ANIMEX ONE PIECE

The Ninja Council series is one part of the Naruto game empire that's strictly for fans. Casual viewers might appreciate the multiplayer brawls of the Clash of Ninja series and other Naruto fighters, but theNinja Council games are side-scrollers unremarkable beyond the license. Despite its confrontational subtitle, Naruto Shippūden: Naruto vs. Sasuke is yet another part of the Ninja Council series, right down to its common flaws.

For one thing, Naruto vs. Sasuke assumes that players know just who all of the ninja in the Naruto universe are, and it only vaguely explains why these Naruto-and-Sasuke people might dislike each other. It touches on various points from the Naruto Shippūden story, starting with Naruto and Sakura's introduction to the emotionless Sai and his smoke-beasts. Every step of their journey brings out some familiar faces from the Naruto cast, and finishing the game unlocks a bunch of them as playable characters.
To its credit, Naruto vs. Sasuke tries to repair some problems with previous Ninja Council games. The characters are smaller and a little more graceful, making the game into a more streamlined side-scroller (even though these sleek assassins can't even duck). It's still much the same tale, though, as the ninja trek through routine caves, forests, towns, and fortresses. The enemies rarely offer much resistance, but the stages themselves often stretch in non-linear ways, providing a sewer system or a network of caverns to explore. It's not anything special to look at, though, as the visual quality rarely rises about that of a Game Boy Advance title. The character art also has a surprisingly awkward look, even though that's one thing anime-based games usually get right.



In other ways, Naruto vs. Sasuke steps back. The Naruto franchise boasts an awful lot of characters, but only 14 of them are playable here. While all of the characters can team up for animated moves, the roster's a lot smaller compared to the greater numbers in past Ninja Council games. The DS stylus is also underused: the last Ninja Council title had players pulling off special moves by manipulating wheels and other devices on the touch screen, but Naruto vs. Sasuke dispenses with that, simply letting players launch special moves by tapping the lower DS display.

Naruto Shippūden: Naruto vs. Sasuke makes a few token attempts to escape the confines of a boilerplate anime-based game, but it's never good enough. This is once again for the fans, and only the youngest and least discerning fans: the ones who'll genuinely believe that this game will resolve the Naruto-Sasuke feud once and for all. Perhaps they're better off with Dragon Blade Chronicles. For all of its faults, it's at least something new.