Naruto? Believe it! The hit manga and anime series has finally released its second fighter for Nintendo's soon to be defunct Gamecube, and it is one that is sure to please fans of the property, though in reality that should be a given. The real question is, should players who don't know their Kakashi Hatake from their Sasuke Uchiha still pick it up?

THE STORY SO FAR
Some year's back, the nine-tailed demon fox rained chaos across the lands, but thankfully it was sealed away, but its essence was placed inside the young boy who would grow up to be Naruto. Shunned by his village for that specific reason, Naruto seeks to prove himself by becoming a ninja and proving himself to everyone.

Throughout his trials and tribulations, Naruto is joined by fellow classmates Sasuke and Sakura, as well as their teacher Kakashi. As the story progresses, Naruto runs across others individuals, both friend and foe, as he continues his quest to be the best ninja of them all.

If you've been reading the manga volumes or watching the English dub currently airing on the Cartoon Network, I've got both good news and bad news for you regarding the single player Story Mode. The good news is that the story will be very familiar to you, as it starts off near the beginning of the series, with the trio forming a team, going on their first mission, and then the Chunin Exam battles. The bad news is that, beyond the Chunin exams, American audiences are pretty in the dark as the manga and anime have yet to move past that, as it is only now where Naruto is training for the third portion of the Exam test. If you play this game, you'll know a good majority of what happens after, during the third test, though not "everything" will be revealed (but lets just say I ultimately know what happens to the people you really care about).

Told through still cutscenes featuring little square boxes with the face of the characters in conflict along with actually voiced text by the dubbed anime voice actors, it does a good enough job of presenting the story, though not everything works out. For example, I'm a fan of the series and have been watching the anime, so I know Lee isn't going to beat Gaara during that portion of the game, and yet you have to win just so you can lose during the cutscene. Also, the cutscenes don't show enough of the action, like saying how during that segment Gaara damages Lee really bad instead of the nothing that happens here, and when Sasuke screams in pain after Orochimaru attacks him, the game doesn't explain or show well enough that he has actually just bit him and placed a cursed mark on Sasuke, making him go evil when he can't control it.

For non fans, it presents the story well enough so you might be interested in reading the manga or catching up on the anime after your time with the game.

GAMEPLAY
Since it is a fighting game and the single player and multiplayer segments are practically the same thing, let us just cut out the middleman.

The main modes of the game are the above mentioned Story Mode, as well as a handful of single player endeavors, such as a normal round robin progression seen in all other fighting games before, as well as a Survivor mode where you try to last as long as you can, as well as a Time Attack, to see how fast you can get through the ten bouts.

By competing in these modes, you'll amass money, which you'll be able to use to buy all sorts of goodies from the shop, with the real draw being hidden characters, but there are also sound tests, profiles, and other fan goodies that will take you quite a while to unlock, as you don't earn much money at a time, and some of those goods can be expensive.

Fighting is amazingly simple, with there only really being a handful of buttons, shying away from the typical two strong kick and punch buttons or the three kick and three punch buttons. Instead, for Naruto, there is a strong attack (A button), weak attack (B button), throw (Y button), and your special jutsu (X button). You've also got the triggers acting as both your side steps and your substitution jutsu should you have enough power stored up.

Though the fighting does seem a bit dumbed down and more button masher friendly, I still really enjoyed the game as a fan, because there are just some things the non-fan wouldn't get, like why Naruto turns into a woman, why the substitution jutsus are replaced with wooden logs. For the fans though, they'll all kick a kick out of these moments, as well as the special jutsus, where you'll see Naruto's shadow clone jutsu, Ino's mind transfer, Gaara's sand coffin, and my absolute favorite, making Lee open the Eight Gates of Life and roiding out and going super powerful. For fans, you'll smile as all these favorite moments are carried out by you.

I'm sad to say that, for non-fans, there won't be much here to whet your appetite, as this really is a game made for the fans. Besides that, even I got tired of the game after only a handful of hours, after I'd already beat the Story Mode and found myself using the same combos and game plans to succeed every time. I've still got several characters to unlock, as well as all the other goodies, but to keep playing the same battles over and over to achieve that, it makes me not look forward to that time.

GRAPHICS
If you're a fan of the anime, you'll love the cell shaded graphics, as they capture the spirit of the anime perfectly, as everyone looks just like their anime partner, and they all move in many of the exact same ways.

SOUND
The voice acting is good (as it should since it is by the show's voice actors), but the same sound bytes are used over and over, plus the fighting effects also repeat too much. However, I do like the before battle quotes are sometimes tailor made for certain situations, like Hinata getting all shy and offering Naruto a healing ointment before and after their battles.

IN CONCLUSION
As a big fan of Naruto series, I'm happy to report the game will appeal to the fans, but even the less than the headband wearing diehards will have a hard time being enthusiastic about constantly playing the game after only a handful of hours and the nostalgic new car smell and gimmick wears off. And non-fans are probably better off leaving this game alone altogether, or at least playing it over at a friend's house after they bought it. Believe it!

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