Naruto: Ninja Council is actually the third game in the Ninja Council series, where the first two were actually released on the Gameboy Advance but neither made it to PAL regions. Furthermore, the series is essentially a port of the fourth game from the Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu series of Japanese handheld Naruto games, which have been coming out throughout the anime’s duration. Naruto: Ninja Council isn’t an exact port of the Japanese game (or Naruto: Ninja Council 3), as some things have been amended to keep out 'spoliers'.
Usually, this would be the paragraph where we explain the story, or in the case of an anime-based game, outline the general plot of the series that is followed in the game for the uninformed. Unfortunately, Naruto: Ninja Council itself doesn’t really have any semblance of a plot. Instead, the game features two modes: Mission mode and Party mode. Mission mode is where all of your single player action will be taking place, while Party mode takes care of the multiplayer.
At least there are a lot of characters.
In the Mission mode, the player is presented with an seven by seven set of squares that make up a board. Firstly, you need to play through an introductory mission that has you playing as Naruto, and teaming up with Sakura and Sasuke to take on Kakashi. After completing the required task of taking your teacher's health to 50%, a significant portion of the board is unlocked with ‘D-ranked’ missions, as are a number of characters. From there, players work their way through all the missions to unlock the ‘C-ranked’ missions and then B, A and S missions respectively.
The gameplay in Naruto: Ninja Council, is arena-based combat on a 2D-plane. One could call it a rather simple Super Smash Bros. formula, but there have been some DS specific additions that make the game somewhat similar to Japan-only hit Jump Superstars. All melee attacks, as well as the jumping and dashing is controlled using the face buttons. The R and L buttons are for block and teleport respectively. All action takes place on the top screen, while the touch screen shows a map and the health bars of your opponents and partners, as well as allowing for the activation of your jutsu powers or special techniques.
The fighting in general is rather bare-boned and most characters are rather similar, though there is a good distinction between how some characters move. What sets the characters apart is their special techniques. As usual, primary characters have more moves, while lesser characters have less. However, during character selection, you can equip a character with another character's tehniques. During a battle, upon activating someone else's technique, the other character will appear and perform their move, just like in Jump Superstars. This certainly allows for some very interesting combinations.
Since when do toads have blades?
There are three kinds of techniques and they are denoted by black, red and blue. Most characters have black jutsus that will damage the one character that they hit. Red techniques attack everyone in the arena and blue techniques heal. Upon activating a technique, players will enter a mini-game and be required to pick the correct hand signals quickly via tapping the touch screen, though this only applies to red techniques. Following a successful sequence or with a black technique, players then have a micro-game, where they either draw circles on the touch screen, blow in the microphone and so forth to complete the move. Players will then be treated to the usual visual candy.
Given that this is a handheld title, it is hardly a surprise that the missions themselves don’t require a huge amount of time to complete. However, this can be a weak point. Mainly because a lot of the missions are rather dull, requiring you to beat up on animals or break crates to collect items, particularly early on. There are some good missions, such as requiring you to beat a particular character under a specific condition or with a particular move. Unfortunately, any mission that requires you to beat X amount of nefarious creature/being will often be a real pain. You’re racing the clock and it often takes too long to defeat the enemies. It can be especially annoying when your techniques are disabled and often these kinds of missions will be stupidly frustrating.
We found it rather bizarre that there weren’t any other single player modes, not even a simple arcade mode. On the weight of the single player alone, Naruto: Ninja Council isn’t really worth it. The missions are more often then not frustrating and cheap, the general mechanics are a bit too simple and at times sloppy and it’s a game that can be wiped through in around five to six hours. However, if you can get some friends together, each of whom have a copy of the game and are Naruto fans, it’s a different story.
Woah, settle down there boys.
The multiplayer, which supports up to four players, is where the most fun in the game will be had. The reason for this is that everyone is subject to the simple mechanics and deficiencies, so it makes for a level playing field. There are three modes of play: Scroll Battle, Treasure Hunt and Battle Royale. Each of these modes is self-explanatory but given the large arenas and 28 characters cast, the multiplayer holds up quite well. During red techniques, other players can block attacks as well. It’s probably a bit too simple to appeal to anyone outside of the fanbase, but for those who are fans and have multiple copies of the game between them, there could be some fun times ahead.
The game hasn’t aged too badly, despite being very similar to its GBA predecessors. The character models are probably a bit too similar, but they’re at least accurately portrayed and move quite well. The difference will be noticed in the arenas, as well as in the overhauled special attacks. Overall, the game is colourful, vibrant and faithfully presented. The audio is something of a mixed bag. There is no voicing in the game, some of the tunes are pretty bad and the sound effects are rather primitive. Still, most of the tunes are quite good and again, the audio presentation at least feels like it belongs.
Whether or not Naruto: Ninja Council is a game to get, comes down to a few factors. Firstly, unless you're a fan, there is no real point in picking up the game. It's too simple and shallow to satisfy arena combat fans. Secondly, we find it hard to recommend Naruto: Ninja Council purely on its single player at full-price. It's short, not that well designed and there are too many dull and cheap missions. However, if you and your friends are fans of the series and all get copies of the game, then there is some fun to be had. Maybe not for that long, but certainly, there are worse multiplayer options out there. In the least, Naruto: Ninja Council does a few things that capture the spirit of the series well, but as an overall package, it leaves a lot to be desired.
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