Naruto: Shinobi Retsuden [import] review

Those crazy ninja adventurers are back from their foray into RPGs, and have returned to Street Fighter-esque beat 'em-ups once more. It's one of the very, very few one-on-one fighting games available for the DS, but sadly it's not filling any needs.

If you're unlucky enough to speak to a Virtua Fighter aficionado, you'll hear them talk about how they mastered the back-back-forward-up-down-A-A-up-pick-your-nose-A-down-up-left combo to perfection. Naruto: SR asks that you press A. It's not quite the same. There are some combos to find, but they're generally like "AAAAB," or similarly uninspired.

The game's Story Mode is a shockingly short seven fights, easily won the first time through without using a single "Continue." This unlocks a couple more of the 14 total characters available for the Single Battle or Arcade Mode. It's here that you can at least play through with each ninja without the boring Japanese-text story. However, the variation between fighters is so minimal that it doesn't add a great deal.