This game is what the first ultimate ninja heroes should've been as it is pretty much a translation from the japanese...
Unlike the first ultimate ninja heroes game this time the game has a story mode, the mugenjo, wich is a castle summoned by Orochimaru to drain all the life force from the Hidden Leaf Village people.
The mugenjo is a lenghty adventure where you have to advance a hundred flors going upwards to face Orochimaru and save the Village from this threat.
While in the mugenjo there are many rooms per floor wich you need to clear in order to go further, rooms are cleared by chosing one of the different minigames (scrolls) the game has. They are: a Fight encounter, a climbing trees challenge, a quiz challenge, a slot machine challenge, a shadow jutsu challenge and a shadow clone challenge.
I really liked the minigames, don't know why gamespot says otherwise, maybe because you need to be a fan of the series in order to appreciate them.
One thing to notice about the characters in the game is that now their secret tecnique they perform is the best attack they know, like naruto uses the kyuubi cloak and does rasengan, or sasuke uses chidori while on the second stage of the cursed mark.
Another thing to notice is that most of the charaters combos have changed, they are more powerful now.
Then again, is what ultimate heroes 1 should've been, so, it is a game worth playing and very enjoyable if you're fan of the series like myself