Just about everyone who is a fan of manga and anime knows about the yellow haired, hyperactive, ninja named Naruto and his friends of Leaf Village. Naruto has become one of the most popular cartoons over the past little while. With a previous success in manga comics and with game releases on the GameCube and GBA, it was only a matter of time before the orange clad half-pint made his way to the Playstation 2. Following the storyline from the cartoon, Naruto and his pals take their own paths throughout the game on their way to become the Hokage, the head ninja of the village. Being that there has been a recent release of some rather mediocre fighting games based on anime cartoons, would Naruto: Ultimate Ninja be anything different or share the same fate as just another unnecessary title to make some money off its loyal fans? Fortunately, Naruto does stand head and shoulders above other anime based fighting games and brings a new element to fighting games in general.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja allows you to initially take the role of six characters; Sakura, Naruto, Sauke, Lee, Kakashi and Shikamaru, to play through their each individual stories in the Scenario Mode and learn more about each character and their role in the Hidden Village. Each story lasts for six battles and ends with a final showdown that allows you to unlock a hidden character that can be used in all modes once the storyline is complete with a total of 8 characters that can be unlocked. For each battle, you also earn experience and Ryo’s that can be used in the store to purchase power-ups for use in battle as well as game items such as sound clips and figures. There are a few types of gameplay to be played through aside from the main Scenario Mode, and each offers a challenge to keep your fingers moving. Mission Mode allows you to complete various objectives in a set number of fights in a series of missions to earn experience. Objectives can range from having to finish the fight in a certain amount of time, with a certain amount of health or with a certain object in your possession. Each mission varies and each becomes more and more difficult as you work your way up the ranks. Free Battle lets you fight who you want, with who you want, against the CPU or a friend, and Practice mode is pretty self explanatory for those wanting to sharpen heir skills.

The gameplay of Naruto is where the game really shines through. Although it is in general, like most fighters out there already, it does bring some unique twists to the fundamentals that hopefully other games in the future will follow. When you square off against your opponent, you use your special techniques to attack and with quite a few at your disposal, none of them are all that intense to pull off. Most special moves follow the same set of button presses, whether it is three presses, then down or up, or two button presses and so forth. Each character also has knives and stars they can use, although they are pretty much useless except for stunning an enemy for a second or two. Much more powerful than the seemingly wimpy attacks, each player has a secret technique that they can unleash if they can manage to get a hit in while they are powered up and if they have enough Chakra. If they do, a scene of the attack will play and you will need to enter a series of button presses corresponding to what is shown on the screen. Depending on how powerful the attack is, the more sets of button presses you will need to enter. While you are doing this, the opponent can also enter their set of button presses to make the damage less lethal. These attacks are great to pull off and you’ll kick yourself when you mess them up and laugh when your opponent does the same. Fortunately, you can also pick up more Chakra during the fight to refill your meter to give yourself a second chance.

Around the battlefield each player will have support characters that are watching the fight and will toss out power-ups to you and your opponents. When one is tossed out for you, you can grab it and have extra attacks like shurikens or a tag team attack from your support character that will bring them in for a few quick hits. You can also pick up power-ups that allow you to increase your attack speed, slow the opponent down, turn invisible and a whole lot more. When the icon appears letting you know that a power-up is available, you can grab it if it is yours, but if it is your opponents, you can strike the support character to make the power-up disappear before the other player grabs it. As well you can find a large amount of items on each level that you can break open to find rewards such as health increases and other nifty treats which can make the battles last quite a while.

Aside from the power-ups that get tossed to you, you can also use the environment to your advantage as well. Every battleground is multi-tiered, some as many as three or four levels that you can jump or drop to reach, to get away from your opponent or to set up a strike while drawing them to you. You can even change the entire battleground and jump to another mid-way through the fight when the opportunity arises. Some environments have objects that will hurt you during the fight, like the Forest of Death that has a giant snake that will slink around the trees and attack whoever gets in its way, the Lookout Tower that has a large statue head that breathes fire, hurting anything that wanders in its direction and some levels that don’t hurt you physically, but rather impede your play, like Kikyo Castle, where the wind is your biggest threat since it can mess up any attack you may have planned out when it gusts up and pushes you back.

All in all, Naruto is a fresh and inspired fighting game to play, whether you are a fan of the series or not. The special attacks used are not all that difficult to pull off and the secret techniques are a nice twist to the gameplay, as are the support characters and power-ups. It is a great looking game, with nice cel shaded cartoon graphics that make you wonder at times if it is a 2D fighter or a 3D fighter. The voice acting of each character is top notch although Naruto’s little catch phrase may have you wanting to wring his neck in a matter of minutes. The Naruto series has finally made its way to the Playstation 2 in North America and thankfully it’s done it in style. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja is a winner for fans of the cartoon and fans of fighting games in general. Believe it!