Ninja boy Naruto from the popular Japanese manga comic book and anime cartoon, is embarking on a new PSP adventure. When a mysterious floating castle suddenly appears over the Hidden Leaf Village and threatens to destroy it, it’s up to Naruto and his allies to venture into the fortress of illusion and put a stop to evil.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress on PSP is a one on one fighting game. Even though the graphics are 3-D, you move on a 2-D plane, but you can jump from the foreground to the background. Play mechanics are kept simple as you use one button to attack, one to jump, one to block, one for throwing stars, and one for special ‘chakra’ attacks. Even so, the action is fast and sometimes confusing, and pretty challenging even on the easiest settings.

Pick your favorite character and fight against the CPU, or challenge a nearby friend who has a PSP and copy of the game with wireless mode. New to the sequel is “Mugenjo Mode” or basically, Story Mode, which brings in some RPG elements. In this mode, you explore the different rooms of the Phantom Fortress. But since the castle is an illusion, you have to use special scrolls to decide what will be in the next room.

Sometimes it’s a battle. Other times you’ll play a mini game. Some of the mini games are fun, like running up a 3-D tree, ninja style, and avoiding any branches. But some aren’t quite as fun, like the slot machine or trivia game. Let me tell you, you have to be a TOTAL Naruto buff to get any of those questions right! Use items to heal your party and find secret rooms, and after every successful battle and mini game you earn points which unlock artwork and other Naruto fan goodies.

The visuals really benefit from the PSP’s bright, sharp screen, as the colorful graphics look just like the cartoon. All the voice actors from the cartoon are present in the game as well. I don’t know how you fans can stand Naruto’s English voice, though. He’s so annoying. Luckily the makers of the game realized this and allow you to switch from English to Japanese voices in the options menu. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2 is a somewhat decent fighter, but probably only die-hard fans will get the most out of the game.

Kid Factor:
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2 is rated T for Teen because of Cartoon Violence, Crude Humor, Mild Suggestive Themes, and Simulated Gambling. The gambling part comes from the slot machine mini-game. The crude humor and mild suggestive themes are campy harmless quips from the text and are no worse than what’s in the cartoon. Even though the game is all about fighting, it’s all cartoony and there is no blood. Reading skill is helpful, but most of the text is followed by the characters’ voices anyway. Even though it’s rated T for Teen, I would let kids younger than teenagers play the game if it’s OK for them to watch the cartoon

Tags: Game Reviews