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Ah, Naruto. The story of a large group of ninjas who win fights thanks to friendship and the importance of protecting others. Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen is a fighting game series based off of the hit anime Naruto and is meant to deliver a fast, frenetic experience. The game is for the Nintendo Gamecube and is known in America as Naruto: Clash of Ninja

Fighting System: The Fighting System is simple to learn. The B button is your basic attack, the A button is for weapon/ranged attacks, the Y button is throw, and the X button is the special move. Fighting takes place in 3-d arenas, but the fighters can only move towards and away each other. The L and R buttons can be used to move around the arena, but other than that, it is essentially a 2-d fighter. There is a Special Gauge (Chakra), which fills up fairly quickly by hitting and getting hit.
The system is simple, and it works well.
Multiplayer is a simple fare, and 4 players are handled unexpectedly well. Each character has an arrow pointing at who they're focusing on. They can head in 2 dimensions in relation to who they're fighting, but can easily change their target. It may sound complicated based on how I describe it, but it really isn't.

Characters: If you've seen or read Naruto, you're aware of the sheer amount of diversity among the characters. The 4th in the series gives you options for about 30 characters, all from episodes up to 135. The characters not only look differently, but they also play differently. Obviously, people who use ranged attacks primarily (Tenten, Sakura) play differently from those who are primarily melee (Naruto, Lee), but even people who are of a similar style (Ranged, Mid-range, Melee) play differently. Naruto can use his clones as ranged attacks, while Lee can only attack from up close.

Graphics: The cel-shaded graphics provide an animated look for this game. It's a pretty effect. One small complaint is that ometimes objects like hair go straight through things that hair doesn't usually go through, such as clothing and body parts. A minor complaint on a whole.

Sound: The music is unimpressive, but I'm not expecting a score in a fighting game. The characters are voice acted, and they're done well. A small nitpick is it sounds like a small dog is whining whenever a character gets slashed by a kunai or a sword.

Conclusion: It's a fun game. If you can import it and are willing to, by all means, import it. It's not wasted money. However, if you don't want to import it, pick up a copy of Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 when it's released this summer/fall. The first one doesn't have 4 player support and it only has 9 characters. Number 2 has 4 player and at least twice the characters.