In the decade or so since Naruto first hit the pages of Shonen Jump, fans around the world have been following the adventures of the orange-clad hero and his group of ninja cohorts in comics, on television, in films and, of course, in videogames. While most of these games have fallen into the action or fighting categories, the Nintendo DS gave fans more of an role-playing take on the series with last year's Naruto: Path of the Ninja. The sequel, Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2, has more characters, more features and more of just about everything else from the first game. But does more necessarily mean better?

The fog isn't the only thing hazy in Path of the Ninja 2.

In order to get anything out of Path of the Ninja 2, you need to have at least a passing knowledge of the property and the characters within. Simply put, this one's for the fans. The plot, which is not tied to any previous story, centers on the release of a powerful evil spirit from a cave at a nearby village. The village elder sends his granddaughter to the Hidden Leaf Village to find help in sealing the creature with five mystical mirrors scattered around the Shinobi Nations. What follows from there is a fairly formulaic RPG with a face only a fanboy could love.

One of the reasons the Naruto franchise is so popular is because of the interesting character designs. Unfortunately, that doesn't come through in Path of the Ninja 2, which looks sorely dated. If you squint your eyes really hard, the graphics might look better than what you'd be playing on a Game Boy Advance. Making matters worse, the environments (particularly the areas outside of towns) are bland and repetitive. On the upside, there are some quality still shots during the conversations between different characters, but it's disappointing that such a visual property is so lacking in the graphics department.

The gameplay in Path of the Ninja 2 is essentially no different than that of any turn-based RPG title from the heyday of the SNES, though a few new tweaks are tossed in to take advantage of the DS hardware.

Only Naruto would be happy with a pig for backup.

You start the game in the Hidden Leaf Village controlling Naruto and his Team 7 teammates, Sasuke and Sakura. Before long, though, you'll build up a roster of 30 different characters from which to build your party of four. Last time I checked, I thought ninja were supposed to be sneaky -- but the party must be wearing cowbells, because you can't take two steps without bumping into some sort of random enemy encounter.

In battle, things get more interesting. The battlefield is a 24-square grid, with 12 blocks for each side of the fight. Characters can move and attack during their turn, with characters in the front row doing more damage but also being more vulnerable to attacks from the other side. If you've ever played a turn-based RPG, you'll feel right at home navigating through menus and submenus, attacking, healing, rinsing and repeating.

No Chakra is safe from Hinata's Gentle Fist.

Party members can unleash special "Jutsu" attacks, which can range from Naruto's multi-attack Shadow Clone Jutsu and Shikamaru's foe-stopping Shadow Imitation Technique to Orochimaru Summoning Jutsu, which calls forth a huge snake to take a bite out of the enemy. Choosing any of the Jutsu attacks triggers a mini-game using the DS' features. Usually this means scribbling or tapping on the touch-screen, matching on-screen cues, and occasionally even blowing into the microphone to power up the Jutsu attacks. While these mini-games break up the monotony of battle, you still can't help but feel like a lot of them are forced.

One major saving grace of Path of the Ninja 2 is multiplayer gameplay via Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection. After playing through the Story mode to get your feet wet and build up your initial team, you open up the ability to take your team online to compete against others around the country. You set up your battles and jump right into action, and online games run smoothly without any hiccups. Winning battles earns you bonus points that can buy new power-ups, characters, and equipment in the main game.

Choji lays the smackdown on his enemies.

In one of the more interesting multiplayer features, you can win special ninja cards in battle, and some cards are specific to the region of your opponents. This gives completists even more reason to find online opponents. If nothing else, the online features help to make the shortcomings of the Story mode a little more palatable.

If you're a hardcore Naruto fan, the odds are that you'll be able to look past all of the shortcomings of Path of the Ninja 2 and find something to love about it. But for the rest of us, the game's watered-down presentation and repetitive gameplay leaves us thinking this adventure should have stayed out of sight in the Hidden Leaf Village. As Naruto would say, "Believe it!"

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.