Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution Review
Taking the same no-nonsense approach as its predecessors - and offering the same surprising degree of visual polish - CyberConnect2’s latest Naruto brawler doesn’t break the mould as much as some devout fans would have you believe. That said though, this freshened-up approach, when combined with the small handful of revamped gameplay systems, does just about enough to make this outing arguably the most broadly appealing Naruto offering in a very long time.
First thing’s first. One aspect of these games that has always dazzled is how fine-tuned and balanced the combat is. Even the biggest and most popular fighting game series - Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter - utilise valuable post-launch patches to sort themselves out, but the Naruto games rarely need that much work. There are tweaks to be made, certainly, but for a game that arrives with one hundred - yes, ONE HUNDRED - playable characters, it’s a wonder that the thing works at all. But it does.
The threadbare storyline of the campaign - if you can call it a campaign - centres on the Ninja World Tournament which, as the game begins, is due to take place imminently on Festival Island. Play in this primary mode involves beating orbs out of three simultaneous opponents… before they have the chance to beat your orbs out of you. It’s fresh, simple (well, relatively) and the gameplay is paced like lightning; much more like the classic Naruto beat ‘em ups rather than the experimental, slower style of play offered up by Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations from 2012.
Fundamental changes are minor, but the biggest difference is that shield breaks now leave your opponent without a shield for a prolonged amount of time. The fiercer Jutsu attacks have been nerfed to accommodate this shift in pace, but it definitely takes some getting used to. Combo cancels are also far easier to pull off, and they aren’t solely the preserve of a few specific characters. Some of them even perform combos (not elaborate ones, either) in which it seems as if every other hit doubles up as a combo cancel.
A few hardcore fans will be saddened by the fact that Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution doesn’t offer Jutsu Clash battles - a mode that has become something of a franchise staple, in fairness - but the rest of the package does a reasonable job of compensating for that. There’s also no Free Play Tournament mode, and the game’s big new idea - simultaneous four player combat - isn’t available in multiplayer. That isn’t so much unfortunate as borderline crippling: if you’re a hard-up member of the hardcore, this simply isn’t essential because the competitive stuff just isn’t different enough from the most recent game, Full Burst.
Conversely, staunch Naruto devotees who DO invest in this outing are rewarded with the new online League mode, which is the kind of thing that regularly appears in things like Street Fighter, and is a system that will be welcomed in with open arms by the pros. Professionals are also likely to become enamoured by the game’s storyline, but if you aren’t a fanatic who’s seen every episode of Naruto and Naruto Shippuden - all 500+ of them - you are probably going to get lost early and stay there.
With its customarily taut online offering and around 50 minutes of brand new (and exclusive) Naruto anime material - courtesy of series originator Masashi Kishimoto himself, no less - this is definitely a package that takes direct aim (as usual) at the sizeable army of devoted Naruto fanatics. But some smart design choices - especially the new combo cancel system - mean that this might just bring a small number of curious newcomers to the party. The game’s maker’s have expressed designs on this appearing at tournament festivals like Evo going forward. It’s certainly good enough.
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7/10
Review By Chet Roivas
