I prefer Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm over it's Sequel, mainly because the fight animation just seemed more fluid to me (Sasuke had Bad @$$ combos) and being able to change your character's jutsus before the match begins, also Itachi's tilt move was beast, Flash stepping to the opponent while they perform they're projectile jutsus is awesome. Ninja Storm 2 had it's good points, like additional characters and Team Ultimates, but they seemed to have removed/changed things that could have made it better. That was only about the Free battle mode mind you, I loved Ninja Storm 2's Story mode, especially the boss fights with the button pressing sequences and epic music and the addition of online play was a good move, even if the characters are unbalanced and everyone likes to use the same tactics again and again. Overall I'd give this game 8/10.
And about that switching jutsu's mid battle maybe they could map that to the L2 button, coz the L2 and R2 buttons do the same thing