Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 is perhaps one of the best PlayStation 2 fighting games I've ever played, however there are some parts in the game where it falls flat on its face. Under a guise of 3D it's actually a pretty linear fighting arena with only two stages to it, up and down, where the players can navigate between the two by jumping and pressing a directional button in the direction of the other part of the battleground. Ranged attacks could hit the other players through this and overall while it is interesting it gets incredibly repetitive extremely quickly.
The graphics are cartoony which suits it and the voice actoring is fine, although the story of the single player mode seems to narrate a lot more than give you action which, from a fighting game is something amazing.
Combat is easy because all you have to do is repeatedly hit the circle button and occassionally jump attacking or using Secret Techniques with the ex and triangle buttons respectively, with the square button being the one to tap rapidly in order to kill someone who won't quit defending because the controls aren't intuitive enough to know when you're trying to initiate a grab movement. There's three various kinds of Secret Technique; Analog stick waggling, button mashing and combo-joining, and despite this the Technique sequences actally look pretty decent if you can stop trying to be serious about a game.
But generally, though I'm not a fan of fighting games I enjoy Narultimate Ninja 2 because it's a game where you can pick up a play, and unless you play against someone who has vast stores more knowledge than you do then you should be fine while playing and overall it gives a friendly user base so that everyone is on the same level, even though some people will be better at certain points in the game, and some characters are different to the others and play differently, even if the game is largely about button mashing the circle button.
It also adds more to the Naruto storyline after Orochimaru fails to get Tsunade to heal his arms and before he gets the Sound Four to get Sasuke to join him, which I suppose is kind of cool but doesn't really add much to a player who isn't a Naruto fan, but then again I suppose you wouldn't even be playing the game if you weren't a Naruto fan.
