The cockiest little ninja in all of Anime makes another appearance in Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 2, the forthcoming PS2 game from Namco Bandai. In this RPG/Brawler hybrid, Naruto and friends must thwart a squad of shadowy puppeteers from obtaining the last needed orb to summon the ultimate master of puppets and the end of world. Early in the game, you control Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura as they help save a local village from going down in flames, and later, you team up with Neji and Kankuro to run a decoy fleet.

The game toes the line between 3D fighter and Role Playing Game. The random battles consist of enclosed real-time fights where you control one team member at a time against several enemy goons. Along with the usual weak/strong attacks, each character has their own ninja powers that they can activate. Since you can switch out your controlled character to any other in your party with the tap of a button, you can swap in the character whose combat style will help your situation the most. Sakura, for instance, can bail you out when you’re surrounded with her powerful radiating attack, while Kankuro’s puppets give him the advantage in attack reach. There are also weapons like Shuriken and bomblets that you can pick up and throw to knock out enemies from more extreme distances. The fighting is very easy as the game starts, but later more advanced enemies who do more than just stand around start to work their way in.

As you defeat enemies, the RPG elements start taking over. Each defeated enemy drops many little capsules that give you both money and "Virtue" which serves as your XP. The dropped items quickly disappear, so you have to take this into account as you fight to get over to where they were dropped and grab them before you lose your hard-earned loot. While money can be spent on helpful items, Virtue can be spent to level up your characters’ stat categories. You also acquire "chips" which are little items you have to cram within the confines of your character’s ability board. The chips do things like buff certain stats or give you special abilities.

The game is divided into bite-sized Chapters in a style reminiscent of the TV series, complete with "To Be Continued" screens at their end and voiced-over title sequences for their starts. The voice acting seems to be intact from the US show’s dub talent, complete with Naruto’s, er, "enthusiastic" delivery. Surely, this game is squarely aimed at fans of the series and its target audience age demographic. While the game might prove too easy for older players, the blending of the two genres is an interesting proposition. Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 2 is due to ship this week to retailers.