finally a real 3d fighting game...
what i am getting at is that, historically, 3d fighting games all lacked the element of position (and thus failed to take advantage of a three-dimensional aspect that we would expect in a 3d fighter). games like tekken, virtua fighter, soul calibur and others that have a reputation for being "good" to "great" games lack the same 3d element. their characters mostly face each other or awkwardly move around in the direction perpendicular to the action. some of their moves take advantage of character positions, however, and note that these games tend to be the "great" ones (like soul calibur).
naruto ultimate ninja storm takes full advantage of the position of characters. i believe this truly makes this game the first "real" 3d fighting game out there. position, movement, timing, and strategy make this game incredibly fun and accurately represent the key aspects of a 3d fighter that have been missing for many years.
if you are thinking of getting this game, you won't have to think too hard -- you should just get it. although this game does brilliantly introduce the 3d aspect to fighting a fighting game; it does lack a few things. Here they are: online play, moves during battle.
the fighting really focuses on the position, movement, timing, and strategy really well; however, it seems they forgot that a large part of the fun for fighting games is exercising a character's moves (i.e. pressing the right combination of buttons to perform some action) and taking advantage of that character's properties. for example, ken, from street fighter, can use his dragon punch to dodge haddukens while getting closer to his opponent -- these kind of properties made street fighter ii one of the best and "most well balanced" games ever. Unfortunately, naruto ninja storm doesn't do that. hopefully the next version will. i find it hard to understand why they didn't support this since naruto characters each have unique moves and according to the show they use their hands (to perform seals) to use ninjitsu. hopefully the next version will let you cast the spells that individual characters can exercise. perhaps during a fight a button can be pressed to start or stop a set of seals to perform with the user's hands. i believe that would satisfy my little complaint.
nevertheless, this game was never meant to compete with some of the best fighting games out there, it was meant to compete with the other naruto titles out there. so far, it has completely beaten the other naruto titles with the biggest ease. hopefully the next iteration of the game will compete with the best titles (because the framework has been built and it totally can beat some of the best fighting games) they just need to introduce the "well balancing" and "move exercising", and "attribute manipulation" i was talking about. if the next iteration does that, then that game will easily compete with the best fighting games on the market and redefine what a 3d fighting game really is.
congratulations to the designers and engineers who worked on this game, it truly is amazing and deserves all the praise everyone has been giving it. But after a simple analysis, what they have done is set the groundwork for the next game which will hopefully be one of the best fighting games in existence that will redefine what fighting games should be.