It's really not a bad game. It's got a good mix of gameplay. You can do the missions if you want to, or do the collectathon crap, or fight people around town, or do town missions, which range from delivering ramen, crazy taxi style, to running races, to playing hide and seek, sexying up the populace to win approval. It's actually a good amount of variety, and now, about 5 hours in, they dole out the new abilities at frequent enough intervals to keep Leaf Village interesting, Metroid style. Getting the double jump opens up the rooftops. Getting the ability to run up walls opens up the tallest buildings in town. And as you get those new abilities, they are incorporated into all the other town missions.
My only real complaint (aside from the apparent shortness of the story) is that the fighting engine is simple enough that I doubt anything will ever be that difficult, unless future enemies have extremely cheesy jutsus (and I am sure they will). But still, the game is liberal with retries, so you can find the way around the cheese. And it's not like your jutsus aren't cheesy. If you're a hardcore fighting game fan, I'm almost certain you would find the engine too simple, with too few moves.
This is quality, though, almost around the board. Not being a Naruto fan means that the story is new to me, and even if it is Totally Animu, its omissions are probably less offensive to me than they are to the hardcore Naruto fans who are bitching about so and so being cut out and all.
It's a nice little take on the sandbox game. Not sure if I would recommend it for 60 beans, but once it drops once or twice, it'll be a worthwhile diversion for all.
