Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja, known in Japan as the Naruto: Narutimate Series (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ ナルティメットシリーズ), is a series of fighting video games, based on the popular manga and anime series Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto, for the PlayStation 2. They were developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai and later Namco Bandai Games. It was followed by four more titles for the PlayStation 2, as well as five spinoffs for the PlayStation Portable, and a follow-up title for the PlayStation 3 entitled Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm. While starting out as a series exclusive to the PlayStation family of systems, the series has also been present on Xbox devices since the release of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 for the Xbox 360.

Gameplay
In the Ultimate Ninja Series line, the player controls one of the characters within the Naruto anime and manga. The simple goal is to fight the opposing character and to win by reducing their health to zero. Along with the various weapons available to the characters also have their various special abilities taken straight from the series (Naruto Uzumaki's Rasengan (螺旋丸) or Sasuke Uchiha's Chidori (千鳥), for example). To use these attacks, however, the player must have the required chakra as indicated by the "chakra bars" located under the players health. Using the technique drains the chakra bar (which can be regained through various methods, including special, character specific methods for some characters). These special techniques are not performed in real-time, however; once successfully executed, a cinematic takes place, where the player either has to fill a bar to a specific level or hit buttons illustrated in the corner of the screen faster than their opponent to assure the attack is at its full strength. All characters can use the substitution jutsu, although some characters use different versions (two variants of Substitution exist; one which evades normal attacks, and another which begins a tug-of-war like minigame after juggling an opponent). Also, some characters have specific transformations available to them (such as Sasuke's Curse Mark of Heaven with the right amount of chakra or, in the later games, by successfully executing their special technique). The first two games of the Ultimate Ninja series let players execute three different secret technique attacks using three different Chakra levels (red, purple, and blue, in order of weakest to strongest), two different signature techniques, and a wide variety of kicks and punches. However, in Ultimate Ninja 3, players are only allowed to use one secret technique attack, besides the other attacks and techniques. To compensate for this, players will be allowed to select the secret technique of their choice before each battle, but not all secret techniques will be made available at the start of the game. Different secret techniques must be obtained through story mode and completing missions.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja, known in Japan as Naruto: Narutimate Hero (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ ナルティメットヒーロー), is the first installment of the Ultimate Ninja series. It is now a Greatest Hits title. The game was released on October 23, 2003 in Japan, June 23, 2006 in Europe, June 26, 2006 in North America, and November 17, 2006 in Australia.

There are special techniques and jutsus that can be used. Some characters feature the ability to activate special mode by inflicting the special techniques which enhances their status and gives them new abilities. It also features several items, like shuriken and kunai. There are many multi-layered stages from around the Naruto universe, including the Hidden Leaf Village, the Chunin Exam arena, and the Forest of Death. The game also uses support characters such as Naruto's support being Iruka, or Sasuke's support being Kakashi Hatake. The game features an arcade style story mode. Although the game loosely covers the events in the original manga from the Introduction arc up to the Invasion of Konoha 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 being declared the winner in his fight with Naruto). Each stories consist of up to six battles divided by dialogues in a manga style display, one of many homages to its source material.

In the original Japanese version, there were only 12 characters; however, Namco Bandai has added the ability to separately select both the Curse Mark Sasuke and Nine-Tailed Naruto as bonus characters in the North American and European versions. As these characters were already available in the Japanese version as transformations (of Sasuke and Naruto respectively), both of these characters have lost the ability to transform into their stronger versions during battle. The original Japanese transformation would later served as the ground up for the transformations in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2, known in Japan as Naruto: Narutimate Hero 2 (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ ナルティメットヒーロー２), is the second installment of the fighting game series Naruto: Ultimate Ninja. Like some other Naruto games in Japan, this one was available in two covers: one featuring Naruto Uzumaki along with several different characters in the background, and the other with Sasuke Uchiha and several other characters. The game was released on September 30, 2004 in Japan, June 13, 2007 in North America, and October 19, 2007 in Europe.

Ultimate Ninja 2 features a similar gameplay experience to Ultimate Ninja, featuring many of the same gameplay elements and geography. The game replaces the arcade-style story mode from the original game with an RPG-esque story mode that loosely covers the events up to episode 96 in the anime as well as a filler arc made up for the game involving a special seal made by Orochimaru. This is the last game to feature support characters until Ultimate Ninja 5 as they were excluded in Ultimate Ninja 3. This time, the support characters are no longer fixed and all characters in the game have the ability to become support characters.

There is a total of 32 characters featured in the game (33 in the Japanese version with the inclusion of Doto Kazahana as a promotion for the movie Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow. The promotion also include two stages from the movie that were not included in the overseas version). All characters have the ability to activate special modes during battle (unlike the original game which restrict the modes to several characters).

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3
Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3, known as in Japan as Naruto: Narutimate Hero 3 (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ナルティメットヒーロー3), is the third installment of the fighting game series Naruto: Ultimate Ninja. This game was released in Japan on December 22, 2005 in North America on March 25, 2008, in Australia on September 18, 2008. It was also released in England on September 15, 2008, but is only available in specific Tesco stores. This game features the largest character roster upon release, and third largest roster in the Ultimate Ninja series, with 42 characters, and covers the events up to episode 135 in the anime. The player can use equippable jutsu, a trend that began in the second game, and for the first time, equippable Ultimate Jutsu. When two jutsus of the same strength clash, the game cuts to a jutsu clash, in which the player or players must rapidly press a specific button repeatedly, until either jutsu wins out over the other. In this installment, the player is to both induce temporary transformations (such as Sasuke's Curse Mark, and Rock Lee's Eight Inner Gates) through Ultimate Jutsu, and other, more permanent ones, that last the entire rest of the fight (like Nine-Tailed Naruto or the Second State Curse Mark). The game also heavily expands on the previous game's RPG mode, and is the first in the series to use CGI cutscenes. The player also has the ability to summon other characters through the use of Ultimate Jutsu, such as Gamabunta. However, support characters have been removed and the game restricts the player to use only one Ultimate Jutsu for each battle instead of the usual preset three (though they can be changed before battle).

Additionally, the Japanese version comes with a bonus DVD that includes a special 26-minute Anime OVA. It features many characters from the series, both living and dead, making it a non-canon release. The basic plot centers around a Battle Royale tournament, providing players with hints to be used in the RPG mode contained in the game.

Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 4
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 4 known in Japan as Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Accel (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ 疾風伝 ナルティメットアクセル) is the fourth installment of the Ultimate Ninja series, and the first in the Accels. It was released in Japan April 5, 2007, in North America on March 24, 2009 and in Europe on April 30, 2009. The game introduces Naruto Shippūden characters for the first time, featuring 52 playable characters. Other changes include the introduction of fixed ultimate jutsu, which change as health decreases or if the player enters any secondary mode. The graphical style of the game has also been toned down, retaining the anime look. The RPG mode (now called Master Mode) is heavily expanded, now featuring a more action-oriented gameplay and explore the massive world of Naruto (unlike the previous games which had a more sandbox-style gameplay).

The game only covers halfway through the Kazekage Rescue arc in the Shippuden storyline (roughly at episode 15 in the anime), though to make up for the lack of story, a filler arc is made up for the game that takes place before the Shippuden storyline called the "Black Shadow". Hero's History mode from Ultimate Ninja 3 is also retained, now retelling the events of the original series more faithfully and includes completely redone and improved scenes from Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3 as well as redone CGI scenes.

Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 5
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 5, known in Japan as, Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Accel 2 (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ 疾風伝 ナルティメットアクセル２), is the fifth installment in the Ultimate Ninja series, and was released in Japan on December 20, 2007. It was released in Europe on November 27, 2009 in Australia on December 3, 2009 and North America on December 22, 2009. The game features 62 characters and continues the Naruto Shippuden storyline, going up to the end of Sasuke and Sai arc, following the manga (the anime have not done on the arc by then). One of the new gameplay additions is the introduction of assist characters. Assist characters are chosen during character selection, and can be called in during a match to deal extra damage. Certain combinations of characters create unique jutsus in a match; these combinations reflect the associations of those characters in the anime and manga. Many of the character's jutsus from the previous game were updated. There are many updated ultimate jutsus, including the aforementioned assist-specific ones. Summons have been removed from the game. The assist characters cannot be turned off. The game retains the RPG mode from previous game, now allowing the player to control characters other than Naruto (such as Sakura Haruno and Kakashi). However, the Hero's History mode that retells the events of the original series have been discarded, though the characters itself remain in the game. It was also the last of the Ultimate Ninja Series for the PlayStation 2.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes, known in Japan as Naruto: Narutimate Portable Zero is a North American and European-exclusive fighting game. It was released in North America on August 28, 2007 and in Europe on September 14, 2007. It is essentially an edited version of Naruto: Narutimate Portable, which also happens to be a scaled down version of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2.

Story Mode, Kabuto, Shizune, The Third Hokage, and two stages were removed in this release, while Naruto & Sasuke's secret techniques were modified to prevent spoilers (as the English dub had not reached the Sasuke Retrieval arc yet). To compensate for these removals, the game now has a 3-on-3 battle system, similar to The King of Fighters; where the first team to defeat all 3 members of the other team wins. The game features 20 characters, 8 Stages, and several new features, such as a three-on-three fighting system, wireless two-player battles, and "Hidden Team Skills", which grant special abilities to a certain combination of characters.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: Phantom Fortress, known as in Japan as lit. Naruto: Narutimate Portable - Castle of Illusions (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ ナルティメットポータブル 無幻城の巻), was released in Japan on March 30, 2006 and in North America on June 24, 2008 and in Europe on July 11, 2008. In this Naruto game, the player can equip skills and items to four characters of his or her choice. This release is the full non-modified version of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes, and contains the three characters that were removed, which includes The Third Hokage, Shizune and Kabuto. Both removed stages and the game's Story Mode are now present as well. Additionally, movesets have been updated. Gamers can also select the characters to use Japanese or English voices. Jiraiya and Naruto can use Rasengan, Kakashi can use Lightning Blade and Sasuke can use Chidori without the use of a secret technique.

While some characters retain their old techniques, others, such as Neji, have theirs upgraded. The game contains an original storyline involving moving up a haunted castle in the sky to the 100th floor (or 30 subfloors if playing the Hidden Mugenjo Mode.) Each floor has several "blank" rooms where the users place randomly generated scrolls to determine the type of action that will take place in the room. The scrolls include Battle (a player vs. CPU fight) and five mini game scrolls: Tree Climbing (Naruto dashes up a tree and dodges broken branches), Shadow Possession (Simon-style button pressing), Amusement (slot machines), Riddle (answer Naruto trivia) and Clone (the shell game where the player tries to follow the real clone). Non-blank rooms include Treasure Rooms, Healing Rooms and Drama rooms (where the story progresses and cut scenes take place). Other game modes include vs. CPU and ad hoc wireless battle mode where players can fight against a friend using game sharing (only one UMD, but two PSPs).

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3, known as Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Accel 3 (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ 疾風伝 ナルティメットアクセル３) in Japan, is the sixth installment in the Ultimate Ninja series, announced as an exclusive title for the PlayStation Portable. The game was released in Japan on December 10, 2009 and was released in North America on May 11, 2010. The game features of a roster of more than 50 characters, 48 of which are from the TV series Naruto Shippuden. The game features 4-player local multiplayer battles, as well as Sasuke and the members of Team Hebi. It features a story arc designed by CyberConnect2 that is unique to this game, as well as a regular one that follows the Naruto Shippūden storyline and one that follows Sasuke's story. This was the last game released under the Ultimate Ninja Heroes moniker.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact
Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Impact (Naruto Shippuden: Narutimetto Inpakuto (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ-ナルト- 疾風伝 ナルティメットインパクト) in Japan), is the sixth Naruto title for the PlayStation Portable. The game's storyline covers the Kazekage Rescue arc up to the Five Kage Summit Arc. The game features boss battles, an all new rush battle system, 1 vs 100 action, ad hoc multiplayer missions, and also features over 50 characters, 26 of which are playable. As a special gift at New York Comic Con 2011, the first 200 people that went to watch Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds along with Naruto Japanese voice actress, Junko Takeuchi, received a free copy of the game. It is currently the last game in the series to be featured on the PSP, with no known plans for further releases due to the release of the PlayStation Vita, the successor system to the PSP.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, known in Japan as Naruto: Narutimate Storm (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ナルティメットストーム Naruto: Narutimetto Sutōmu?) is a fighting game developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Namco Bandai Games. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) across North America, Europe and Australia in November 2008 and in Japan on January 15, 2009. It is based on the popular anime and manga series Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto, and the first installment of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series on the PS3. The game features a 3 dimensional fighting style and has 25 characters. It also features boss battles and awakenings for the first time.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, known in Japan as Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Storm 2 (ＮＡＲＵＴＯ－ナルト－ 疾風伝ナルティメットストーム2) released on 15 October 2010 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles and features 42 characters

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations, known in Japan as Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Storm Generations (NARUTO－ナルト－疾風伝 ナルティメットストーム ジェネレーション) was officially announced on June 18, 2011 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It features a total of 72 characters and 15 support characters. It was released on February 23, 2012 in Japan, March 13, 2012 in North America, and March 30, 2012 in Europe. However this game's story mode is unique; instead of a main story, it features cutscenes that use the anime style of artwork. The story mode has several different characters, each with their own story.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, known in Japan as Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Storm 3 (NARUTO-ナルト- 疾風伝 ナルティメットストーム3) was officially announced on June 24, 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game features 80 characters and 7 support characters and A new feature called "The Ultimate Decision" has been added, in which players can create alternate story endings. Mob Battles akin to Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Impact have also been implemented as do the giant boss battles from previous Storm games (which was removed in Generations). Characters' Awakening modes can also be activated any time during battle for certain characters, at the cost of the chakra bar shrinking. It was released in March 5, 2013 in US, March 8 in UK and April 18 in Japan. The game's storyline starts with a flashback of the Nine Tails Invasion then flash-forward to the events of the Five Kage Summit arc, after which it mainly centers around the Fourth Great Ninja War arc.

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst is the updated re-release of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, which includes revamped visuals, all costumes previously available as DLC except Naruto (Goku) costume and Sakura (Hello Kitty) costume and 81 characters and 7 support characters and a new story chapter and a new Challenge Mode, which consists of 100 missions with varying objectives that unlock various in-game items and HD illustrations. It is the first game in the Ultimate Ninja series to be released for PC and Steam.

Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, known in Japan as Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Storm Revolution (NARUTO-ナルト- 疾風伝 ナルティメットストーム レボリューション) was officially announced on November 27, 2013 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. including new additions added to the roster drawn by series creator, Masashi Kishimoto himself. and features 100 characters and 14 support-only characters.

Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, known in Japan as Naruto Shippūden: Narutimetto Sutōmu 4 (ナルト- 疾風伝ナルティメットストーム 4), was announced on December 11, 2014, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC via Steam as the seventh installment in the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series. It was released on February 4, 2016 for Japan, February 5, 2016 for Europe, and February 9, 2016 for North America.

An expansion, titled Road to Boruto, features characters and elements from Boruto: Naruto the Movie and was released on February 2, 2017 in Japan and February 3, 2017 in North America and Europe.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy/Legacy
In April 2017, it was announced that Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, and Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst will be bundled and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch in the Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy. The trilogy has enhanced graphics and is upscaled to 1080p. It was released on July 27, 2017 in Japan, while a digital-only western release on August 25, 2017 (each of the games can also be bought separately).

A physical western release, titled Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy, contains the three games as well as Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4: Road to Boruto, and was made available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows on August 25, 2017.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing, known as Naruto Shippūden Narutimate Blazing (NARUTO-ナルト- 疾風伝 ナルティメットブレイジング) in Japan, is the first mobile platform game in the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja game series published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It's a turn-based action role-playing game. It is currently available on iOS and Android. Currently, the game's story line covers the Naruto series until the fight of Tsunade and Jiraiya vs Orochimaru. Players combat by moving their characters strategically. Level up and 'Awaken' your Ninjas to beat stronger enemies. Limit Break them to make them even more powerful. Play modes: Story, Emergency Mission (Missions to get items that improve your ninjas or new ninjas), Trial Missions (get Trial Coins to Limit Break characters), Phantom Castle (fight against Teams of other players and ascend to Floor 100 - prices for each floor), Ninja Road (get an Acquisition Stone to unlock an ability of a character you own by beating all 20 maps in a row), Ninja World Clash (PvP: Build a Team and play against online opponents). The game is free to play, and offers in-app purchase.

Reception
Various Ultimate Ninja games have become Namco Bandai's best-selling games with Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 being its second best-selling game from 2010 behind Tekken 6 with 1.1 million units sold. In January 2012, Namco Bandai announced that they have sold 10 million Naruto games worldwide, including 1.9 million units in Asia, 4.3 million in North America, and 3.8 million in Europe. In celebration CyberConnect2's CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama participated in the 2012 Paris International Marathon while cosplaying as Naruto Uzumaki, thanking fans. In 2016, more than 25 million units were sold.

Critical reception to the games has been positive. 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 that the English voices are "slightly questionable." Both IGN and GameSpot noted the game was both accessible and enjoyable and praised the anime/manga-inspired graphics. Titles for the PlayStation Portable received considerably lower averages in gaming sites. Ultimate Ninja Storm was also the only video game to win the Excellent Prize in the Entertainment Division of the 13th annual Japan Media Arts Festival.