It just goes to show you how pre conceived notions can be completely off. Naruto: Powerful Shippuden fully embraces the quirky side of its source material to deliver a charming, whimsical, and fun take on the universe it is portraying, that provides for a refreshing change from routine. By embracing the inherent silliness of the anime that it is based on, Powerful Shippuden manages to transcend its source and become a fun game in its own right.

But for starters, a clarification may be needed about said source material. Though the game is called Naruto: Powerful Shippuden (possibly in a bid to maximize sales), the actual game is based on the Naruto spin off series Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals, which is a more comic take on the Naruto universe, exaggerating and emphasizing its characters and their silly antics, something that is reflected in its visual style as well (retained in this game). Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals puts Rock Lee front and center, and sure enough, in Naruto: Powerful Shippuden, we find that Naruto has to share the spotlight with Rock Lee, with each character getting roughly half the campaign to their credit.

The campaign itself is split into two, depending on what character you choose to play as. Naruto’s storyline seems to at least try to be faithful to the anime, generally acting as good complementary material for fans, but taking what might be interpreted as a few liberties nonetheless. On the flipside, Rock Lee’s portions are batshit insane, confronting the players with some entirely contrived, nonsensical, and over the top scenarios and situations; in emphasizing the ridiculous nature of scenarios starring Rock Lee, these portions probably end up being more faithful to their source material than Naruto’s sections are to their. At least in spirit, anyway.

Rock Lee’s sections are a blast to play through: the game develops a sense of self awareness, and there is so much awkward humor and meta commentary that they are bound to elicit a laugh even from the most jaded gamer. In general, this is perhaps why Rock Lee’s sections are so much stronger and simply more fun than Naruto’s: freed from the shackles of trying to be faithful to the source material to appease legions of fans, they can go wild with their dialog and scenarios, and just aim to simply be fun.

I say that it’s the humor that makes Rock Lee’s sections better, because the actual gameplay seems to be of a consistent quality across both halves of the campaign. This is in spite of the fact that the two characters deliver entirely different styles of gameplay, with Naruto’s focus on ninja techniques delivering a complete contrast from Rock Lee’s preferred style of close quarters combat. Both characters end up feeling sufficiently distinct, and while you may prefer one over the other based on your own style of gameplay, both sections of the campaign are equal as far as objective quality is concerned.

Naruto: Powerful Shippuden is almost certainly targeted at younger audiences, and this shows in its gameplay and mechanics. Unlike recent console Naruto games, which are highly complex fighters with a dedicated community, Powerful Shippuden is a side scrolling brawler with minor platforming and RPG elements thrown in. In what is probably the most daring step this game makes from a gameplay perspective, Naruto embraces a variation of the difficulty system that Kid Icarus: Uprising so ingeniously implemented last year, by allowing you to set certain conditions and parameters for yourself before you begin a stage, and yielding higher experience for your character if you meet said parameters.

It’s this kind of effort that separates Powerful Shippuden from the flood of anime licensed titles on the market right now: it’s not a cheap cash in, this is a well developed and well thought out game that would have stood strong on its own. The core gameplay in the game is so sound and so much fun for a simple brawler, that you can’t help but like it. Add to that the oodles of charm that the game has, in everything that it does, from its exaggerated visual style to its over the top scenarios, from its dialog and humor to the music and sound effects, and you’re just left with a game that stands as a highly competent brawler on its own merits.

Indeed, that is perhaps the highest praise I can give Powerful Shippuden: even if you don’t like Naruto, or anime in general, you will probably find this game to be a fun outing. If you like Naruto, then your mileage with the game might actually vary based on what your opinion is on how it treats its source material.

But look past the anime trappings, and look at the license just as an excuse to justify the fun brawling that this game enables. In a year when the 3DS has had no dearth of great games, Powerful Shippuden unexpectedly adds another item to the growing list.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo 3DS.

Some of these moments would be familiar to fans of the regular Naruto anime. And hey, there’s Rock Lee as well. Doing Rock Lee things. At least he’s enthusiastic.

Based on the spin-off show, Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals, Naruto Powerful Shippuden is a sort of throwback to the current crop of Naruto fighting games we’ve been seeing as of late, focusing on side-scrolling action and featuring super deformed, chibi characters. We’ll see if it can move past its awful pedigree to deliver a compelling game this March.

What else does Powerful Shippuden entail? It actually brings the game back to the side-scrolling, beat em’ up gameplay of the original Naruto games on the Game Boy Advance. Not that those were very enticing either, but Shippuden at least carries a more pleasing graphical style.

How bout it? Is the pleasure of playing as a chibi Rock Lee and Naruto worth the money? Or does this simply look like another quick cash in to ride off the inevitable success of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3? Time will tell, and hopefully it will cancel that anime quick too.

The game is based on Naruto Spin-off: Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals, the latest series in the hit Naruto and Naruto Shippuden anime franchise.

“Rock Lee from the NARUTO series is known for his great energy and child-like-enthusiasm, fans will notice that the Naruto Powerful Shippuden gameplay and character animations truly reflect Rock Lee’s endearing youthful qualities,” says Jason Enos, Senior Global Brand Manager at Namco Bandai Games America Inc.

“With its comedic presentation working in conjunction with its martial arts action and iconic Naruto ninja techniques, Naruto Powerful Shippuden will delight a wide range of fans while providing a great sense of adventure and a pulse-pounding experience.”

Naruto Powerful Shippuden includes a Story Mode as well as an Endless Battle Mode so players can choose to either follow a progressive storyline or just pull out the punches for a sprightly ninja showdown. The action-packed gameplay allows players to earn experience points to power up their vivacious characters and also use the touch screen to strengthen special attacks.

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