Naruto: Path of the Ninja

There isn't much here that has not already been done in Japanese RPGs before and if you keep up with the Naruto manga or anime, there is nothing you haven't already read or watched before.

The game doesn't puch the DS; the graphics are so-so, the top screen isn't used for anything special, and the Control Pad usually works better than the stylus control. [Dec 2007, p.85]

This game is for young fans of the Naruto series, and I hardly think it could appeal to anyone else. There is a fully fleshed-out RPG experience here, though, even if it is unremarkable.

Naruto DS overall is a decent RPG game that keeps true to its series. The graphics and overall presentation let it down, and the story is kind of dull, since it more or less borrows the whole script from the show.

To be quite frank, on the DS, Path of the Ninja isn't that great of a game.

Call it Before They Were RPGs: a trip back to the days when the genre was simple, looked bad, and just wanted to be taken as seriously as the other, cooler genres.

Anyone who has experience with other RPGs will probably become bored with this game after an hour or two. Although the quest is relatively long, the gameplay offers little in the way of innovation, insuring that the only people who will see it through are the most diehard of Naruto fans.

Its average battle system and unimpressive graphics really doesn’t do much, and there isn’t anything to really appeal to the average gamer.

Naruto: Path of the Ninja isn’t a bad game, it’s just a stale one.

Path of the Ninja is formulaic, repetitive, and barely more than a touched-up Game Boy Advance game, but it's not an awful choice if you're a hardcore Naruto fan.

Naruto: Path of the Ninja doesn't go out of its way to offend anybody. It's thoroughly playable from beginning to end without any major problems, but the little things along the way tend to stick in your craw.

The gameplay mechanic is simple, and as a result quickly becomes monotonous and boring.

A disappointment for fans of the series. A story with as much depth and variety as Naruto should have been an epic role-playing game, but the end product with which we are presented is remedial and random, seeming very much as though the producers of this title were told to slap something together at the last minute, shove the Naruto characters into the game somewhere and get it to market in a hurry.

The only thing keeping Naruto: Path of the Ninja from being completely forgettable - the developers have done a very good job of infusing the spirit of the anime series into every aspect of the game.

Naruto: Path of the Ninja may star a sprightly yellow-haired youth, but its gameplay is old and tired. Even fans of the manga are going to have a hard time choking down this stale piece of gaming.

There have already been so many Naruto games, that this was bound to be bad. With too little focus on game construction, this ends up being more generic than Dollar Store toothpaste.