A Naruto Game that excels in all areas bare a few...
I'll start with what's good, because boy is it good. A fighting game first and foremost, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm's first stand out feature is obviously it's deeply striking visuals, which are easily the best anime based graphics ever seen in a game, with vibrant, detailed, colourful representations of each character from the Naruto series(With a handful of exceptions, but I'll get to that) set against an admittedly limited number of combat arenas that look equally stunning and contain a surprising degree of depth and variety in how to play the game. The game looks incredible, and this is before you see it in action... and that is where it truly shines brightest. The animation is fluid in a way no game with this visual style has ever come close to, with flips and attacks and combos all being carried out with such unprecedented grace it's almost a thing of beauty to see the game in action.
The gameplay, too, is equally fantastic, with an initially simplistic one attack button system giving way to a surprisingly deep combat system that, when you try it against a skilled opponent after mastering things for yourself, can be incredibly intense to play. The variety of dodges, jumps, counters, items, and combos on offer forces you to not only rely on just charging in and attacking constantly, but actually how and where you attack your opponent from in the completely free roaming 3D combat arenas, where battles can go completely airborne or vertical up walls and cliffs in an instant. It's quite a ride. The controls also have enough of an edge of familiarity about them from the PS2's Ultimate Ninja series that veterans will feel right at home, but also have enough new material to sink their teeth into.
Another excellent touch was how completely individual each character in the game feels. In pretty much every other Naruto game, almost each character carries out the same generic series of punches and kicks in their combos, with only their Jutsus to distinguish them... not so here. Each character has an utterly unique style about them, from Shikamaru's combos that rely almost entirely on ninja tools and traps rather than straight hits, to Kabuto's 'Chakra knife' that sees him twist and dive around an opponent to strike individual body parts to disable them a piece at a time to Kiba's slashing attacks where Akamaru(His dog) is an independently moving character who partcipates in your attacks as he freely runs around your feet awaiting orders. It all feels so utterly authentic it hurts. And this is before you get to the absolutely spectacular cinematic Jutsus and transformations that alter your character's fighting style completely. It's a real joy to play.
Getting away from the combat, there is also of course the free roaming Konoha hub world that you are free to explore at will in between 'missions'(Be they fights or one of many decent mini games that you can challenge). While it is impressively open and detailed, there isn't a huge amount to do around Konoha beyond collecting scrolls and hidden items(That you can use to buy various new upgrades and extras for the game among other things) that randomise and respawn at different points as the story progresses. It looks fantastic, sure, but for the most part you'll simply be running back and forth looking for characters to initiate the next mission. It is a lot of fun using Naruto's shadow clones to propel across Konoha's skyline like a cannonball though.
Which brings me to the story mode itself, which is where things get a tad iffy. While it does a fine job of recreating almost every battle from the anime's main story, there are a few glaring omissions, mainly the rarity of actual cutscenes in the story. For the most part, battles are preceded by first person 'journal entries' but Naruto telling you what is going on, with the only cutscenes being centred around the first and last battles of each story arc. Saying that though, those cutscenes in there are amazing to behold, with most completely overshadowing the events they portray as they appeared in the anime series itself(Tsunade's battle with Orochimaru being a prime example of this). It's just a shame there are so few of them. Other glaring ommissions are on the character front, with Zabuza and Haku excised from the story completely, and a lot of characters reduced to 'supporting character only' status(Where you call them into battle to assist you at any time without actually being able to play as them). It's harsh, but even with that, the story mode still took me around 12 hours or so to work through. And the game has a whole ton of side missions and quests with their own self contained side stories(Mostly played for comedic value) to work through, so it will last a while.
The bad doesn't stop there though, as the most glaring omission of all from this game is the lack of any sort of online multiplayer. Online is more or less an essential requirement for any multiplayer enabled game these days, and while, yes, beat em ups don't have the best reputation with online modes, there's simply no excuse for excluding the feature, and that's the sole reason this game only gets 4 out of 5 from me. With online, it would have been perfect. Add to this the fact the game requires(Unadvertised on it's box) a 4.5 GB install on your HDD and things take a pretty hard hit and no mistake.
One last sticking point is the way the downloadable content is being handled with this game. While it is admirable to have new missions, costumes and support characters up for download every month, the fact that these downloads are merely unlocking content ALREADY IN THE GAME that we can't access(The first and second Hokage support characters are in the story mode, but we'll never get the chance to use them ourselves as they were only available as a pre-order incentive with the US version of the game. Low low tactics). It feels exceptionally cheap.
On the whole though, this game is still an immense amount of fun despite some issues.
The Good:
- Amazing visuals
- Best combat system seen in an anime game
- Alot of variation in skill lists
The Bad:
- Open world is basically pointless
- Lack of cutscenes
- No online multiplayer