Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble Review

Another month is here, which means that there is another Naruto video game being released.  This time it

Shinobi Rumble is a 2D fighting game. Considering the Naruto franchise is based around combat, a fighting game should be a slam dunk for the franchise. Makes sense right? Well apparently the game

In what can only be described as a poor design decision, all of the special moves are performed by tapping an icon on the touch screen. Want to perform a Rasengan? Tap its icon on the screen. Want to summon a giant toad? Tap the screen. The game

Aside from the Shaq-Fu meets tap-tap inspiration, the game does try to draw from the Smash Brothers formula a bit. Most battles will feature up to four fighters at once, as well as a host of power ups that randomly appear. Even this addition can

Shinobi Rumble does feature several different game modes. There is a story mode that takes place during the animated series 6th season. This story is well ahead of where the current series is in North America so be warned that there are serious spoilers in this game. The story mode has 21 missions and will take the average gamer a little over an hour to beat.  Apart from the story mode there is a standard multiplayer versus mode, a single player ladder mode, and an objective mode. After the story mode the objective mode has the most teeth since successfully completing the objectives will unlock new attacks and powerups.

Since Shinobi Rumble is a 2D DS game, it is entirely sprite based. The characters all look good and overall the game looks a lot like Naruto vs. Sasuke on the DS. One nice feature about the game is that there is a camera that automatically zooms in and out. When there are four fighters spread out on the map the camera will zoom out to take in all the action and when there are only two fighters it zooms back in to give you a closer view of the action. The sound is largely forgetable and there is no voicework at all.