Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2, known in Japan as, is the second instalment of the fighting game series Naruto: Ultimate Ninja released for the Playstation 2.

Gameplay
It features a similar gameplay experience to Naruto: Ultimate Ninja, featuring many of the same gameplay elements and geography. Some characters have been fused together, so the player must use a special jutsu to activate them, such as Sasuke with his Cursed Seal. The game also features an RPG-esque story mode, the first half from the series, the second being an added story arc that takes place between the Search for Tsunade and the Sasuke Recovery Mission. In this arc, Orochimaru has Kabuto use a technique called the Forbidden Technique: Gedō Seal to seal Kakashi's Sharingan. Orochimaru then starts his second invasion on Konoha and uses Summoning: Impure World Resurrection to bring back Zabuza, Haku, and the Third Hokage. It feature 31 playable characters in the Japanese version.

Playable Characters
Parenthesis indicate a character's Awakening Mode.

Trivia

 * Should one begin a new game using a memory card that has a Naruto: Ultimate Ninja save file, the player will receive 340 Ninja Info Cards and 50,000 ryō as bonus.
 * Naruto encounters the inner version of himself in the game, similar to Dark Naruto, shown nearly eight years later in the series.
 * Depending on who they fight, characters have special intro and win phrases against certain opponents, such as Naruto vs Sasuke. This was not featured in the first game.
 * Many reviews had criticized the massive difficulty level of harder CPU levels in the game and that some of the controls, such as timing substitution jutsus, were nearly impossible, as compared to its prequel.
 * Although the game retains the command feature where players input the correct buttons for Ultimate Jutsus, the game also adds the Mash and Spin feature. Mash will determine if the technique succeeds or fails depending on who mashes the button input the fastest, while Spin requires the players to spin the analog stick as fast as they can. However, certain Ultimate Jutsus are locked with a certain input command. For example, Naruto's red and purple Ultimate Jutsus are Command, but his Blue Ultimate is Spin.
 * Certain characters in the game, such as Kabuto, Shizune, and Taijutsu Naruto, do not have Ultimate Jutsus. Instead, if they connect with the technique, they will enter into a "special mode" where they have certain enhanced stats or their opponents have certain decreased stats.