Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 4 was revealed in February as the first game based on the Naruto Shippuden animated series. Now Namco Bandai Games Europe has announced the upcoming launch of the latest game in the Naruto Shippuden series, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 5. The game has a larger number of battle stages and characters than ever before in the franchise’s history.
The fifth iteration of the series delivers an exciting adventure which begins with the return of Naruto to Konoha, as he takes on highly devious and increasingly powerful enemies. His trusty friends are always close by to lend a hand. The Master mode has new fighting styles for Naruto’s character in addition to familiar gameplay. Also featured is the ability to boost character stats, the ability to add equipment, upgrade Jutsus, and also brand new 3-man cell gameplay, which makes complete use of the player’s special abilities.
Players can now choose a partner who will join them in battle. This greatly increases the probability of victory and allows players to perform special team-based Ougis and Jutsus. Not only that, players can even take control of other characters besides plain old Naruto. Ultimate Ninja 5 features a versus mode in which there are more than 60 playable characters and 24 battle stages. Players can select whichever character they want to, and battle it out against the game’s AI or challenge a friend to a grueling one-on-one ninja battle; the deadliest kind there is.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 5 has been developed by CyberConnect2 and has original Japanese audio, plus localization into five languages, and a huge number of collectibles. The game is scheduled for an October 2009 release to Europe and the PAL territories, exclusively for the PS2 platform.