System: DS
Dev: Eighting
Pub: Tomy Corporation
Release: May 22, 2007
Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
Preview by Amanda L. Kondolojy

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Review Rating Legend
1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor
2.5 - 2.9 = Average
3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
3.5 - 3.9 = Good
4.0 - 4.4 = Great
4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
5.0 = The Best

Naruto Ninja Council 3, bringing out your inner ninja by Amanda L. Kondolojy

Apr. 20, 2007 - Naruto, one of the most popular anime series on both sides of the Pacific has spawned games from for every major platform from the GameBoy advance to the Wii. The first DS entry arrived in Japan nearly two years ago, and is now finally being brought over to U.S. shores. So what can you expect?

The game's storyline revolves around the later part of the first season and the beginning of the second season (before the invasion of Konoha), after all the various ninja teams are assembled. You begin the game with Naruto as the only playable character, but as the game goes on you'll be able to play as other major characters from your team (Sasuke, Sakura) and 25 ninjas from other teams (Rock Lee, Shikamaru, amongst many others). You'll be going on over 40 different missions with varying ranks: some you'll do alone, some you'll do with a team. Some will involve some puzzle-solving mini-games, some will be fighting-based. It will be an extremely varied game experience, and that definitely sounds like a good thing.

It's worth noting that the Japanese version of the game is a little different and features some additional characters that have been deleted in the American version. While this will upset several Naruto-purists and otaku out there (you know who you are), we all have to keep in mind that there is a huge gap in where the Japanese anime's storyline is and where the American syndication's storyline is, and some alterations had to be made to make sure that the game's characters were familiar to an American audience.

Controls are fairly simple. Utilize the DS' face buttons for jumping and attacking and the d-pad for moving around. The L and R Buttons are also used for teleporting and guarding. But the feature that makes this game unique is the use of the touch screen to fill in up to four user-selected readily available special moves. These special moves can be imported into your touchscreen from any character you've unlocked, and are accessed and executed by touching the special move and then playing an extremely short microgame. The microgames are all different depending on the special move you select, and feature a simple task to complete like drawing a character or spinning a wheel. Your success in the microgame will determine the amount damage you're able to do.

The new game will also feature three different multiplayer modes so DS users can link up and test their skills. The first mode is battle mode, where you can challenge your friends to see who can survive the longest and who the best ninja really is. The second mode is a scroll collection mode which challenges the different players to defeat adversaries to get scrolls. Whoever is able to gather the most scrolls wins. The final multiplayer mode is a Treasure Hunt mode where players can look for certain character-specific items hidden in the play area. All three modes are designed for quick play, but are supposed to be quite challenging. However, it is still unknown whether these games will be played single or multi-cart.

Visually, the game looks like most DS games with an anime as an original source. The characters are represented as drawn in scenes of dialogue, and as sprites in gameplay. They're definitely not bad, but they don't really have the wow factor that some of the newer DS games have been showcasing as of late. However this is forgivable, as this game was originally released in 2005, at the beginning of the DS system's life. Taking that into account, the graphics are pretty good.

Overall, Naruto Ninja Council 3 for the DS looks like a really great anime game shipped over to the US. Although some edits have been made in the name of domestic continuity, I doubt that it's really too big of an issue. Die-hard Naruto fans already imported the game anyway, so for the rest of us casual fans, this game should be a perfect addition to our anime game tie-in shelf!

By Amanda L. Kondolojy
CCC Freelance Writer

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