just spent about 2 somewhat long sessions with this game, and beaten the game to 100% with everything unlocked. And I can't see myself spending anymore time with this game now. There's really not much replay value at all, but that's usually associated with most button-mashing side-scrollers. Normally I'd give this game a lower score, but because I enjoyed the anime back in the day, I'd give it a bit more.

There are some parts in the game which go along with the anime quite well, so if you want to enjoy it a bit more, I'd suggest watching the anime.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/04/06