Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Council 4 follows along with the current Naruto storyline here in the States, featuring Naruto in what I'm guessing is his teen years, as opposed to the younger adventures when the series began. I stopped following the series shortly after this in the manga, so I can't tell you for sure whether the plot of the game is tied closely to the series, or actually mimics it, but the storyline used isn't the reason for picking up or trying out the game, as it's hardly featured outside of a few cutscenes.
The game is a 2D action/platformer, but it lacks a certain level of polish to make it anything worth noting. On the surface, everything seems to work well, and the overall look of the game is pretty nice, with some 2D sprites with solid animation work behind them, and enough of a mix between enemies and platforming to feel like a decent enough throwback to 16 bit days. However, about an hour or so in, you'll realize a lot of the jumping mechanics are either annoying, or outright unfair, and the enemies become remarkably redundant over time, with some aggravating boss fights tossed into the mix.
When you begin a stage, you can pick from a small selection of characters, and you're generally allowed to choose two additional characters to switch out with. You're not always stuck with Naruto either; you can opt for characters like Rock Lee, or Sakura, among a few others. Certain levels will force you to play as a specific character tied into story events, like Gaara early on. Once you get past the character select, you're dropped into an area, which plays out like most old-school platformers, with bottomless pits, spiked floors, walls, and ceilings, and plenty of moveable platforms and objects to destroy for secondary weapons. The enemies come in the form of other ninja, or other odd creatures, but there's not a great deal of variation in how many you'll see, outside of some color edits. Also, they're not too challenging, and rarely come in groups, and you can often just bypass them entirely.
And bypassing them might not be a bad idea, as the combat never feels precise, and it's easy to misjudge whether a punch or kick is going to miss or not. I'm not sure if the hit boxes for characters are just incredibly tiny, but I'd often feel like I should have landed a hit but with no result, and since there's a stutter to the game after every swing, you'll almost always get smacked by an enemy after a miss. Likewise, the jumping in the game isn't particularly fluid, and it becomes troublesome when you run into a series of falling platforms. For whatever reason, when you land after a jump there's a pause to your movement, mostly because the game chooses to animate your fall as having some sort of impact, even though it doesn't do anything to the environment or enemies around you. Because of this animation, you can't always jump from spot to spot right away, unless you keep your jumps or falls within an undetermined range. It was easily the most annoying aspect of the game, and jumping shouldn't be an issue in a game that requires so much of it.
The music is decent, and the visuals are nice, with big 2D sprites for the characters that seem to have a surprising amount of animation, certainly more work was put into that part than I was expecting. I thought the level design was pretty bland though, and there's plenty of sections that don't seem to be spaced out very well. For instance, the first time you get to control Gaara, there's a particular jump that goes from a lower level to an upper level, but since the upper level is like a corridor, with a low ceiling, you have to do a half jump and a double jump to reach it, but it's a really picky maneuver to pull off. Thankfully it wasn't over a bottomless pit, but I had far more trouble with the jump than I thought was necessary, especially for such a basic part of the level. I ran into similar issues with other characters in different stages as well, and I really found it frustrating more than anything.
All together I don't think I'd suggest the game, and while I'm sure the die-hard Naruto fans will pick up the title regardless, I'd say that if you're on the fence at least just give it a rental. For those of you looking for some type of classic 16-bit style platformer, I'd definitely give this a pass, as the experience isn't nearly as polished as something like a Mario, Kirby, or Sonic title. It didn't tug on any nostalgic heartstrings for me, and I don't think it's a particularly good platformer in general.
