{"id":25466,"date":"2026-06-15T23:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/?page_id=25466"},"modified":"2026-06-15T23:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:56:15","slug":"naruto-path-of-the-ninja-nintendo-ds-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/naruto-path-of-the-ninja-nintendo-ds-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Naruto: Path of the Ninja (Nintendo DS) Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Naruto: Path of the Ninja (Nintendo DS) Review<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Naruto: Path of the Ninja Home Page<\/a><\/td>Nintendo DS Game Catalog<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s good! Believe it!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~tankMage (June 2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Score: 88\/100 (Good)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naruto: Path of the Ninja doesn’t do anything new or special aside from try to replicate the world of the anime. Anyone who has played an RPG will recognize mechanics lifted from games like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger in Path of the Ninja, but if something works you may as well use it. For the most part, these tried and true mechanics delivered a satisfying experience. However, fans of the anime will almost certainly be let down by the story, which is a rather clumsy adaptation of the early parts of the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flawed though it may be, Path of the Ninja is one of the better licensed Nintendo DS RPGs. It’s also a soft remake of a GBA title that was exclusive to Japan, which is odd in light of the fact that the DS could run Game Boy Advance titles. At any rate, TOSE did a good job at retooling this game game to work on the DS. They took advantage of the system’s double screen and leveraged its touch capabilities in ways that enhanced the core experience, which is impressive since many DS titles are miserable to play thanks to poorly implemented touchscreen mechanics.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Oddly, the enemy named “Boss” is not a boss.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Boring if you are familiar with Naruto. Confusing if you are not familiar with Naruto.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only thing about Path of the Ninja that fails to deliver is its story, which is kind of funny, because the previous DS title I reviewed (Inuyasha) had a great story while failing in most other respects. One of the great sins committed by licensed games is the way they butcher the story of the source material in an often clumsy attempt to adapt it to the interactive medium. I don’t know if it’s laziness or hubris (or maybe corporate edicts) that drive devs to replicate the plots of our favorite TV shows and films, but the attempt often ends in failure regardless of the reasoning behind it. After all, film and television are very different narrative vehicles than games, so it’s nearly impossible to shoe-horn a story designed for a movie into a game without harming the final product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what does Path of the Ninja do wrong? In short, it tries to fit an large swath of the anime (basically from when Naruto becomes a genin to the battle with Gaara) into a relatively short game. It goes without saying that the plot jumps around a lot and some major events are glossed over or skipped entirely. Players who have watched the anime will likely be disappointed by the story, while newcomers will often have “wait, what?” moments as they encounter numerous allusions to events not covered by the game. Even the plot beats which are included lack the emotional impact of the anime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I wasn’t impressed by the story, I have to give TOSE credit. At least a few of the people on the development team must have known their stuff, because they included all sorts of details from the anime. They also did a good job representing Kakashi, who often stole the show, so it’s not all bad.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Uh…what rumors?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wow, this is on the DS?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve often complained about the Nintendo DS’s crappy resolution, but Path of the Ninja is proof that developers could squeeze nice visuals out of this system. While the graphics aren’t going to win any prizes, the character designs, environments, and mini-cutscenes look a lot better than many other games. They also did a good job of utilizing both screens by placing a lot of the UI stuff on the upper screen and making the the in-battle character designs bigger to compensate for the low resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I found surprising was the quality of the enemy sprites. I expected a lot of stock RPG monsters, but TOSE was careful to create foes that felt like they belonged in the world of Naruto. Even no-name enemy ninjas had designs that looked like they could have been extras in the anime. Of course, there are a few bats and other super generic RPG foes to fight, but they did a really nice job overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combat ability effects are also really well done, though they look like something out of a SNES game. To be fair, Naruto: Path of the Ninja was originally a GBA title, so it’s not surprising. They even included character portraits and little cutscenes that would play when certain abilities were triggered. They aren’t fancy, but they were fairly well done nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is one thing I didn’t like about the graphics, it’s that the combat menu was so big it covered up most of the screen every time someone’s turn came up. It’s not the end of the world, but it was certainly distracting and it made it hard to tell whose turn was up at times. TOSE also failed to include weapon animations. All of the playable characters use a generic animation when performing regular attacks. On one hand, I feel like this was lazy on TOSE’s part, but some of the weapons that characters can use aren’t exactly cannon. In the end, using generic animations allowed the devs to add some variety and equipment options without spoiling immersion, so I guess it’s a fair trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More game please!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naruto: Path of the Ninja offers surprisingly solid gameplay for those who enjoy classic JRPGs. There’s a variety of weapons and armors to equip. A fairly nuanced front and back row system affects how much damage characters inflict or take and even determines the way characters use weapons like chains. All of the heroes have special abilities that feel at home in the anime while being useful in the game. There is even an affinity system that allows heroes to occasionally chain attacks together if they like each other enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of the things I’ve mentioned are new to the genre, so it’s easy to dismiss the battle system as a ripoff of older classics. However, a lot of licensed RPGs are content with copy pasting a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest style battle engine into their game and calling it a day. Path of the Ninja attempted to give players a nuanced combat system and largely succeeded, so they deserve some credit even if it\u2019s not original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combat may be fun, but it’s not without drawbacks. The affinity system was a nice touch, but heroes almost never chained regular attacks together, even at the highest affinity and I only saw the opportunity to use a combo jutsu, where two characters use a special team skill, once in the entire game. TOSE should have tried to capitalize on this system by making it more prevalent. Better yet, they could have given bad guys combo attacks as well to up the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also felt that battles were often too easy; I breezed through most of the game aside from an early area where I had to level up a bit. It makes sense that Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke would steamroll regular bad guys, but they could have made the bosses a bit harder. It also didn’t help that many of the boss battles were tied to story events that railroad the player, which is another problem with trying to replicate the plot of an anime.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Path of the Ninja also boasts some nice area designs. “Dungeons” were fun and interesting to explore and the enemy encounter rate wasn’t too high. There were even treasures hidden in areas that players can’t reach until they unlock new skills. I know this is a trick to pad play length, but I’m a sucker for loot backtracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, there are a number of weapons players can equip the heroes with. Some weapons, like swords, are only very useful when a character is close to his or her target, while others are used from the back row effectively. They even included items whose attacks change based on the user’s position. For example, the fan hits one target of used in the front or middle row, but hits all enemies if used from the back row. The equipment system is nothing to get super excited about, but it’s better than nothing. There are even rare items to collect by carefully looking around the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many players will find this game fairly short. At just 20 hours, I was able to finish this one in a few days. I’ll be honest, it left me wanting more and it would have been great if they had thrown in a couple more dungeons. At the same time, there isn’t any cryptic “just try and figure where you have to go, buddy” nonsense and it doesn’t take a million battles just to level up, so that 20 hour runtime is mostly actual content with a touch of backtracking. Honestly, I’d rather have 20 hours of solid gameplay than 60 hours of filler and grinding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, gameplay is Naruto’s great strength. It may not be very challenging or original, but it’s engaging and a lot better thought out than that of many other RPGs of its kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to make some noise!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Path of the Ninja uses GBA sound fonts, which sound a lot like the SNES, so this game gives off strong 16-Bit vibes. Obviously, most of the songs are inspired by the anime, which fans of Naruto will recognize them right away. While adapting a sound track should be an easy job, I have to give the people who worked on this game credit. I’ve heard poorly adapted soundtracks and they ain’t pretty. There is a bit of voice acting, but it’s almost entirely restricted to the catch phrases used by the cast in combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rub the Screen teh Build Chakra!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Path of the Ninja uses a beautiful control scheme. Players can control the game using the D-Pad and buttons or the touchscreen. The only time the game forces you to use the touchscreen is when the player activates certain abilities and during an exam where the player is asked to perform said abilities. The moves are pretty simple and easy to pull off, so the touchscreen mechanics do not get in the way even when they are necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something tells me TOSE realized the DS touchscreen was a pain in the ass for players, because they implemented anything that uses it very carefully. While some games have players trying to draw complex glyphs or snag fast moving images with the stylus, Path of the Ninja merely asks you to move it back and forth or spin a wheel, which is a lot more appropriate for the janky DS touchscreen. These simple mechanics work while adding a little action to spell casting and I’m really grateful to TOSE for not making my life miserable by forcing me to draw ninja hands signs or Kanji while a timer is running just to use an ability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Thoughts<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really didn’t know what to expect from Path of the Ninja when I started it. Naruto has some good console games, but handhelds are often a risky proposition, even when it comes to franchises that are held in high regard. After playing a series of lackluster DS titles (which isn’t hard to do) I was pleasantly surprised with this one. Path of the Ninja isn’t great. It doesn’t add anything new to the genre nor does it offer challenging gameplay. Yet it manages to entertain nonetheless. I enjoyed it so much, I am excited to play its sequel in the near future, though I have a bad track record when it comes to picking up sequels. *glances at Final Fantasy III as it sits abandoned in the corner*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading my Naruto: Path of the Ninja review!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RetroMaggedon.com \u00a92026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naruto: Path of the Ninja (Nintendo DS) Review Naruto: Path of the Ninja Home Page Nintendo DS Game Catalog It’s good! Believe it! ~tankMage (June 2026) Score: 88\/100 (Good) Naruto: Path of the Ninja doesn’t do anything new or special aside from try to replicate the world of the anime. Anyone who has played an … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-25466","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}