[ADDENDUM (2/9/08): There is one major beef I had with this outing, and that’s the difficulty level. For about two-thirds of the game, the game failed to prove itself much of a challenge. The game will prompt you at certain points to go out and level grind if you feel like it, but I never felt that there was much need, I was taking care of enemies rather without trouble. Then, partway through the Chunin Exam, the difficulty level spiked up like a brick wall, and I found myself in a battle where I was being killed on the enemy’s first move, before I could even go. The pacing of the difficulty needs work in this way.]

The touch-screen controls, during battle, work near flawlessly, and even though you can use buttons to control the action I always found myself using the stylus instead. Outside of battle, though, there are a few problems. You can navigate the overworld with the stylus, but it feels rather clunky since Naruto can only move in four directions, and you probably won’t want to do so. It’s a bit more convenient when navigating menus, except when you come to a list of jutsu or items. For some reason, you cannot usually scroll down just using the down button, and you have to use the stylus or the shoulder buttons to navigate to a lower part of the menu. This wouldn’t be so bothersome, though, if it didn’t work as inconsistently as it did.