Naruto: Rise of a Ninja is incredibly ambitious because it endeavors to combine three distinct types of game into one distilled experience. For the most part, it succeeds famously by providing a vast open-world exploration hook in the winding streets and alleys of Konoha Village (Naruto's hometown), a reasonably nuanced character progression to act as a role-playing element and a responsive and engaging fighting game. Essentially, Rise of a Ninja draws elements from three different genres into one game, and tethers it all together with the Naruto license. Somehow, it all works.