Some presentation issues aside, the gameplay itself is actually rather solid. The meat of the game, the combat, is easily the game’s best feature, due to some interesting features that end up working very much in the game’s favor. On the battlefield, there are twelve spaces you can occupy with your three characters. Depending on how close you are to the enemy, you can give more damage and also receive more damage, but it’s a bit deeper than that. Depending on the overall placement of your three characters, your formation may have special affects, such as increased attack stats, or the prevention of one-hit KOs, so you need to give character placement a lot of thought.

Besides that, each of the three main characters (Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura) play and evolve differently. Sasuke is your heavy hitter, Sakura is a gifted healer, and Naruto can induce several status changes in his enemies; their individual jutsus (special moves) reflect this. Speaking of jutsu, each one has its own "hand sign", which is what you need to do to activate the jutsu. Sometimes you don’t need to do anything, though other times you need to hit a button combination, or rub the screen with your stylus. Doing so will add more Chakra (similar to MP) to your move, making it more powerful.