Naruto Shippūden: Gekitō Ninja Taisen! EX

is the fifth instalment of the Japanese-exclusive Gekitō Ninja Taisen series. This game was also the first Gekitō Ninja Taisen game to be released for the Nintendo Wii as well as the first entry into the EX sub-series.

Gameplay
The game uses the Wii Remote in unison with the Nunchuk by waving the controller in different directions, but the GameCube controller and the Wii Classic controller can be used with the game as well. Also new to the system are plane switches, where characters after hitting their opponents with a hard flying attack force them out via a cinematic, where they rush after them to a new area of the stage. During this time, the one who sent the foe flying can either chose to do nothing and let them fall to the ground in the new area, teleport behind them to give them even fair ground in landing, attack them or teleport out of sight and behind them in the new area to open them up to combos via a ground bounce from a fall. However, the one sent flying with proper timing in response to the pursuer can counter these actions by dodging or recovering, making it a bit of a Quick-Time Event. This function becomes a mainstay for the whole Wii sub series of the Gekitō Ninja Taisen/Clash of Ninja series.

Also new and part of the mainstay are objects on the arena where characters can move next to in order to hide behind. Doing so they can perform one of their many attacks after slipping out of cover, hop over the object to assault the foe with midair attacks, or simply dodge away from the object. Both players can hide behind the same object, and they can be damaged and broken, leaving the hiding character in a stagger if they are happening to be hiding behind one of them. Characters can also knock each other into the objects with attacks for a "wallbounce" effect seen in more traditional fighters.

The game takes place during the Naruto: Shippūden series, specifically the first ten episodes of the Kazekage Rescue Mission. The game contains re-done Shippūden versions of 12 characters from the previous games in the series and two new characters specifically from the Shippūden series.

Trivia

 * Iruka's Japanese voice acts as the announcer in this game, which oddly enough carries over to the localized Revolution 3 with his English voice, and to Special.
 * Said announcer voice in Japanese however, also applies to the European version of Revolution 3.
 * As of this game, clashed attacks now count as whiffed-attacks, meaning that entire combo strings clashing against each other can no longer occur.
 * Also, weapon attacks now make a metallic clunking sound when they are blocked.
 * Akin to Gekitō Ninja Taisen! 4, the Valley of the End in this game is different via the original extra rock-platform at the top of the waterfall's centre being the primary battlefield. However, the stage takes place while it is raining, and the extra background waterfall is somewhat taller, less distant from the background, and the mountain backing the extra waterfall is also taller.
 * The extra transition of this stage also takes place on a single shallow rock-platform at the very bottom of the highest waterfall's base, akin to the original battlefield in the original source material. This version of the stage and its transition carryover to all other Wii games, and in the US as of Revolution 2.