If you haven't heard of the Naruto anime series yet, you must be living under a rock... buried deep within a cave... somewhere in Tibet. It's the latest anime craze sweeping America and will soon take its place next to the anime greats of the past such as Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z. While Naruto may have just hit the US a few months ago, it's been going strong in Japan for over three years. It's also had several titles released on the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Game Boy Advance. Now D3 and Tomy are bringing some of the games to US audiences.

We already previewed the first GameCube release, Naruto: Clash of Ninja, so now it's time to take a look at the first handheld release on the Game Boy Advance. In Japan, the GBA has seen RPG and action titles based on Naruto, but the US will be getting Naruto: Ninja Council, the first GBA action game. Unlike the GameCube Naruto titles, GBA owners won't be missing much by getting the first title in the series. All of the Naruto GBA games are fairly solid, and while the latest title would've been nice, you won't be missing much by starting with the first one.

When you first start off in Naruto: Ninja Council you'll be able to play as series favorites, Naruto and Sasuke. With a little bit of work you can also unlock Kakashi, their sensei in the anime series. The game plays like your standard side-scrolling 2D action title. Think back to the NES and SNES action titles like Contra, and you'll have an idea of how this one plays.

Both Naruto and Sasuke have the same basic abilities. You can use a basic attack, or charge your chakra for a special technique (one of their ninjutsu abilities), or use a jump or dash. When you first start out with Naruto or Sasuke, you'll find that the two play relatively different. Naruto is a bit slower than Sasuke, but he makes up for it with faster chakra charging and better special attacks. Sasuke's main advantage is his speed. His special attacks are fairly weak, which means playing through the game as Sasuke will be more difficult than playing through as Naruto.

When you unlock Kakashi (sorry, we're not going to tell you how), you'll find that he jumps the highest and moves faster than the other two characters. He also has the fastest chakra charge and the more power special attacks. Think of Kakashi as a reward for accomplishing the task needed to unlock him. When you play through the game as Kakashi, you'll find it to be much easier than Naruto or Sasuke.

Like any side-scrolling action game, Naruto: Ninja Council has its fair share of boss battles. Each stage will end with a boss battle, and most of the bosses should be familiar to fans of the series. We've spotted Konohamaru, Ino, Chouji, Shikamaru, Rock Lee (who owns all other Naruto characters for free), Haku, and Kiba just to name a few. Each boss battle is unique in its own way as you'll have to defend against the special abilities of each character. True to the anime, each boss will use their signature special attacks, such as Chouji using his multi-size jutsu to grow to super large sizes, or Ino using her mind control jutsu.

Naruto: Ninja Council is a very solid GBA title and should please fans of the series. However, even if you're not a fan of the series, the game can still be quite a bit of fun. Tomy and D3 currently have plans to release the game in March, with more titles in the series to follow. We'll have a complete review of the game in a just a few short weeks.