A game all about pleasing the fans, yet delivers one of the most solid fighting experiences in the current generation.
The game has two different game modes from the get go. "Ultimate Mission Mode", which is essentially the main chunk of the game and consists of short, mission based tasks to complete. You're allowed to roam free into the open world city of the hidden leaf village, Konoha. Fan service at its best. You are given the ability to explore throughout the entire city which has been accurately put together to represent what you would see in the anime. Being able to travel to the Hokage's Tower, or visit the iconic "Ichiraku's Ramen" shop, is certainly a great novelty for all
fans of the series. Some of these places are even interactive, including the aforementioned Ichiraku's Ramen in which you can gather ingredients you've collected through missions and around the village to give to Ichiraku, for which in return he will make new Ramen recipes. These aren't just for show though, by eating these new forms of Ramen it will increase Naruto's Chakra bar, giving him longer to leap through the skies of Konoha, performing incredible acrobatics before eventually tiring out. Other places such as Yamanaka Flowers, run by Ino, are also available to interact with. This all creates a sense of a lively community in Konoha, despite the fact most of the NPC's in the village don't actually move around all that often. Around Konoha there are also "breakables" such as pots and hanging baskets etc. that you break using shurikens. These will drop coins, or 'ryu' as it's known in the game, which you can also collect via mission rewards and then spend in Item Shops to buy figurines, music or movie packs. And if you collect the correct items specified, you can form a diorama. This is really only for the picky ones who want to make sure they 100% the game, there's no real value to it other than knowing you've done everything, although the dioramas are a nice keepsake within the game.
Now of course the whole game isn't set around finding collectibles and obtaining ingredients for good ol' Ichiraku. In the pause menu is a mission select screen, split up into 6 respective rank order, like the missions that are given in the anime. D Rank, C Rank, B Rank, A Rank, and S Rank. The 6th is the story mission tab, which roughly follows the story of the original anime. This is where the game falls flat, because it only uses bite sized chunks, using key parts of the anime's story to throw you into a battle or mini game without any initial meaning. There's no glue that holds everything together, and at times it strays from what actually occurs in the anime's story. For example, you take control of Hinata during the Preliminary Chuunin exams during the fight against Neji. You have to win to continue but as we all know, Neji wins the fight. So once you win and move on to the next part of the story, it will explain that Neji won the battle, despite the fact you just beat him with Hinata in the previous mission because you had no other option. This creates a bad sense of flow with the storyline, and doesn't give the option of the game becoming an alternative way of discovering Naruto for newcomers, which is a shame.
The fighting system in Ultimate Ninja Storm is where it truly shows its colours. It ranges from the most basic of commands that any new player will feel comfortable with playing, to the advanced tactics capable of performing some mean stunts and tricks. The basics all start with your combo button, circle. Pressing circle allows you to punch, and pressing it multiple times puts you into a combo, and moving your analog stick in specific directions during this combo allows you to change the type of attack you're inflicting. You then have your Chakra button which when pressed once, charges your player with Chakra energy, ready to perform a Jutsu. If you double tap your Chakra button, you can inflict devastating Ultimate Jutsu attacks which can take away almost half your opponents health, though in competitive situations these can be hard to pull off, but do look absolutely stunning within the graphics engine and closely replicate characters abilities from the anime. This all sounds very overpowered, which is why UNS has a "substitute" system, based off of the Substitution Jutsu, which makes you vanish and appear right behind the enemy to perform a counterattack. You have to time your substitution precisely with your opponents attack though for it to be effective. If all else fails hold your block button, though if you hold it too long and your opponent keeps pummelling you, you'll become stunned and unable to attack for a few seconds, leaving you open for some serious damage. Apart from this there's also abilities such as dashing, shurikens / long range attacks, Chakra charged equivalents of both, and items to help give you an edge. All of this makes for a fast paced, intense fighting experience set on a unique 3D anime landscape that looks just as visually appealing as the anime itself.
The soundtrack is written and composed by Yasuharu Takanashi, who is best known for his work on the Shippuden series and movies. He manages to capture the sound and feel of the original Unleashed series to great accuracy, and some of the tracks in my opinion are even pulled off better than the anime in a lot of cases. From the fast paced action music to the slow paced, emotional tunes for the dramatic sequences, all the music suits its respective situation and really adds that extra level of immersion to really draw you into the locale of the Naruto Universe.
Overall, whilst Ultimate Ninja Storm lacks any decent story structure, making it unwelcoming to some newcomers, the game offers some of the best fighting mechanics of the modern era, and is just what a Naruto video game should be. Immersive, incredibly good looking, a delight to play, and a game you'll keep coming back to again and again. Well done CyberConnect2.