GCM writes: "I cannot claim to be even the least bit knowledgeable regarding the Naruto manga brand, but I do know that the ninja-flavored animation series on Cartoon Network is one of the more highly regarded of its genre. Much like the American-drawn Avatar: The Last Air Bender series, the Naruto series provides an exciting and accessible anime experience for American audiences, with a lot less of the confusing plot structure of the standard Japanese fare like Pokémon and Dragonball Z.
As any cartoon series worth its weight soon finds itself wading into the sea of video gaming, the Naruto franchise already has nearly a half-dozen game iterations either in production or already released since its North American introduction in 2003.
The game we are looking at this time around is Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress (yeah, that's quite a title) for the PSP. A sequel to last-year's Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes, this version follows the Japanese development trend of taking a successful franchise, making only a few incremental changes, and then shipping the title to market. We have seen it with Dynasty Warriors, Gundam, and now Naruto. But unlike the other titles, Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2 is actually kind of fun, so we'll let it slide…this time."
PS3Life writes about the games of Naruto ever since the Naruto-games were available.
The Anime and Manga that besides being an element of success, and a conversion for video games also, Dragon Ball is an example of an anime that has already had dozens of games, Naruto is no exception. Shippuden Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 is an exclusive title for the Playstation Portable that will come out this year.
The various battle modes offer plenty of fighting; however so much of the game is lifted from the last Naruto: Ultimate Heroes game that the only real difference ends up being the story mode, which is the weakest part of the package. Paying full price for a sequel with such a small smattering of new content is a hard pill to swallow, even for the most die hard fan. Naruto: Ulitmate Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress does offer up plenty of fun, albeit shallow, ninja fighting, just not enough new content to warrant a purchase.
