Tag Archives: Naruto
Xbox 360 | Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Review
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is a game that knows its audience. Picking up where its predecessor left off, it tells the ongoing tale of young ninja Naruto Uzumaki’s struggles as the Nine-Tails’ jinchuriki and his complex relationship with Sasuke Uchiha. It also covers the five kage summit and the outbreak of the fourth great ninja war.
If none of this means anything to you, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is not the game for you. It spends tremendous amounts of time on storytelling, and there are so many characters, factions, rivalries, chakras, jutsus, and other aspects of Naruto history and lore at play that unless you have a working familiarity with all this stuff ahead of time, you’re going to be completely lost. The series hasn’t lost its knack for eye-popping boss battles and amazing ninja powers. But even diehard Naruto fans will find that this latest entry fumbles the pacing in its single-player Ultimate Adventure mode by spending far too much time hitting you with conversations and cutscenes and not nearly enough time letting you meaningfully participate in the story.
Of course, you can always skip the story sequences and get right to the next gameplay section, but the story is such a focus here that if you don’t have an interest in watching this game unfold its tale, then there’s little point in playing the game at all. Well over half of the time it takes to get through the single-player campaign is taken up by cutscenes and chitchat. You often watch several minutes of cutscenes, take control of a character to move him or her through an environment, maybe stopping to talk to other characters now and then, and then watch several more minutes of cutscenes. Sometimes, those cutscenes are action-packed and entertaining, but there are also lots of long expository sequences in which characters just stand around calmly talking to each other. Yes, there are intense battles from time to time, but there aren’t nearly enough of these to support the bloated narrative.
When you do have to fight, you find that you can easily pull off incredible-looking techniques regardless of which character you happen to be controlling at that moment. There are dozens of playable characters in Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, but they all do attacks, build up chakra, and perform combos with the same button presses and combinations. This is a pick-up-and-play game: all accessibility, little depth. It’s more about spectacle than skill, though the speed at which it moves means it does reward rapid reflexes, and it’s exhilarating for a while to perform massively powerful, terrific-looking jutsu attacks with a few quick and easy button presses.
But there aren’t tricky combos and high-level techniques to master; once you’ve got a handle on the basics, you can get better at implementing those techniques, but you aren’t going to experience the gratification that comes with mastering higher-level skills, because there aren’t any. The result is an experience that’s immediately enjoyable, but doesn’t stay rewarding for long. You may have a particular interest in playing as Deidara or Orochimaru or some other character, but because they all play so similarly, the unlocked characters you’re frequently showered with as you progress through the Ultimate Adventure mode don’t give you access to new strategies and new ways to play.
During specific fights, the free-flowing combat gets replaced by visually spectacular quick-time events that fully capture the kinetic energy of the anime’s over-the-top battles. Whether it’s a scene in which Naruto and Sasuke fight it out on the surface of a lake as a previous encounter comes flooding back to them or a sequence in which the massive, fearsome beast Nine-Tails threatens to destroy Hidden Leaf Village, these sections make for incredible viewing. These encounters and others present you with a choice of taking the legend approach or the hero approach. Your choice has a typically minor effect on how the battle plays out, and no effect on how the rest of the story plays out. It also determines whether you earn more hero experience or more legend experience, each of which gives you access to different types of items to use in battle. This does provide an incentive to return to earlier battles and choose the alternate approach just to see what impact it has, but that impact is usually disappointingly minor.
Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 also introduces mob battles in which you take on numerous easy, incapable enemies at once. They’re mechanically dull, but moves that let you leap instantly from one enemy to another give these battles a visual energy, at least on the PlayStation 3. On the Xbox 360, these battles are interrupted by severe hang-ups that not only break up the flow of battle but can also result in the game failing to recognize your button inputs. The PS3 version doesn’t suffer from this problem, but on both consoles, load times are frequent and long.
Outside of the single-player campaign, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 lets you mix it up with other players locally and online. The online play functions well and allows you to jump into ranked or unranked matches and to set up tournaments for up to eight players. As with story battles, the accessibility and the impressive visuals make fighting against other players enjoyable from the get-go, but the simplicity of the action prevents it from holding your interest for long. The fighting system doesn’t allow for much of a nuanced, tactical approach, and so your online opponents tend to spam the same few powerful attacks over and over again. It becomes routine and predictable quickly, and the prospect of unlocking more titles and images for your ninja info card (a profile that is made visible to and traded with your opponents) isn’t a compelling reason to soldier on. This game is only for those who care to see Naruto’s story continue to play out, and though it has its moments, it doesn’t deliver quite the level of excitement you’d hope for from a game bearing the Naruto Shippuden name.
PlayStation 3 | Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Review
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is a game that knows its audience. Picking up where its predecessor left off, it tells the ongoing tale of young ninja Naruto Uzumaki’s struggles as the Nine-Tails’ jinchuriki and his complex relationship with Sasuke Uchiha. It also covers the five kage summit and the outbreak of the fourth great ninja war.
If none of this means anything to you, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is not the game for you. It spends tremendous amounts of time on storytelling, and there are so many characters, factions, rivalries, chakras, jutsus, and other aspects of Naruto history and lore at play that unless you have a working familiarity with all this stuff ahead of time, you’re going to be completely lost. The series hasn’t lost its knack for eye-popping boss battles and amazing ninja powers. But even diehard Naruto fans will find that this latest entry fumbles the pacing in its single-player Ultimate Adventure mode by spending far too much time hitting you with conversations and cutscenes and not nearly enough time letting you meaningfully participate in the story.
Of course, you can always skip the story sequences and get right to the next gameplay section, but the story is such a focus here that if you don’t have an interest in watching this game unfold its tale, then there’s little point in playing the game at all. Well over half of the time it takes to get through the single-player campaign is taken up by cutscenes and chitchat. You often watch several minutes of cutscenes, take control of a character to move him or her through an environment, maybe stopping to talk to other characters now and then, and then watch several more minutes of cutscenes. Sometimes, those cutscenes are action-packed and entertaining, but there are also lots of long expository sequences in which characters just stand around calmly talking to each other. Yes, there are intense battles from time to time, but there aren’t nearly enough of these to support the bloated narrative.
When you do have to fight, you find that you can easily pull off incredible-looking techniques regardless of which character you happen to be controlling at that moment. There are dozens of playable characters in Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, but they all do attacks, build up chakra, and perform combos with the same button presses and combinations. This is a pick-up-and-play game: all accessibility, little depth. It’s more about spectacle than skill, though the speed at which it moves means it does reward rapid reflexes, and it’s exhilarating for a while to perform massively powerful, terrific-looking jutsu attacks with a few quick and easy button presses.
But there aren’t tricky combos and high-level techniques to master; once you’ve got a handle on the basics, you can get better at implementing those techniques, but you aren’t going to experience the gratification that comes with mastering higher-level skills, because there aren’t any. The result is an experience that’s immediately enjoyable, but doesn’t stay rewarding for long. You may have a particular interest in playing as Deidara or Orochimaru or some other character, but because they all play so similarly, the unlocked characters you’re frequently showered with as you progress through the Ultimate Adventure mode don’t give you access to new strategies and new ways to play.
During specific fights, the free-flowing combat gets replaced by visually spectacular quick-time events that fully capture the kinetic energy of the anime’s over-the-top battles. Whether it’s a scene in which Naruto and Sasuke fight it out on the surface of a lake as a previous encounter comes flooding back to them or a sequence in which the massive, fearsome beast Nine-Tails threatens to destroy Hidden Leaf Village, these sections make for incredible viewing. These encounters and others present you with a choice of taking the legend approach or the hero approach. Your choice has a typically minor effect on how the battle plays out, and no effect on how the rest of the story plays out. It also determines whether you earn more hero experience or more legend experience, each of which gives you access to different types of items to use in battle. This does provide an incentive to return to earlier battles and choose the alternate approach just to see what impact it has, but that impact is usually disappointingly minor.
Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 also introduces mob battles in which you take on numerous easy, incapable enemies at once. They’re mechanically dull, but moves that let you leap instantly from one enemy to another give these battles a visual energy, at least on the PlayStation 3. On the Xbox 360, these battles are interrupted by severe hang-ups that not only break up the flow of battle but can also result in the game failing to recognize your button inputs. The PS3 version doesn’t suffer from this problem, but on both consoles, load times are frequent and long.
Outside of the single-player campaign, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 lets you mix it up with other players locally and online. The online play functions well and allows you to jump into ranked or unranked matches and to set up tournaments for up to eight players. As with story battles, the accessibility and the impressive visuals make fighting against other players enjoyable from the get-go, but the simplicity of the action prevents it from holding your interest for long. The fighting system doesn’t allow for much of a nuanced, tactical approach, and so your online opponents tend to spam the same few powerful attacks over and over again. It becomes routine and predictable quickly, and the prospect of unlocking more titles and images for your ninja info card (a profile that is made visible to and traded with your opponents) isn’t a compelling reason to soldier on. This game is only for those who care to see Naruto’s story continue to play out, and though it has its moments, it doesn’t deliver quite the level of excitement you’d hope for from a game bearing the Naruto Shippuden name.
Xbox 360 | Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations Review
The Video Review
Maxwell demonstrates his mastery of the Ultimate Review Jutsu in this video review for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is a good gateway into the world of fighting games. As with previous games in the Storm series, Generations’ core combat mechanics are accessible enough for a large audience to enjoy while still rewarding practice and proficiency. This series has a beautiful visual style and an aggressive combat rhythm uniquely its own. But while the core mechanics remain intact, Generations drops some features found in its predecessors and offers shallow alternatives.
Watching a match of Generations is a lot like watching Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy–it appears complicated but is quite simple. For Generations, matches are fought between two opponents until one side runs out of health. The face buttons control attacking, dashing, throwing shurikens, and manipulating chakra. Chakra is the currency of special attacks and can be used in conjunction with any of the other three functions for enhanced results. For instance, using chakra and dash together lets you move farther more quickly, while chakra and attack together produce devastating special moves.
These special moves are the main point of distinction between this game’s 72 playable characters. Generations, like previous Naruto fighting games, focuses its efforts on providing interesting outputs rather than inputs. There’s no need to master complex combo timing or to study the particulars of a light punch versus a medium kick. The vast majority of fighters use the same style and tactics. Proficiency steams from mastering the fighting system, rather than individual characters. Whether you’re a novice or a veteran, the fights are still fast-paced bouts filled with fireballs, tidal waves, and more.
The backbone of Generations’ combat system is the substitution technique, which lets a character teleport behind his or her attacker. This mechanic drives the flow of combat, which, at its most basic, follows a rhythm of strike, teleport, strike, teleport, and so on until one side cannot teleport further. The challenge is manipulating that flow so your opponent exhausts his or her substitutions before you do. This gives the game an overwhelming focus on aggressive, rush-down tactics and doesn’t leave much room for different fighting styles.
In addition to being the game’s backbone, the substitution technique has received significant changes. Previously, it depleted the chakra gauge when used, which led to some unintended exploits from skilled players. Now, this technique has its own dedicated gauge that is divided into four sections. Each section affords one substitution and refills automatically. The window for performing a substitution is larger in this game as well. These tweaks make each substitution extremely valuable and lower the skill barrier by de-emphasizing precise timing and instead focusing on resource management. They maintain the core strategy of substitutions while making the technique more accessible.
Generations does a marvelous job of re-creating the look and feel of its televised counterpart. The visual style is smooth and crisp, with a high-contrast art style that reflects the colorful look of the show. Each character’s most powerful attack includes swooping camera angles that highlight the devastation. Sadly, the road to these moments is needlessly difficult since the game lacks a comprehensive tutorial. Diving into the training mode options menu reveals a command list with the game’s most basic functions, but some of the finer points–such as how assist characters can extend combos–are left unspoken.
The narrative mode in Generations has dramatically changed from previous games. What used to be a large, interactive world to explore has been reduced to a glorified arcade mode. The former was often bogged down with numerous uninspired fetch quests, but even so it was an interesting way to explore the world of Naruto. Its replacement weaves a tale through narration and stills that bookend each fight. This structure is a safe bet, but lacks the epic cinematic events, rail-shooting sequences, and other unique features of the former mode.
The online offering in Generations is very robust. Across numerous matches of varying connection strengths, this game’s performance is consistently excellent. There is hardly any noticeable lag or other connection issues. When playing with a group, spectating is available for the non-active players. Replay support is also included, letting you view and download replays of other matches, but there isn’t any way to filter replays, which is unfortunate.
Thanks to the tweaks to the substitution technique, the combat mechanics in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations feel better than ever. But as a whole, this game is a minor refinement over the previous installments. Generations is still a solid fighter, but definitely leaves you wanting more variety in its modes.
PlayStation 3 | Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations Review
The Video Review
Maxwell demonstrates his mastery of the Ultimate Review Jutsu in this video review for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is a good gateway into the world of fighting games. As with previous games in the Storm series, Generations’ core combat mechanics are accessible enough for a large audience to enjoy while still rewarding practice and proficiency. This series has a beautiful visual style and an aggressive combat rhythm uniquely its own. But while the core mechanics remain intact, Generations drops some features found in its predecessors and offers shallow alternatives.
Watching a match of Generations is a lot like watching Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy–it appears complicated but is quite simple. For Generations, matches are fought between two opponents until one side runs out of health. The face buttons control attacking, dashing, throwing shurikens, and manipulating chakra. Chakra is the currency of special attacks and can be used in conjunction with any of the other three functions for enhanced results. For instance, using chakra and dash together lets you move farther more quickly, while chakra and attack together produce devastating special moves.
These special moves are the main point of distinction between this game’s 72 playable characters. Generations, like previous Naruto fighting games, focuses its efforts on providing interesting outputs rather than inputs. There’s no need to master complex combo timing or to study the particulars of a light punch versus a medium kick. The vast majority of fighters use the same style and tactics. Proficiency steams from mastering the fighting system, rather than individual characters. Whether you’re a novice or a veteran, the fights are still fast-paced bouts filled with fireballs, tidal waves, and more.
The backbone of Generations’ combat system is the substitution technique, which lets a character teleport behind his or her attacker. This mechanic drives the flow of combat, which, at its most basic, follows a rhythm of strike, teleport, strike, teleport, and so on until one side cannot teleport further. The challenge is manipulating that flow so your opponent exhausts his or her substitutions before you do. This gives the game an overwhelming focus on aggressive, rush-down tactics and doesn’t leave much room for different fighting styles.
In addition to being the game’s backbone, the substitution technique has received significant changes. Previously, it depleted the chakra gauge when used, which led to some unintended exploits from skilled players. Now, this technique has its own dedicated gauge that is divided into four sections. Each section affords one substitution and refills automatically. The window for performing a substitution is larger in this game as well. These tweaks make each substitution extremely valuable and lower the skill barrier by de-emphasizing precise timing and instead focusing on resource management. They maintain the core strategy of substitutions while making the technique more accessible.
Generations does a marvelous job of re-creating the look and feel of its televised counterpart. The visual style is smooth and crisp, with a high-contrast art style that reflects the colorful look of the show. Each character’s most powerful attack includes swooping camera angles that highlight the devastation. Sadly, the road to these moments is needlessly difficult since the game lacks a comprehensive tutorial. Diving into the training mode options menu reveals a command list with the game’s most basic functions, but some of the finer points–such as how assist characters can extend combos–are left unspoken.
The narrative mode in Generations has dramatically changed from previous games. What used to be a large, interactive world to explore has been reduced to a glorified arcade mode. The former was often bogged down with numerous uninspired fetch quests, but even so it was an interesting way to explore the world of Naruto. Its replacement weaves a tale through narration and stills that bookend each fight. This structure is a safe bet, but lacks the epic cinematic events, rail-shooting sequences, and other unique features of the former mode.
The online offering in Generations is very robust. Across numerous matches of varying connection strengths, this game’s performance is consistently excellent. There is hardly any noticeable lag or other connection issues. When playing with a group, spectating is available for the non-active players. Replay support is also included, letting you view and download replays of other matches, but there isn’t any way to filter replays, which is unfortunate.
Thanks to the tweaks to the substitution technique, the combat mechanics in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations feel better than ever. But as a whole, this game is a minor refinement over the previous installments. Generations is still a solid fighter, but definitely leaves you wanting more variety in its modes.
New ‘Naruto’ Episodes to be Simulcast on Hulu Plus
Starting today, VIZ Media will simulcast the most-recent episodes of the anime series Naruto Shippuden on the Hulu Plus subscription service.
Subscribers can watch new episodes of the series in high-definition just an hour after the broadcast debut in Japan, starting with episode 245. New episodes will be broadcast weekly.
Users of the free, ad-supported Hulu service can watch the new episodes one week after their initial run on Hulu Plus or on VIZAnime.com.
Hulu Plus subscriptions cost $ 7.99 per month.
Created by Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto was first introduced in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in Japan in 1999 and quickly became that country’s most popular ninja manga targeting tweens and teens. The manga and anime series, depicting the adventures of ninja-in-training Uzumaki Naruto, is one of VIZ Media’s most successful properties and has captivated millions of fans across the Americas and Europe.
