Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

is the first installment of the Ultimate Ninja series released for the Playstation 2. The game was released on October 23, 2003 in Japan, June 26, 2006 in North America, November 17, 2006 in Australia, and November 30, 2006 in Europe.

The game features a unique battle system with special attacks and various jutsu that can be used. A spoiler was revealed in this game that features Neji's Eight Trigrams 128 Palms technique which is from the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. It also features several items, like kunai and shuriken. There are many multi-layered stages from around the Naruto universe, including the Hidden Sand Village, the Chūnin exams arena, and the Forest of Death. In the original Japanese version, there were only 12 characters; however, NamcoBandai has added the ability to select both Cursed Seal Sasuke and Nine-tailed Naruto as bonus characters. Although both of these characters were already in the Japanese version as transformations, NamcoBandai has separated them into separate characters. Due to this, both Naruto and Sasuke have lost their ability to transform into their advanced modes during battle. This is much like the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 transformation system. The game also features an arcade style story mode. The Story Mode consists of up to six battles divided by some dialogue in a manga style display, one of many homages to its source material.

Critical reception has been mixed, ranging from mediocre to somewhat high ratings. G4's X-Play gave Ultimate Ninja a three out of five for a creative comicbook feel and stylish cel-shaded graphics, but complained that the controls are too simple and the English voices are "slightly questionable." Both IGN and GameSpot say that the game is easy, yet fun, to play, and praise the anime/manga-inspired graphics.

Playable characters

 * Naruto Uzumaki
 * Nine-Tailed Naruto
 * Sasuke Uchiha
 * Cursed Marked Sasuke
 * Gaara
 * Sakura Haruno
 * Haku
 * Hinata Hyūga
 * Kakashi Hatake
 * Neji Hyūga
 * Orochimaru
 * Rock Lee
 * Shikamaru Nara
 * Zabuza Momochi