Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja is the first instalment of the Ultimate Ninja series released for the Playstation 2.

Gameplay
The game features a unique battle system with special attacks and various techniques that can be used. It also features several items, like kunai and shuriken. There are many multi-layered stages from around the Naruto universe, including Sunagakure, the Chūnin Exams arena, and the Forest of Death. In the original Japanese version, there were only 12 characters; however, Namco Bandai 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, Namco Bandai 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.

Story
The Story Mode consists of up to six battles divided by some dialogue in a manga style display. It loosely covers the events from Land of Waves Arc to Konoha Crush Arc.

The game's twelve stories are meant to depict the events from different characters' perspectives and as the result some of them deviates from the original source (such as Neji become the winner in match against Naruto).

Reception
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 comic book feel and stylish cell-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.

Support-Only Characters

 * Shino Aburame
 * Temari
 * Tenten
 * Might Guy
 * Asuma Sarutobi
 * Iruka Umino
 * Kabuto Yakushi

Trivia

 * Every character in the game has three ultimates they can choose from. The colour chakra that covers the character represents how much chakra it takes: Red = 1, Purple = 2, and Blue = 3. However, Nine-tailed Naruto and Curse Marked Sasuke only have the ability to do Blue ultimates.
 * Jutsu are done with pressing a certain direction button two times with the attack button. Most jutsu in the game are attacking, but some characters like Kakashi, Haku, Shikamaru, and Neji have counter jutsu, in which they need to be attacked in order to use their jutsu.
 * Unlike its future Storm successors, running on water costs chakra; if the player does not have enough chakra, they will fall through the water on stages where it is available, and will be treated just like if they fell off the stage.
 * Although Nine-Tailed Naruto and Curse Marked Sasuke are very powerful in the game, they have been given big disadvantages compared to the other characters. Nine-Tailed Naruto is unable to use any items he picks up, meaning he cannot use support or battle items. Curse Marked Sasuke gradually loses health over time, but stops when he only has ten percent left.
 * In one of Sakura's ultimates, she actually uses one of Kurenai's genjutsu techniques as her attack, the same Kurenai used when she fought Itachi in Konoha.