Created by CyberConnect2, the Naruto franchise has been growing strength by strength with each new title. Though Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution is not part of the main numbered franchise, it can be seen as an extra title, akin to Generations. The game boasts some familiar modes, along with brand new features that will hopefully make it into future games in the franchise. I also hope that none of the characters get cut in future games also, as the expanded character pool is very nice.
The main focus of this new sequel in the Naruto Ultimate Ninja franchise is the new Ninja Tournament Mode, in which characters from the show must compete with each other to find out who is the greatest ninja in the Naruto world. You start off with a very limited amount of characters, though as you complete the story mode you will unlock new characters to play, and any character you unlock can be used in the tournament.
Once you begin, the area is very limited, but you can explore around the island as you compete through different levels in the tournament. The graphics look great in battles – a staple in the Storm franchise – but the game takes a bit of a hit in the open-world sections, with some poor draw distances and some characters not appearing until you are right next to them. Your team consists of four ninja’s during the qualifying rounds and to unlock support characters you must complete side quests. This adds a lot of extra replay value, even if it is mostly running around the same areas.
During the tournament battles, the fighting system is slightly different with the player with the most amount of orbs named as the winner. In this mode, the orbs replace the health bar, though the jutsu bar and substitution bar remain. Each character has access to their normal jutsu Triangle>Circle, but lack the ultimate jutsu and awakening mode. But these can be accessed during later tournament fights by collecting certain orbs that will appear during the match. The matches also add rails as you progress allowing you to do certain moves on other fighters by pressing the L1 button. I also found during the first few ranks that the AI can be quite dumb with some of the other fighters just standing around or running around the field doing nothing, sometimes not even defending themselves.
After you have defeated your first tournament mode, you then unlock Mecha Naruto story mode, which is the main feature being pushed for this title. Mecha Naruto wakes up covered in rocks, being found by the original Naruto and Hinata. The game has you go through the tournament to get the memory shard for Mecha Naruto, as he has awoken without all his memories in tact. The story is very simple, but it is a nice addition, and Mecha Naruto is also a playable character. Though he shares the same sort of move set as Naruto, he still feels fresh.
@page
Once you have had your fun with the tournament mode, the game also has a very short story mode called Ninja Escapes. This mode is split up into three chapters and these stories follow the history of Akatsuki, Shisui Uchiha and Kushina Uzumaki. Though this mode is extremely short, it is pretty much one episode of Naruto for each chapter, but in certain parts of the chapter the game will go into a standard fight. Sadfully, this mode is lacking a lot of content with the third chapter being way too short. I would of liked to have seen more fights added into this mode. Though, for what it is, it is a very enjoyable story mode, as the episodes are very well done, with the artwork superbly created by Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto.
The free battle mode returns, with survival,league,versus, and several awesome modes. This is where you will spend a lot of time practicing with your favourite characters. You will also gain a lot of Ryo, which is used to purchase items in the tournament mode. Once you have gained enough Ryo you will also start to unlock characters; this goes all the way up to 1.6 million Ryo, which is when you unlock the last character. With over 100 characters to unlock, this will take you a lot of time. Characters can be unlocked from doing the main tournament mode also. One of my favourite new features is the Team Ultimate Jutsus. If you select a certain pairing during the character selection screen, you will see a new jutsu replace the top one; this is a team Jutsu. It would be nice to see more of these in the future, including pairing that could exist but don’t in the manga/anime.
Online there are plenty of options with the likes of league and ranked fights. One of the cool features added is an AI partner that you can customize from any characters you have unlocked, giving it special traits and abilities. He will jump into other player’s tournament modes if they have an internet connection, and if they win the fight they gain exp and level up.
Overall, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution is a lot of fun for fans of the series, but it is skippable as there is no extension to the current storyline, which is a bit of a shame. However, the inclusion of new characters gives hope that the next game will push the storyline along.