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By: Robert Murphy
Well it looks like the anime phenomenon Naruto is coming
back to our gaming consoles once again in the fighting action game “Naruto
Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3”. This time around players will be picking up
right where they left off in “Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2” except
for a quick flashback to the beginning of Naruto all together when the Nine
Tailed Fox first attacked the Leaf Village. From there players will be taken
right up to the moments following the attack made by The Six Paths of Pain as
the village is beginning to rebuild, now if it wasn’t clear by now people who
haven’t either played the previous games or followed the story at all, you may
be pretty lost and you may want to buy the other games to catch up. However (I’m
just assuming) since this is the third installment to the Ninja Storm
franchise, I’d think you’ve all been following along with the story if you’ve
bought this game, so let’s dig right in.
At this point in the story we are dealing with a much more
mature Naruto Uzumaki , far from the annoying little kid who felt compelled to
shout out “Believe It” every five seconds, now this mischief maker is viewed as
the hero of Konoha Village who stopped Pain and saved the village. And even
though Naruto is still foolishly chasing after Sasuke (still, I know right?),
Naruto will now be making peace with many of his demons as well as questions
from his past. In fact this time around players will be hitting plenty of
touching/tear jerking moments for fans of the series and casual players alike
as every character through the shows entire span will be coming back and will
be having battles with the ones that would cause the most heart ache for these
characters. For example the battle which Choji, Ino and Shikamaru must fight
their former teacher Asuma, literally put in just to bring a tear to your eye
as it is with most of the battles you face throughout the game.
a look at the character selection
As it was with previous games, excluding “Naruto Shippuden:
Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations”, battles in the game feature free movement
where players can move all over the battlefield during your fights. The game
however features some significant changes to the game play with things like
Awakening Mode which use to be used as your last resort in battle that would
increase your characters strength and sometimes even transform characters to a
powerful form when you needed it most. Now though players can activate their
characters awakened forms any time during the battle as long as you don’t mind
losing control over special moves for a short time. Another addition to the
game is the Hero/Legend system which is mainly used to help give your character
more powerful items to use during your battles but it also affects the level of
difficulty you will face in certain battles. Completing battles through the game
will give you points in both categories but when players are given the option
to choose whether they want a Hero battle (easy) or a Legendary battle (hard)
you will only gain points in one category. Choosing one over the other might
mean you simply fight a different set of enemies in a mob battle, a new feature
that sees players taking on multiple enemies at once, or it could result in a
completely different boss fight entirely. These are profound decisions, at
least until you realize you can replay any of the game's sequences from the
Ninja World Timeline option in the menu, exploring untraveled branches at your
leisure.
Again skipping over Ninja Storm Generations, players will
once again experience amazing boss battles that are cut together with quick time
events, while pointless seeing as if you miss a button sequence you are taken
right back to before you missed it; I myself find it highly enjoyable while
seeing the beautifully designed battles unfold.
Once the book is closed on the Fourth Great Ninja War and the last quick
time events have been input, Naruto is free to wander the world, engaging in
side-quests, collecting items and playing a mini-game involving strengthening
your relationship with your fellow ninja. Although not on par to what it was in
the previous Ninja Storm game, this still provides for some added fun after
you’ve gone back and S-ranked the story.
Finally, for those competitive Naruto fans out there who want
to take their favorite characters from the series and show off their moves,
players can head on over to the multiplayer. Players can battle with more than
80 different playable characters however the characters aren’t at all as
balanced as they have been in previous games. This results in a very
unfortunate multiplayer experience where players all find the same over powered
character and beat the crap out of any unfortunate late comer to the game.
Being a Naruto fan I could pick at a few
things in the story, but they are easily overlooked by the game that is brought
before you, not only is the game set in the storyline, players get a chance to
unleash their favorite characters most devastating moves. “Naruto Shippuden:
Ultimate Ninja Storm 3” is definitely a step in the right direction after
Naruto Generations straight forward and scripted approach to things. Ginormous,
mildly-interactive boss fights as well
as giving players the ability to enter awaken mode whenever they so choose are
a good start to making future games (which we all know are coming) even better.
And if you can side step the horrible multiplayer element, players and fans
will undoubtedly get a lot of enjoyment from what the game has to offer.
Good:
-Exploring a great part in the Naruto storyline
-Amazing boss battles are back and better than ever
-Tear jerking moments that are well put together for the fans
Bad:
-Horrible multiplayer
Scully Rating: 8.0 out of 10