Finding Sasuke and other allies in Naruto Shippuden: Gekitou! Naruto vs. Sasuke

Naruto Shippuuden Saikyou Ninja Daikesshuu: Gekitou! Naruto vs. Sasuke picks off where Naruto Shippuuden: Saikyou Ninja Daikesshuu 5 left off. The Akatsuki are temporarily out of the picture and the new Team 7 is hot on the trail of Sasuke. But we’re not at the beginning of the game. In the first level you’re punching ink lions drawn by Sai. Just like the manga Sai challenges Naruto. Just like the other Naruto Saikyou Ninja Daikesshuu you follow the manga if it was a 2D side scrolling platformer. The exception is you encounter teleporting wolves. We’ll get to that later.

The DS game isn’t too different from the GBA series of Naruto: Ninja Council games. Even though Naruto is grown up he still has the same three hit combo where he uses a head butt for the second blow. Naruto has two chakra utilizing jutsus, a shadow clone rush and the powerful Rasengan. He needs to dash into someone for the Rasengan to connect which makes it difficult to use against bosses. Kabuto can cancel the special attack with a simple punch. While damaging, the Rasengan isn’t Naruto’s most powerful attack. Tomy has a new partner system where Sakura can team up to launch Naruto in the air while he’s throwing a Rasengan. This expands the attack’s range, but drains Naruto and Sakura’s chakra gauges around 50%. Sai and Yamato can team up for a combo where Yamato launches an enemy in the air with a wood block for an ink bird assault. Partner attacks can be activated by pressing the face of the character you want to team up with, but not all combinations have great results. Naruto and Yamato do a generic, but damaging air combo.

The story mode is extremely short. You can reach Sasuke in under five hours. Most of the time is spent punching mindless ninjas and feral animals. Naruto Shippuuden Saikyou Ninja Daikesshuu: Gekitou! Naruto vs. Sasuke occasionally traps players into fighting until two gates are unlocked. During one of these events wolves literally fall from the sky. It’s hilarious to think Naruto spends his free time roughing up flying wolves, but expect to face them in this game. There are some tricky vanishing platform/falling bridge levels where enemies are purposely placed to knock you back to the starting point. The fire breathing enemies are easy to dodge, but you have to know where they are so you can jump in advance. I thought of Mega Man’s level design the first time this happened even though Naruto Shippuuden Saikyou Ninja Daikesshuu: Gekitou! Naruto vs. Sasuke share very little in common with Capcom’s platforming series. During the story levels you raid Orochimaru’s lair to find twin mutants and face two giant snakes as bosses. The last level has players find a path through Orochimaru’s Lair

While the main game is short there are quests to extend the replay value of the game. Naruto can talk to his friends in Konoha to get missions and eventually recruit more party members. Rock Lee wants Naruto to defeat 50 enemies in the hills. The problem is you only know about these extra missions and where to go if you can read Japanese. I guess you can figure out where to go by looking at the quotes, but the quests ask players to fetch things in Japanese. Out of all the Naruto Shippuuden Saikyou Ninja Daikesshuu: Gekitou! Naruto vs. Sasuke this is the least import friendly considering it’s not as linear as the other games in the series. To get the most out of the game you have to unlock characters like Neji in your group to find alternate paths to hidden stages on the map. Here's a hint, Neji tells Naruto to look for an enemy wearing red in Orochimaru’s wooden lair. You only get Naruto, Sakura, Sai, and Yamato by default. I think you can squeeze out twelve hours of gameplay if you try to unlock everyone, but Naruto Shippuuden Saikyou Ninja Daikesshuu: Gekitou! Naruto vs. Sasuke is pretty short for 5,040 yen ($47). At least Tomy included the obligatory flying wolves.

Images courtesy of Tomy.