The second Ultimate Ninja game is even better than the first. I was actually surprised by how much they put into it. First I’d like to talk about the roster. The roster is greatly improved, and there are way more ninjas, including characters like Itachi and Tsunade. And even though it went up to the Gaara saga in the last game, it didn’t have characters like Temari who are now in the game. The roster is a huge improvement, but a thing I don’t like about them is a large percentage of them are the same characters, but in a new form. Naruto has two different forms (Nine-Tailed Naruto and Taijutsu Naruto) both of which aren’t necessary, especially since now Nine-Tailed Naruto can be accessed while playing as Naruto. Cursed Mark Sasuke isn’t the only one either, there is now Byakugan Hinata and Anbu Kakashi. These characters are so unnecessary, and I don’t mind extra characters, but this is like a free ticket to display you have more characters than you actually have. The roster is an improvement, but still not as good as it could have been if the unneeded characters were replaced with real ones that were wanted. Next I’d like to talk about the simple combat. The combat is actually really improved. The clutter of way to much around the screen is gone, and the camera now looks a little closer so you see what your doing easier. The supers are now up to date and improved, and finding all three supers of each character is always fun. It improves while also not a complete copy and paste job, and I can see they tweaked it to be more fun. The support characters also have a better system because you can now choose between different support characters, whereas the last game I was confused who’s support character was who. (When I fought Sakura with Sasuke is a good example) That’s now completely fixed. Also each character has there own type of mode where there attacks are just brutal. Most characters have an "ultimate mode” while the others have ones based of the show like Naruto’s Nine Tails powers and Sasuke’s curse mark. The gameplay is improved, but did not get a complete makeover, which I feel is probably the best thing they could have done with it. After that is the story. The story is probably the biggest improvement. It goes from right before the final Chunin exam past the Tsunade arc, and keeps going into a filler arc made for the game where Orochimaru actually almost takes over the village and almost gets his arms healed. The story is no longer a boring arcade themed, but more RPG like and you can walk around the villages and find little mini games and events happening. And the story they made just for this game was bad ass, that was probably the most fun part of this game to me. The story was much more fulfilling, and the cut scenes were actually fun to watch while in the last game it was just bearable. The story mode is by far the best improvement. There is also a mission mode like the last game, but it’s integrated with the story mode so you activate missions by walking around. To be honest I felt the last game’s mission mode was better, and I’d prefer if they hadn’t messed with it. I just don’t like that I have to walk around so much even if the map is small, and I feel it’s not as quick money making paced. Not a huge downer but certainly one of the bigger problems of the game. Speaking of money there is again the shop mode complete with a huge ass collection. When I fired the game up I actually was given fifty thousand bucks and a ton of cards just for playing Ultimate Ninja 1. That was definitely a nice bonus. The shop I feel is better, as you now can buy whatever you want and no longer have to get a blank card from that stupid ass machine again. I spend all my money on ninja cards, and I actually got them all. The collection I actually think got smaller, but now your getting wasted material, your getting your moneys worth, and in the end both the collection and shop I feel are improved. Saving money feels more worth it, and you feel like you want to stay in the game world a bit more. Anyway are there problems? Fuck yeah. Again the useless characters, the poorer mission mode, and of course there’s still some Japanese guy yelling out "YO!” every time you touch something. But ultimately nothing really was terrible. It’s a great game, I love it. But usually game’s like the DBZ games on PS2 which I’d also give eights probably I remember having more fun with, but I feel this game would be robbed if I gave it anything less than an eight. It’s not a bitching good time worth of fun but it’s enjoyable and can be looked back on fondly. It’s a huge improvement from the first game, and I honestly don’t think I could go back after playing this. It lives up to the last game and improves, and I would recommend it to any Naruto fan, gamer or not. It’s a fun game and definitely worth getting to those who played the last one. With all the Naruto reviews I’ve been doing I feel whatever Naruto game comes next will be ever better, hopefully I’m right.
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 gets a 4/5
Badges
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 gets THE CHARACTER BADGE
Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2 gets THE "CREATIVITY" BADGE
