Story details are told predominantly through text segments instead of the 3D animated cutscenes that would later end up taking the majority of your playtime in later titles. The first Ultimate Ninja Storm is fun in short bursts Ninja-running, rope-bouncing, and sling-shotting yourself across the map can be fun a initially entertaining distraction, but Ultimate Ninja Storm’s emphasis on this open world section is a huge detriment to what could’ve been a fantastic game in the series. Whereas its sequel would opt for overhead linear paths on pre-drawn backgrounds to save on development costs, the original Ultimate Ninja Storm features a fully 3D recreation of the Hidden Leaf Village. Outside of the fighting, however, is Naruto’s biggest drawback: the open world. Outside of numerous battle conditions and the occasional QTE section mini-boss, you’ll mostly be doing the same things over and over again, whether that be actually fighting or taking part in one of the title’s few repeated mini-games. Ultimate Ninja Storm is a game designed for short quick bursts, its underlying foundations make this abundantly clear. Fights are still fun despite numerous balancing issues and a highly repetitive nature, but I highly doubt that this collection was intended for players to burst through. That being said, simple doesn’t always correlate with bad game design. You’ll be able to call in assist characters and throw out equipped items such as kunai and paper bombs to help out in tough situations, but that’s about as complex as the fighting ever gets.
Throwing out basic combos and throws whilst carefully managing your chakra (energy) meter to dish out special moves is the staple of the entire series’ combat. The fighting system features the same basic combat as every other game in the series, although certain small aspects are simplified and/or watered-down versions of what the fighting systems would eventually become. It shows a lot of new ideas and has its heart in the right place, but CyberConnect 2’s maiden voyage into the gigantic ocean of Masashi Kishimoto’s work shows that the company didn’t have anywhere near enough resources to create exactly what they wanted. Unfortunately, this first entry is underwhelming at best.
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Being the first game in the series as well (and the only one I hadn’t played), Ultimate Ninja Storm has a lot to live up to.
After all, it took Ubisoft, a company with substantially more employees, two games of vastly differing qualities-Path of the Ninja and The Broken Bond-to dish out every piece of Naruto’s younger arc. It may not be the most accurate, small story details and character development may be lost, but if you don’t want to spend months of your life watching and reading the original material this is the best way to experience Naruto’s journey.Ĭovering the entirety of the original series would be no small feat for a developer of CyberConnect 2’s size back in 2008. Taking all four of the main series games in this incredibly long-running series, developer CyberConnect 2 have packaged together the entire journey of Naruto (and even some of Boruto) into one gigantic package for fans and newcomers alike to enjoy.įrom Ultimate Ninja Storm all the way to Ultimate Ninja Storm 4: Road to Boruto, you’ll experience every second of Naruto’s (non-filler) journey in a slightly abridged and streamlined version of events. That’s not to say that it’s a bad cash-grab or a bad product actually, I’d say that Legacy is one of the best cash-grabs/remaster compilations you can buy, granted you’re interested in the franchise. Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy is just that: a cash-grab.
Free roam naruto game license#
But when a series as popular as Naruto finishes-despite its numerous shortcomings-fans just want more, and now it’s up to the numerous game developers with access to the license to cash-in on the series one final time. While the character is still kicking (I think) in the narrative successor Boruto, Naruto, for the most part, has finished his journey from knucklehead ninja to Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. The traditional story of the twenty-year-long manga Naruto has ended.