Naruto: Ultimate Ninja is a good fighting game that fans of the series should definitely check out.

User Rating: 7.6 | Naruto: Narutimate Hero PS2
THE GOOD: Stylish cut scenes and visuals. Variety of items, moves and abilities.

THE BAD: Modest amount of characters. Uninteresting story mode.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja is an easy to get into fighting game that is worth giving a shot.

GAMEPLAY is good. The 14 playable characters all have special moves, jutsus and abilities. For example, Sasuke and Kakashi can use their Sharingan to copy people's techniques or Neji and Hinata can use their Byakugan to destroy chakra leaving their opponents defenseless. What's more every character controls differently making each very distinct.

Moreover, special items can be picked up during battles. Team assistance, windmill shurikens, and health recovery items can easily change the direction of the fight. Furthermore, every character has several cut scene activated moves that have devastating effects on the opponent if successful.

Furthermore, there are a ton of Naruto nuances that fans will recognize like being able to walk on water or walls and using a replacement jutsu to avoid oncoming attacks. It's quite impressive to see how true Ulitmate Ninja is to the series.

GRAPHICS are great. The cel shaded characters look very much like the anime/manga its based off of and everything is quite detailed. The cut scenes are filled with action and are very enjoyable to watch. The only bad thing about the graphics is the attention to background. Many of the background characters on levels are blurry and really look awful when compared to the actual characters fighting.

SOUND is good. The music helps make the battles exciting and the voice acting does a good job at livening things up. However, voice dialogue during the story mode would have given the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja more personality and for some odd reason the credits are completely devoid of any sound.

VALUE is decent. Many of the hidden characters are unlocked after completing the story mode. Afterwards, there are other things to unlock like video cut scenes, soundtracks, and things of that nature. However, the game is most enjoyable when battling against a friend in versus mode.

OVERALL Naruto: Ultimate Ninja is a good fighting game that has a lot of unique elements. It's most recommend for fans of the Naruto series, and those who like Ultimate Ninja should definitely check out the sequels as they have a more defined combat system and a vast amount of playable characters.