Parents' Guide to NARUTO X BORUTO NINJA VOLTAGE

This is a fun, family-friendly time-killer if mobile's all you have, but it suffers by comparison to Naruto games on console with its resource and energy limitations. Sure, in Naruto X Boruto Ninja Voltage, there are aspects of the sprawling, quirky Naruto universe. Much of this is shown through numerous obscure story references and the fun frog-themed Summoning mechanism, but if you're unfamiliar with the Naruto saga, you could be confused by events. Also, there's a good amount of repetition built into the story mode, and the app's solution to it is an Autoplay button that lets you stare slack-jawed while the game plays itself. Because of that, there's little sense of accomplishment in progressing through, since it's mostly tapping buttons and watching the numbers tick up.

On the upside, combat is fun if you take the time to do it yourself, and hero collecting and upgrading is seriously complex. The latter requires equipping your heroes, choosing their abilities, "awakening" them, evolving them -- role-playing fans will likely have a ball. Special limited-time events give you the chance to earn special heroes and resources, and multiplayer co-op missions let you take on bigger enemies with three other players. Finally, the app is quite beautiful, and the graphics and sound do justice to both previous Naruto games and the Naruto anime. All told, this is a solid means of whetting your Naruto appetite, but for real satisfaction, you'll have to go back to your console.