Along with town exploration and the occasional platforming segments (both of which Ubisoft Montreal handles with great care), Naruto: Rise of a Ninja leans heavily on its hand-to-hand combat. Throughout the game, you'll battle thugs and bandits with punches, kicks, throws and "jutsus". In the story mode, these fights get a little mundane, as they usually pit him against the same kind of opponents. However, Ubisoft intelligently added a separate fighting mode with ten selectable characters from Naruto's world, including several allies and enemies. This mode is playable against local friends or online against others through Xbox Live. While the fighting engine isn't thoroughly deep, it's very solid -- and enormously entertaining.

Respectable work has also gone into the game's presentation. The visuals mimic the anime to the point that they blend right in with the 2-D story sequences sprinkled throughout. The city of Konoha is a breathtaking sight, a great place to walk around and explore. The same goes for the Leaf Village, the Forest of Death and other locales scattered throughout Naruto's world. The animation comes across very fluidly, even with the smaller non-playable characters found around the city. The game moves along at thirty frames per second, only suffering from slight bits of slowdown. Audio consists of great background tunes and above-average sound effects, as well as dedicated (if slightly irritating) voice work by the show's cast.

Although the leisurely pace may not be for everyone, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is one of the more profound anime-licensed games to hit the market in quite a while. The gameplay styles and techniques are well done, the presentation mostly hits its intended marks and the fighting game in itself is quite an attraction. Ubisoft Montreal has done some awe-inspiring work with this anime franchise. Let's hope it develops another game soon.