

Although the game takes place on a 2D plane, players can teleport between the foreground and background at their leisure.

In Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3, players select one of their favorite characters out of the Naruto Shippuden story arc and battle on a series of dual-stage arenas. But there have been some fantastic fighting games that have launched since then (including some notable portable ones), and Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 just doesn't seem to cut it. When I originally reviewed the first Ultimate Ninja Heroes, I was impressed by the approachable fighting system and the amount of unlockables that enticed players to keep on playing. The Ultimate Ninja Heroes games have been solid offerings on Sony's portable over the past few years, but Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 feels clumsy.

Japanese developer CyberConnect2 has handled a number of Naruto games in the past, including my personal favorite, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm for the PS3.
