...I think everyone here has heard, seen, or followed Naruto. I've got to say that when I first heard about it I didn't think it was anything to special. Funny thing is that after watching the first few episodes, I think I ended up watching every episode of the original series straight. For those who don't know what Naruto is, here's the run down:

Naruto is the story of a boy (Naruto Uzumaki) who grows up in a time of Ninjitsu on his own with no friends and no one to rely on. Despite of this he soon finds friendship in everyone he meets. He does all the usual things such as fall in love with the pink haired girl, strive to make it to the top...farts a lot. His only wish is to make it to the top and become the next "Hokage", which is the highest authority of their village. However, it isn't power he seeks, it's acceptance.

The set up in my opinion, though cliche, is a good one. The creator/writer of the series does justice to the depth of the characters, and luckily the series ravishes in good story telling. It is also to my understanding that the anime is very closely written to the manga, so I'm guessing there are no disappointments in that area if that's what matters to you.

Anyway, Naruto is the example of an underdog story with element that he's got "hidden potential". Anyone who has watched the series already knows what I mean. The whole story does pretty much revolve around him, though there are plot elements and affect everyone differently. Something I definitely like about this is the ability the anime gives you to have some sort of connection or understanding to each and every character. No one character is one dimensional. Though the series does sometime fall victim to Inuyasha (filler) or Dragon Ball Z (Take forever to get anywhere) syndrome, it's never quite affected as badly, trust me.

As for the video games...well, I'm just glad they were made. If you ever wanted to know the story of an anime with the same story telling ability, but without all the filler and slow moving episodes...Rise of Ninja and Broken Bonds do just that. There are other games from the Naruto franchise, but from what I could tell they are mostly fighting games with some slight story element. I would definitely recommend this video game whether you have watched the anime or not. Even if you're not the biggest fan of Naruto, the video games 'Rise of Ninja' and 'Broken Bonds' have great game play, and the voice actors from the anime are brought in for the voice acting in this game too...and I mean all of them, both English and Japanese. You can actually choose whether you play the game with English dialogue, Japanese dialogue, English subtitles, no subtitles, etc...That stuff isn't too important to me, but I know it is to some people.

Anyway, the games are third person running around, puzzle solving, until you get to the fighting. As soon as you enter a fight into the real world, you enter a 3D fighting engine until the battle is over. Then you get to return back to admiring the scenery, and if you're like me....running around at full speed and jumping around a lot. The game play used for jumping from tree branch to tree branch was both kind of a surprise and kind of what you'd expect both in one. If you want anymore details you'll have to check it out for yourself...

Anyway, Naruto as a series definitely has a lot of potential, and make for pretty good video games. The anime definitely wasn't bad either. Naruto is obviously something I would recommend taking time to try out, believe it!

...I know...but some people might not have heard 'believe it' a thousand times yet....