Alright. As you know, I'm far from a fan of the Naruto series. I don't enjoy the anime (though I used to) and I don't read the manga, I can say for certain that I do like the videogame series. The Ultimate Ninja series is a very solid fighting game, though it slightly differs from most traditional fighters. It keeps in line with the main theme of the Naruto franchise allowing you to do jutsu, transform, and the like.

The second entry in the Ultimate Ninja series, Ultimate Ninja 2 gives much more playable characters, unlockable costumes, stages, as well as being able to buy various pictures from the anime itself inside the game for a photo gallery you can browse. Not only this, but with the addition of a free-roam mode in which you can explore The Leaf Village in greater detail as well as the Village in the Sand, the Land of Wind and Tanzaku Town. Found within these areas may be normal NPCs, challenges, missions, or someone who can teach you a new Jutsu. Exploration in this game was probably my favorite part of this game, amongst the other things I'll list here.

Graphics: 8/10. Okay, you know I dig the artstyle that's going on here. Everything is shaded and drawn as if it were a manga (for the most part, some areas are not) and that is an amazing aesthetic that I definitely wish I could see in more games. The model detail, animation, and just the fact that everything is so colorful is what I love so much about it. Moreover the leaf village is incredibly beautiful in this style and it's even greater when you can explore it in free roam. It compliments this game well and I don't think it would be fitting in many other games.

Sound: 8/10. Now I know what'll occur here. The argument "subs over dubs" and whatnot, but I want to honestly say that the voice acting here isn't that bad. The dub is fairly decent and there's nothing to really complain about. As far as I know they use the same actors for the anime which makes it more authentic, too. As far as the music goes, ooh boy is this a good soundtrack. A lot of the music is really catchy and while it doesn't always have some intense theme playing in battle, it uses plenty of wood flutes and I think even a shamisen at one point, which really fits the mood regardless of what's going on. A few of my favorite songs in particular are probably the minigame theme, the character select screen and Tanzaku Town. I don't normally listen to music like this, but I'll definitely make an exception here.

Addictiveness: 8/10. Well frankly, I doubt I have to explain this much, but beating the dip out of various anime characters can be quite satisfying and addictive. With that in mind, the game is quite long, there's plenty of characters to long, and it's just fun to explore and even just to spend hours playing minigames. With the inclusion of customability, you can create plenty of strategies and figure out how everything works. And especially considering there's a versus mode, who wouldn't want to play this for hours against that one guy you enjoy being better than? Sound logic to me.

Story: 6/10. For the most part the story follows the main story in the anime, which portrays the events of the leaf village destruction and the death of the third hokage. Afterwards you get into the part with the fourth hokage and Tanzaku town, and after that it goes off the deepend with some sort of non-canon thing called the Gedo Mark arc, which makes absolutely no sense. Personally that was my least favorite part of the game, but whatever. The long and short of it is that the game goes by the original plot for most of it, which is pretty okay I guess.

Depth: 8/10. Hey guys! A fighter game, BUT WITH DEPTH! That's right, this game actually has a surprising amount of depth. Along having a fairly long story mode, the exploration factor of the freeroam, the sidequests involving unlocking things, the minigames and such, there's also the customization of Jutsu that you can learn from other people, the training of stats, and plenty of things to buy from the store. But that's not all, you can also do missions for money or just for the fun. I don't remember how many missions, but I'd have to say it's a good amount ranging from easy to downright impossible. I've spent way too much time on this game in the past.

Difficulty: 6/10. An average difficulty really, a lot of the game is pretty simple if you don't have any restrictions. Unfortunately, various rules apply to certain fights and missions, and it's not always easy to finish them. Moreover the missions get even crazier with the rules to create some incredible challenges. Depending on what you're going for it's both easy and hard, but if you're going for completion you'll probably have a difficult time, especially if you're not too familiar with a lot of fighters.

Overall: 8/10. This is a really good fighter and has been one of my longtime favorites to play, especially against my brother. At one point we were so good that half of the time the timer ran out and we had to do it all over again. I'd like to play it again sometime if he's not busy. Needless to say, this is a pretty great game and a pretty great multiplayer game as well. Even if you don't necessarily like Naruto or anime in its entirety, you'll probably find an appreciation for this game.