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 18th on the current tier list, a large drop from his 5th position last demo. He still retains his fast attacks, great combo game and powerful finishers in all of his smash attacks, higher stages of Rasengan, his back and up aerial, and his back throw and forward tilt when used near the ledge. 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 extremely short and predictable, allowing almost any character a clean gimp on him. He does indeed have a good defense game, but it can easily be countered against competent hands as all of his projectiles can be out-prioritized or reflected. With the exception of his forward tilt, he has extremely poor reach, which leaves him vulnerable to characters with disjointed hitboxes or great mobility (such as and ). Finally, Naruto's largest issue is his competition. There are many characters who are higher-tiered than him who can dish out the same punishment with similar combos, but without all of these drawbacks that set him back. All things considered, Naruto is a powerful, but predictable and outclassed character, resulting in his low placement on the current tier list.

Attributes
Naruto can be described as a rush down character as he is very mobile and can rack up a ton of damage on his opponents or he can play defensively and spam his clone special moves behind his clone lande mine. He is a combo heavy character with a lot of his attacks giving little knockback which allows him to follow up with more attacks. Naruto has kill moves in all of his smash attacks, a almost fully charged Rasengan, the Rasenshuriken (the initial hitbox paralyzes the opponent trapping him/her to take the full hit of the attack), his up and back aerial, his back throw and forward tilt when used near a ledge while being fresh. 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 little 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 a good grab game, possessing the ninth longest grab in the current demo, having a chain grab in his forward throw and combined with his forward aerial meteor smash gives him a option to chain spike. His back throw can used in his combos or saved up to be used as KO move if used near the ledge. His down throw, if not teched, can followed up with his back aerial, can throw into his shadow clone land mine to be followed up with any move he desires or can used near a ledge to set up edge guarding. His up tilt juggles and can be a combo starter. He is notable as he is only character in the current demo that can crawl. He has a good jab and he is able cancel it into a grab, tilts, smash attacks and rasenshuriken.

However, Naruto's biggest problem is his recovery although 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. Excluding the Rasenshuriken, all of his projectiles can be reflected, meaning his stage control can be countered and turned against him if he goes up against characters with reflectors. With exception of his forward tilt, Naruto lacks range in most of his attacks leaving him vulnerable to characters with disjointed hitboxes (ex. and ). His crouch is not low enough to make it suitable to dodging projectiles and lacks other reliable ways to deal with them.

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. 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. 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 and can lead into a grab.
 * 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 & Throws

 * Grab: Swings his arm out to grab. The thirteenth longest grab in the game.
 * 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.
 * 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.

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 0.9a; he was ranked 18th where he is now seen as a mid-low 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 the Ōdama Rasengan as the full-powered variant of his standard special in version 0.8.
 * Naruto is one of (currently) 3 characters to have his availability status changed (he was an unlockable character in the original Super Smash Flash) the other 2 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.