Naruto (Super Smash Flash 2)

Naruto is a playable newcomer character in Super Smash Flash 2. His sprite is based off his Shippūden design. His moveset is from the many types of Jutsu he uses in the manga/anime, including his signature moves, the Rasengan and Shadow Clone Jutsu.

Naruto is currently ranked 9th of A tier on the current tier list (the highest ranked Manga/Anime character), a small drop from his 6th place position of S tier on the last tier list. Naruto has fast attacks, great combo ability and powerful finishers in all of his smash attacks, higher stages of Rasengan, his back aerial and his down tilt. Naruto can play offensively by rushing down his opponent or defensively by using his shadow clone projectiles to zone with. Shadow Clone Slash can attack edgeguarders powerfully, and the bunshin from it can also allow for a clone land to create pressure on the opponent and give him good stage control, aiding his defensive game.

However, Naruto's recovery is predictable and is easy to deal with if the opponent knows how it works. He does indeed have a good defensive game, but it can easily be countered against competent hands as all of his projectiles can be out-prioritized or reflected. He has problems dealing with characters who posses disjointed reach and great mobility (such as and ). Naruto also has below average weight which allows him to be KO'ed horizontally early.

However, Naruto's pros strongly overcome his cons and is the reason why he is a top tier character.

Naruto has a growing player base due to his strong stage control ability and combo game, making him especially popular among low-level players. This led to a lot of hate for the character and calls for him to be nerfed. Despite this, there are few high-level Naruto mains, leading to low representation in tournaments and those that do play Naruto don't normally place very high.

Attributes
Naruto can be described as a character with many play styles. He can be played offensively, as a rush down character, or defensively, as a zoning character. Naruto has above average dashing and walking speed, but with poor air speed giving him above average mobility. He has reliable kill moves in his forward smash, up smash, a almost fully charged Rasengan, the Fūton: Rasenshuriken (the initial hitbox stuns the opponent trapping him/her to take the full hit of the attack), his up aerial, back aerial, and his down tilt.

Even though he can rush down his opponents; he can zone or projectile camp with his shadow clone projectiles and leave clone land mines from his Shadow Clone Slash giving Naruto a decent amount of stage control.

His recovery, although covers a fair distance, allows him to deal with edge guarders with the initial hitbox at the beginning of the move and if he presses the attack button during his ascent, he will be able to kick his opponents away. Naruto's down aerial (as long as he is above the ledge) and Rasenshuriken (slows his descent before he throws it) can help him recover horizontally.

Naruto has an amazing ground game with his tilts and dash attack being great tools. His up tilt and dash attack are great for starting combos. His forward tilt is a good spacing tool, while also doing decent knockback. His down tilt is strong which can make for a great KO option.

However, Naruto has problems concerning his recovery, although it can help him deal with edge guarders; it can be easily edge hogged and his recovery will be shortened if chooses to attack during his ascent. Down air can help him recover horizontally, but if he goes to low, then he might not be able to recover vertically. Rasenshuriken, if the player is not careful on how they recover with it, will allow for an opponent to reflect it, which might knock Naruto further from the stage, if not KO him outright.

All of his projectiles can be reflected or out-prioritized, meaning his stage control can be countered and turned against him if he goes up against characters with reflectors. With the exception of his forward tilt, Naruto lacks range in most of his attacks leaving him vulnerable to characters with disjointed hitboxes (ex. and ). Characters who posses more priority in their attacks also give him trouble (ex. and ).

He lacks any reliable ways to deal with projectiles and his crouch is not low enough to make it suitable to dodging projectiles.

Adding on to the fact, Naruto has only average survivability. He has below average weight which allows him to be knocked off stage easily or KO'ed early. With him also having above average accelerated falling speed, makes him good enough to be combo'ed easily, thus giving him another problem.

Ground attacks

 * Standard attack 1: Left jab. 4%
 * Standard attack 2: Left side kick in the opponents mid-section. 4%
 * Standard attack 3: Spinning back kick. 5%
 * Down tilt: Headbutts while moving forward a bit. Does strong knockbck. 13%
 * Down smash: Split Kick, hitting both sides. Decent knockback. 14% uncharged, 20% fully charged.
 * Side tilt: Slashes forward with a kunai. 8%
 * Forward smash: "Sparta Kick". Naruto lunges forward and kicks forward with his foot. Decent knockback. 14% uncharged, 20% fully charged.
 * Up tilt: Overhead kick. Naruto swings his leg over his head in a wide arc. Is good as a combo extender and can lead into multiple options. 8%
 * Up smash: Roundhouse Kick. Good knockback. 14% uncharged, 20% fully charged. Good aerial combo starter.
 * Dash attack: Slides and kicks the opponent twice, sticking his leg up. Great aerial combo starter. 2% then 7% totaling 9%.

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial: Sex Kick. 8% sweet spot, 4% sour spot. Has little start up lag and ending lag making it the best sex kick for extending combos. Can be SHFFL for approaching, can lead into a grab and if used in the air, can lead into a forward air.
 * Forward aerial: Raises his foot, then brings it down in an arc in front of him in an axe kick, meteor smashing opponents. 14% Sweetspotted, 6% Sourspotted but can still meteor smashes when sweet spotted or not.
 * Back aerial: Swiping back kick. Good knockback. 11% sweet-spotted, 6% sour-spotted.
 * Up aerial: Inverted stomp: Naruto flips completely up-side-down, kicking upwards with his leg. 13%
 * Down aerial: Falling kick. Naruto falls diagonally downwards while using this move. 9%

Grabs and throws

 * Grab: Swings his arm out to grab.
 * Pummel: Punches opponent. 1% first hit, 1% all subsequent hits.
 * Forward throw: Throws the opponent forward followed by two kunai. Can chain throw opponents. 7%
 * Back throw: Slams opponent behind him 3% and then slashes him/her with a Shuriken 9%. 12% total
 * Up throw: A Shadow Clone appears on the other side of Naruto's victim and kicks the opponent upward for 5%. Another Clone then appears knocking them further into the air for 5%. 10% total. Does not have any KO potential nor any follow up options, making it maybe Naruto's worse throw.
 * Down throw: Starts out alomst the same as his upward throw, but the clone appears and runs up from behind Naruto and hits the opponent up, and instead of making a second clone (which kicks the opponent upward further just like in his upward throw) 8%, he jumps into the air himself and punches the opponent back onto the ground 5%. Can follow-up into his Back Aerial if the target doesn't tech when they hit the ground. 13% total. The second hit is a meteor smash, but its very weak which allows the opponent to meteor cancel the move early.

Other

 * Ledge attack: Rolls up and does a spinning hook kick. 7%
 * 100% ledge attack: N/A.
 * Floor attack: Punches in front of himself, and then kicks behind himself. 10%

Misc.

 * Entrance: Teleports to the foreground using Shunshin no Jutsu (瞬身の術, "Body Flicker Technique").
 * Taunts:
 * Standard: Uses the Orioke no Jutsu (おいろけの術, "Sexy Technique") blows a kiss and giggles (His longest taunt).
 * Side: Takes out his kunai and slashes out across in front of him.
 * Down: Summons three Shadow Clones, each one of them smiling with a thumbs-up (His shortest taunt).
 * Fanfare: Excerpt from Rising Fighting Spirit.
 * Wins:
 * Naruto raises his thumb up and smiles in triumph while saying 「だってばよ!」 (Dattebayo!, which roughly means "Believe it!").
 * Enters "Sage Mode" (仙人モード, Sen'nin Mōdo) and folds his arms triumphantly.
 * Loses: Naruto crosses his arms and looks away in an immature way.

Changes from v0.9a
Naruto has received little changes from last demo. However, he is seen as more effective character this demo due to his metagame advancing. Naruto is also one of the few characters who are not negatively affected by the lowered hitstun of the demo. This allows Naruto to escape combos much easier and being one of the few characters who can combo like last demo.

Notable players

 * Miracle--7
 * TheBlockishot4

Tier placement history
In the tier lists for demo v0.6; Naruto was seen as high tier character because he was tied with for 4/5 of C tier on the first list and was ranked 4th of B tier on the second list. On the lists for demo v0.7; Naruto's was stuck in C tier on both lists where he was seen as a mid tier character. In demo v0.8b; his tier position jumped up to 5th of A tier where he was seen as a top tier character. However, in demo v0.9a; he was ranked 18th where he is now seen as a mid-low tier character. In demo v0.9b, Naruto jumped up to 6th of S tier where is finally seen as a top tier character again. However, the changes in the metagame made Naruto be seen as a less effective character then he originally was, where he dropped to 9th of A tier and is seen as a high tier character.

Trivia

 * Prior to Naruto's inclusion in this game, it was mistakenly believed that Naruto's side special move was to be the Fūton: Rasenshuriken and his down special move to be the Rasengan Smash, in which Naruto slammed a Rasengan into the ground. This became Naruto's down smash in version 0.5a of the SSF2 Demo but was removed in subsequent versions for unknown reasons. Rasenshuriken eventually replaced Ōdama Rasengan as the full-powered variant of his standard special in version 0.8.
 * Naruto is one of (currently) 5 characters to have his availability status changed (he was an unlockable character in the original Super Smash Flash) the other 4 characters (so far) are, , and.
 * Naruto is currently the only character in the game to have all of his specials and throws use or involve a projectile.
 * Naruto, along with, , , and , is one of the few characters who has a different "Defeated/No Contest" pose.
 * Naruto's art in Super Smash Flash 2 is similar to his art in his appearance in J-Stars Victory VS..