Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2

"Mash X 54 times! Twirl analog 28 times!"

Like a dangan!! BANG!

Before I begin, I'd like to say that the anime, Naruto I have ever seen. I have to say it's the perfect shonen(boy-teen) anime. Action, comedy, drama, and little romance. Perfect in any sense. Well... a little bit more romance would help. Now forget my random rambling and lets continue the game. Now this game is a 3D fighting game, but more anime-esque. I really don't know how to explain it, please go get a screen shot or go see. This game is perfect for fighting game fans. And I speak as a fighting game fan not as a Naruto fan. This game is perfect for tournaments and so on and so on.

GAMEPLAY

AH! The gem of the game! Now, this is not your average fighting game. The buttons are basic. Throw weapons, jump, melee, and super. Learn these basics and you can become a total master. You can have little tournaments with your friends, train against the computer and become even better! Although some of the jutsus are the same combos, they all deal the different affects, like Kakashi's 1000 year's of pain. Learning all of this may take a while, but it will, help you in this game.

SOUND

Before I begin this section, I would like to say that I love the opening music by Flow. It fits perfectly, and its so action climatic. The sound is excellent. Now not as good as the anime but makes you want to keep fighting. However, the story music is much, MUCH better than the Versus music. But.... the voice actors are terrific. All of are from the anime. Each and everyone of them. Even the villagers have voice actors. Smart move Cyberconnect2.

STORY

Well, if you played this game you know the story. If you just played this game because you think it'd be good well then... I'd just go thinking this game is fun. The story is terrific, it's just this game is in Japanese. This game semi-follows the plot of the anime so there's no much spoilers there. If you want to know what this game is about, I kindly suggest you go watch the anime or read the manga.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are beautiful in every essence. The story cutscenes are beautiful and well animated and it almost feels like the anime. The super cutscenes even feel more anime-esque. And the stages and characters feel as if you're playing them in the anime. Beautifully down Cyberconnect2, beautifully done. Now the backgrounds of the stages may feel weird, but it's only because of the stage. Yes, that made no sense whatsoever.

REPLAY

Excellent, excellent replay value. Now when you beat the game, you could get two hidden characters. Two of which I heard are very hard to get. You could hunt for jutsus to customize all your characters. You could stat train your characters. Meaning it would max them out making your characters more powerful. You could also try to gain money to buy everything from Jiraiya's store. And that would take a while. And that's not the end of it, there is always versus mode. A mode in which you can fight a computer... and of course your friend. What you could do after you beat the game is endless, endless possibilities.

OVERALL

My rambling goes on and on and on. But this is the end of it. Great gameplay, great sound, good story (if you watched the anime and/or manga) good graphics, and good replay value. So in a whole, this of course equals a great game in my opinion. Now, when you play it, your opinion may be different from mine, but that's alright because you got to try this game. As long as you try that's all that matters! This the end, so if you've been reading my review or skimming it, please, please try this game. Your mind and soul will thank you.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/05