Military.com Game Review: Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2

Valerie Gorchinski - Military.com

Jan 08, 2008

Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2

Platform: PS2

Genre: Fighter

When I received Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2 for review, I had no clue what Naruto was. I was able to figure out pretty quickly from the box that it was an anime series; I was also able to figure out that it was a fighting game in the vein of Mortal Kombat, DOA and Soul Calibur. Even though I had zero background on the cartoon itself, I had plenty of background in the game genre.

I popped the disc into my PS2 and sat down for a button mashing good time. After a thoroughly confusing, although interesting looking cell shaded 3-d intro I arrived at the main menu where I chose the "ultimate road" game mode. Queue more cut scenes. I really couldn't tell if the cut scenes were terribly written or if the game designers just assumed that I've seen every episode of Naruto ever made, but I certainly had no idea what was going on except that Naruto is the main character (the word "main" used very loosely) in the extremely anime looking orange jump suit. After the cut scene ended I found myself in a fight against someone who may or may not have been Naruto's trainer.

Nonsensical cut scenes bookend all the fights which have individual goals that the player must meet in order to progress to the next fight. These range in difficulty from "kill the other guy" to "kill the other guy using the super secret Naruto attack that we won't tell you how to use." All of the basic fighting game commands are available to you -- jump, block, attack. Each character also has some sort of throwing weapon (shuriken, multiple shuriken, heat seeking shuriken) and a "chakra charge" that makes you glow pretty colors and sometimes launches you into a mini game, if the game feels like it. Like any other button masher, different combinations of buttons in the proper order with the proper timing and a sprinkling of magical button mashing fairy dust will make the characters do special moves. These are sometimes helpful and sometimes seem to do nothing more than launch a cut scene in the middle of the fight.

The complete and utter lack of a tutorial in the game was, for me, its ultimate downfall. If I'm supposed to kill the enemy using "level 3 secret technique" it would be nice for the game to at the very least hint at how I'm supposed to go about doing that. It was fun for a little while, but unless you're a fan of the anime series and you played the first Ultimate Ninja game, at least 90 percent of the game will be lost on you. While it is a well designed game with a decent look to it, I am really irritated that the game assumes the player is a huge Naruto fan with extensive story knowledge and full understanding of the first game.

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