I unlocked most of the characters today, Itachi is freaking cool. One thing I really love about #2 is that the fights feel a lot more like beat 'em ups. Everybody has 2 jutsus now and you have lots less life. #1 matches always ended up in who could hit with a super move first. In #2 they are more like last ditch efforts, as it should be.

There are 2 all new features that I totally adore in this game though.

1. The experience system. By doing missions with any character you want you gain experience which can be used to upgrade damage, speed etc. Very cool. You can also learn some characters' special moves so you can for example throw Ino's poison daggers with Itachi if you feel the urge to.

2. The friends system. This is TOTALLY SWEET! In this game you can as most of you might know choose any character to have as assist char, in other words the guy/girl who gives you items and jumps in with attacks that aid you. At first, all characters can only choose those charas they know to assist 'em (for example Naruto can choose Iruka, Kakashi, Sasuke, Jiraiya & Sakura while Kabuto for example can only choose Orochimaru). But as you fight matches against various people in VS mode, the people gain friendship points. Eventually you'll be able to use your foe as an assist, this way you can "collect" assists with your favorite character. In other words, my Itachi will eventually have a whopping 32 different characters to choose from as assists [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Goddamn great game.