Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm

"This is a good game, believe it!"

Welcome to my second review, here you will read a review of Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm (NUNS).

Let's get started :

Graphics : 9.5/10

I can't say a bad thing about those, everything is very polished and smooth. I've never seen cel-shading that looks like this, if you're looking for an anime-looking game, you won't be deceived !

Sound : 7/10

Okay, the sound is not that bad but it can be annoying, one music per stage... it's entertaining in the beginning but not after a while. But who cares? In a fighting game it is not the most important part.

Scenario/Storyline : 7/10

Well, it is better than NUN3, but it still need a lot of work, you got something like 4 cinematics over the game, the storyline is missing parts (the part with haku and zabuza for example). You never get to move outside the city on your own, the "Flashback mission" teleports you to the fight and then teleports you back to the city. Yet again, a fighting game is not all about the scenario.

Gameplay : 9/10

Gameplay and graphics are the two aspects that make this game shine. Battles really feel like an antual anime fight. A lot of people say it needs no skill because that you only use O for attacking. In Naruto games, the strategy when fighting always comes down to chakra control and timing. What makes battle so exciting is the substitution jutsu, which make you teleport on strike to negate an attack, if made during a combo, you teleport behind your opponent, else you teleport just on the top of the attack. Jutsus are well done and balanced enough so that no character is overpowered. Really great gameplay overall. The only problem I've seen is when your attack launch your opponent on a wall. The camera doesn't move but you and your opponent are stuck on the wall until someone knocks the other on the floor to get back where you were.In my opinion this is the only flaw to the gameplay.

Content : 8.5/10 :

This is a fighting game. So the real content we are looking for is the character / move roster. A lot of people complains about the fact that we only have 25 characters in this game. Seriously, 25 character is enough already for a fighting game, look at all fighting games at the moment, you get 20-30 characters all the time, so I guess 25 is okay. Even though it would have been good to have haku/zabuza/the sound 4/asuma and kurenai. In the game you get a lot of bonuses including, vids of ultimate jutsus, diaporamas, etc.

Replayability : 8/10

Once you get all the missions done you can do them again with bonus requirements, there is 2 bonus to almost every missions in the game, when you get done with ultimate ninja mode there's always the free battle mode when you can fight against a friend of the computer.

Overall : This game is the best in the serie yet. It is a lot of fun if you are a fan of naruto of just a fan of anime-based fighting games.

Now for those who don't know what game to choose between NUNS and BB (Broken Bond) here's a list of pros and cons for NUNS

Pros :

- Better fighting system
- Better graphics
- A lot of bonus content

Cons :

- Scenario is not long and detailed enough
- No online play (Even though we have downloadable content)

Buy or rent? There's a demo on PSN, you can always try, if you are a big fan of Naruto, I say buy it now, if not, then try to rent it first. Definitely a must try game though.

Thanks for reading !

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09

Game Release: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (US, 11/04/08)