The series that got Naruto right finally releases their 4th game in the Storm series and their 13th Naruto game overall!
Graphics: 7/10
The graphics aren't supposed to be life-like similar to Skyrim or Call Of Duty, they are meant to be similar to an Anime style game, since it's a game based off an Anime. The 3D Modeling is very well and has overly smooth animations, however the lip syncing may not be well for both languages on certain areas such as win screens.
The maps are very amazing, some are even animated, and certain ones will even have drops for a ring-out when you get knocked out of the stage for the third time, not counting if you have a specific type of support characters known as "Balance Supports."
Soundtrack: 7.5/10
Background music in this game is composed by Chikayo Fukuda, who also did the soundtrack for the previous two games, Storm 2 and Storm Generations. This is generally composed of a mix of piano, electric guitar, flute, and various other instruments! This gives it more of a "Naruto" feel to the series instead of a "Storm" feel to make it seem more like you are reliving the anime!
The background music really fits the game well, in my opinion, and has various different themes. For example, the win screen has separate themes: Boss Battle victories, Free Battle/Online Battle victories, and Tournament Championship victories. Some of the tracks may play a few times in your experience of this game, however some can be very tedious and play too often.
Game play: 9/10
Overall, the game play of this game is not really bad at all. Combos are executed by mashing the O/B button and pressing a direction on the L stick, or leaving it neutral, to execute combos specific to that character. These combos, however, can be canceled by doing moves called "Ninja Moves" and "Chakra Dash Cancel" to add variety on combos and land some techniques, or even an Ultimate Jutsu!
The online community has its ups and downs to who you meet. There are a lot of people that can be impatient, rude, or even just plain annoying that will host or join a lobby. These lobby raiders tend to boast their skill as they abuse overpowered techniques within characters to win whether it is fun or not, use the voice changer frequently to vocalize the server with annoyance, voice change their voice to a fine, high pitch and scream, or just plain cuss everyone out. Throughout all of this, however, there are the good people that are gems to find in this game that you want to add to your friend list that play the game for fun and are very relaxed.
The flow of combat can be very high-paced action-packed ultimate ninja battles, or a slow, relaxed, and casual fight depending on both of the people that play and what they do in a match.
Lasting Appeal: 8/10
This game, for some, can be tedious, however, for people like me it is fun and can last a really long time. This game can last good or bad depending on how you play and what you do. Majority that don't like it have the concept that it is too easy, however that is exactly the problem. This game isn't easy nor hard, it is easy to learn, and hard to master.
Once you have mastered this game, you can instantly think up tactics and combos to pull of flashy and hard-to-hit moves that will baffle many. As long as you just give this game more than just a 20-minute session and play it in-depth with various characters, you will start to see the true value of this game and why people still enjoy the series, however, this may lead to the frequent sight of glitching.
Glitches in this game are uncommon, but may show up frequently. Glitches involve certain aspects of the game not working as they should, such as double ring-outs leading to the map spazzing out as it is a draw, the ability to roam outside of a map exploiting a certain character's awakening on specific maps, or even exploiting techniques right after the other player hits the ground for a puff of smoke to suddenly appear as you continue the combo as if they were standing up.
Graphics: 7/10
Soundtrack: 7.5/10
Game play: 9/10
Lasting Appeal: 8/10
Overall: 8/10