A Genre that has always intrigued me was the Pocket Fighter. From the days of the first Gameboy with it’s Pocket Fighter: Fist of the North Star. It was fun and portable something that at the time Street Fighter wasn’t. The Genre of Pocket Fighters have been slowly evolving to being an almost complete port of what you would come to expect of a Full Fledge Fighter. This time around it’s Naruto, while Naruto is certainly not new to the DS the Shippuden Series is. Packaged as a Pocket Fighter how does the Shippuden Series Translate.

The Gameplay was surprisingly solid especially for it being a DS Title. The Combat is similar to the Naruto Clash of the Ninja series. In which you have your general Light and Stong attacks but the real trick is learning your Substitution Jutsu (Teleport). Which works by holding block when you are about to be attacked you then appear behind the baddie and work him. It translated very well from the Console version to the Handheld. The two things that are largely different is the utilization of the touch screen where you can activate various power ups collected throughout the game. To the new Jutsu bar, this time around the bar is a bit more forgiving as long as you don’t spam the Subsitution. When fully charged you have a one button Super Attack. The Game starts off with a couple of modes including Story, VS and Survival Mode. With added bonus of Multiplayer wireless capabilities. Story mode was also interesting to see play out, I’ve started to watch the Shippuden Series but haven’t gotten very far into it. The Games story mode takes you from episode 1-52. Story mode is broken up into 2 different styles of Gameplay. One in which you guide Naruto via Top Screen View exploring various areas of the Naruto Series. As you explore you end up in Random Ninja Battles. The Second being the Fighting. What really stands out about this game is the amount of characters there are a grand total of 34 playable characters.

The Graphics are fantastic. The Game has full 3D Naruto Characters and they are rendered really well especially considering the limitations that the DS has. What makes it most impressive is how the game doesn’t end up slowing down at any point during the battles. Which makes for fast pace 3D action.

As for the Sound it features the voice acting from the English series. While I’m not the biggest fan of a Dub only games I was quite impressed how it seemed to fit. If you not aware the English Voices for Naruto aren’t that bad. The Voice acting is most prominent when doing the Jutsu Attacks. The Soundtrack isn’t the best but it’s certainly far from the worst.

Overall it’s a pretty solid addition to the Pocket Fighter Genre. The Game feels more geared towards those that are familiar with the series, though it does make an interesting introduction to the Shippuden Series. The Game did feel a bit short but makes up for it with a Quest Mode (RPG) where you get to level up the characters along with a grip of unlockables.