Naruto is an extremely popular Japanese animated series and manga that's been around for about three years. It follows the story of Naruto, a young boy living in a hidden ninja village deep inside Japan. The village (which houses a ninja training school) was attacked by the Nine-Tails Fox Demon 12 years ago. The village Hokage (top ninja) gave his life to defeat the demon fox and sealed it away inside the body of Naruto. As Naurto goes through his ninja training, most of the people in the village detest him, although they are forbidden to speak of the incident with the demon fox.

Those familiar with Drgaonball Z should take a liking to Naruto when it comes to the US sometime in the next few years. It has everything DBZ offers and then some. So it only makes sense that the videogame industry would take advantage of Naruto's popularity in Japan. Several GBA games have already been released, as well as a GameCube fighting game last year. Now, Naruto makes his first appearance on the PS2 with Narultimate Hero.

First and foremost, almost everything in the game is in Japanese. The only English isn't anything that actually helps you learn how to play the game or get through any of the game modes. So if you were planning on importing this one, be warned that you will not understand anything right off the bat. When you start off, there are six playable characters; Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Rock Lee, Kakashi, and Shikamaru. There are also six question mark circles on the character selection screen, which will unlock Garaa, Neji, Zabuza, Haku, Orochimaru, and Hinata.

Each character can perform physical attacks and combos using the Circle button, and one special attack if you press down twice, then the Circle button. All of these special attacks are signature moves from the series and are recreated to perfection in the game. Certain combos also allow you to tack on a special attack at the end, and the game will move to a cut-scene to show the attack. The combo system is very basic since there's only one attack button. It gets the job done, but it also leaves the game lacking a bit in depth.

The standard super meter in most fighting games has been replaced by a chakra meter in Narultimate Hero. Chakra is what a ninja uses to perform most of their advanced techniques. In the game, the chakra is used to perform three different super attacks. To channel your chakra, you press the Triangle button. Pressing it once will give you a level one super attack, twice for a level two and three times for a level three. Your chakra will only remain channeled for a short period of time, and for only a single attack. If you can connect with that attack, the game will change to a special cut-scene for each super attack. A vertical list of buttons will appear on either side of the screen. The person attacking sees their buttons slightly before their opponent, and if you can input all the button commands before time runs out (there's a small time meter under the buttons), and before your opponent can input their buttons, you will perform the attack at full power, and move on to the next part of the attack. Each super attack has between two and four different sections, each with a different button combination. If your opponent enters their button commands before you, or if time runs out before you get your commands in, the super attack will end.