Naruto fans, I share your love for Masashi Kishimoto’s story of a social misfit that became one of the most powerful ninja in his village so as a game reviewer I find myself occasionally disappointed and sometimes delighted with some of the Naruto titles available across various platforms. Thankfully, the recent Naruto games have been really good and that’s great news for loyal fans but then a game like Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Council 4 for the Nintendo DS comes along that just doesn’t quite have what it takes to compete with the other Naruto games.

Ninja Council 4 is the first game in the series that covers the new Shippuden series that no longer features a younger Naruto. In fact, the game loosely covers the events of what occurred when a slightly older Naruto, having disappeared with Lord Jiraiya for more than two years, returns to his home in the Hidden Leaf Village. For years, Naruto and his fellow Leaf Ninja have been going up against Orochimaru but now a new type of enemy called the Akatsuki threatens the village.

The game’s main Story mode finds Naruto reuniting with his old squad that now just consists of Sakura sans Sasuke who ran off with Orochimaru in search of more power to catch up and kill his brother. With the open slot, Naruto can have another support member that includes members of other squads as well. In fact, you can even take Sakura out of the picture and head out on missions with support teammates such as Rock Lee and even Neji. You can even start the mission as one of the support teammates, which is a major plus if you get tired of pulling off the same moves as Naruto. As a fan of Might Guy, I was glad to find that you can play as him in most of the levels.

The support role, however, is often reduced to a teammate popping into the battlefield (by tapping their portrait on the touch screen) and unleashing their specialized Jutsu move. Each character has their own level of Chakra (how much power they can unleash) and Jutsu (a Chakra-fueled specialty or power). Sakura, for instance, is also a medical ninja that has the power to heal while Neji’s ability is to see his opponent’s Chakra to use it against them during battle. Calling upon your support helps during battles against Aktsuki bosses as well as when you’re attacked by more than one enemy.

Of course, your playable character has the benefit of their own unique Jutsu move like Sakura’s Girl Power Jutsu or Naruto’s Uzumaki Barrage. Speaking of the Jutsu, unleashing it requires you not only to tap said Jutsu move among the choices in the menu and then carrying it out via a touch screen mini-game. If you want to unleash the Uzumaki Barrage, you’re asked to rub the screen horizontally until the Chakra meter is filled for the move to be completed and executed. Other mini-games have you rubbing the screen in a circular clockwise motion.

The game plays like a platform game and this would have been Ok if the combat wasn’t too imbalanced. I found myself pressing the attack button only for the punch or kick to come way too late and this is even more noticeable when you’re trying to fight enemies in a crouched position. Oh, and forget trying to kill an enemy hanging from the ceiling like a spider because it’s practically impossible without resorting to using a kunai knife or a throwing star. Unfortunately, you don’t get too many throwing weapons in the game so you’ll have to make them count.

The controls also get in the way of most of the platform puzzles such as the wall-walking move that has you scaling up walls to reach a higher platform. It’s a frustrating experience trying to jump from one wall to the next wall you can wall on to the point that you’ll be glad that there’s a button to make your character run. Some levels are rather basic while others can be a bit complex thanks to the addition of spiked walls and floors as well as other hazards. There are also old-school-styled revolving platforms and floors that crumble and disappear when you walk on them.

Sadly, the levels are trail-and-error and occasionally frustrating such as the level that has you assuming the role of Gaara from the Sand Village. Normally, breaking away from the action to play as somebody else mid-way is great but Gaara’s level is more annoying than fun. There are also boss battles but anyone who has played a classic platform game knows that all you really have to do is memorize your opponent’s attack routine.

The game does add a multiplayer match for up to four-players and there’s a Ninja Mode that allows you to go through each level again without restrictions. Ninja Council 4 also has plenty of extra characters to unlock in the game to use as well such as Kakashi, Tenten and Jiraiya just to name a few.

Visually, Ninja Council 4 is a bit better to look at than the last game in this series. The colorful backdrops and sharp character models make it easy to identify each character during each level. Add some impressive Jutsu effects, manga-styled “sound effects” and you have a game that would have made a great-looking GBA game. Sadly, the real sound effects aren’t plentiful but at least there are character specific grunts and the music slightly resembles what is heard in the anime’s soundtrack.

As a devoted Naruto fan, I expect a lot from the Naruto gaming franchise and found myself both disappointed and even impressed with the titles available across the various platforms. Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Council 4 for the DS is a platform game that falls short thanks to its control problems and uneven level design. If you haven’t played the other Ninja Council games and cannot go without a Naruto game on the DS, this is the one to own but returning fans should just consider a rental or just skipping it altogether.

Gameplay: 6.0
The good news is that you’ll have a good roster of characters to use in the game and their unique Jutsu is represented well enough. The bad news is that the platform portion and the occasionally unresponsive controls make for a frustrating time. This is a game best played as a multiplayer one.

Graphics: 5.9
The game’s graphics are actually quite sharp in certain places but this game looks more like a really attractive-looking GBA game than a DS title. The Jutsu moves really lights up the screen, though.

Sound: 5.0
There are a few sound effects in the game with grunts for each character in the game. There’s no voice work to be found and the music - which is stuck in a loop - sounds close to mimicking the anime’s soundtrack.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
The boss battles aren’t too challenging once you memorize their attack patterns and most of the enemies you’ll meet along the way aren’t too hard to figure out how to beat. Some of the levels are frustrating trail-and-error missions.

Concept: 6.0
At last, the Shippuden chapter of Naruto’s life arrives to the Nintendo DS. There are touch screen actions but they aren’t inventive, though. The support characters are actually quite impressive so if you ever wanted to see a three-man team with Rock Lee, Naruto and Kakashi.

Multiplayer: 6.5
The game supports up to four players and the battles are actually fun seeing there are enough characters to use in the wireless multiplayer mode. It’s great to see that the mode runs smoothly but there’s little variety in the game mode department.

Overall: 6.0
Ninja Council 4 is a hard game to recommend true fans of the spiky haired ninja even with the cool roster of characters. Unfortunately, there are a number of problems that will not fail to annoy anyone looking for a good action platform game with plenty of that awesome Jutsu. If you can look past these things, Ninja Council isn’t a bad game but it’s not a particularly great one either.