Naruto Shippuden welcomes the player with an extensive horde of battle options, and it clearly favours to it’s fans with it’s use of exciting and flashy animated menus that have Naruto screaming through each. With seven different game modes to play in all providing additional options within them there’s certainly a lot to take part in. Catering largely to it’s already established audience however, newcomers are left browse in the hopes they’ll stumble across the game’s mains story mode. And this where the problem lies.

The Ninja World tournament mode is as good a guess as any, but one wouldn’t know through the title alone. Free to play battles branch off in to a section of league, practice, Versus and Tournament, but who’s to know the difference from the Ninja World Tournament and the regular free play variation. Ninja world tournament seems to be where the heart of the game is.

"Naruto Shippuden welcomes the player with a horde of options to do battle in and caters in favour and excitement with it's flashy and animated menus."

Playing out in an RPG-like fashion whereby players take part in a tournament using a character of their choosing, they register their character and qualify for the finals working their way up to gain the highest ranks and prizes. When not taking part in battle however, players are free to roam the lands outside the arena, where they can purchase items.

This is where the money earned from the tournament can be used to purchase items such as recovery potions and what is essentially battle perks, from merchants stationed within the world. Ninja world tournament also does well in being distinct from the other modes in the game by incorporating battle specific terms, rules and regulations. Whereby certain criteria must be met in order to win the battles rather than just pummelling your opponent in to a loss.

While players are free to play out similar game modes through the game’s free-play section, it’s here where the game shines and where players will most likely spend the majority of their time unless competing with other players. The other variation of tournament mode the Mecha-Naruto story, is something in particular that I imagine fans of the series will also get a kick from, as it serves as exclusive content containing fifty minutes of unseen footage, created specifically for the game.

"Ninja world tournament also does well in being distinct from the other modes in the game by incorporating battle specific terms, rules and regulations."

As previously said, the Ninja world tournament also makes use of a RPG system, and this is done through its use of items and small durations of free roaming outside the initial tournament. While this feels like it was designed in fan favor it really doesn’t feel quite necessary and on a personal note I would have just preferred a menu system, just to stay on path for the upcoming battles, without having to wonder the world and talk to NPCs that have nothing useful to add to the game.

Naruto Shippuden carries a strong sense of requirement regarding the characters and the lore of it’s universe. As someone who knows little to nothing about Naruto or his affiliates within the game, other than some strange power regarding a nine-tail fox and a grey-haired ninja with a chip on his shoulder, I felt a little lost.

The game is clearly catered towards it’s fans and while this isn’t necessary a bad thing, diving in to the game’s ninja escapades mode my enjoyment only came from it’s character design, lengthy entertaining cut-scenes, and gameplay. The game’s lore may have nothing in common with other anime but regarding the structure of the game and the way in which gameplay works, it’s feels near impossible not to make comparisons between Namco Bandai’s DragonBall Z games.

"As previously said, the Ninja world tournament also makes use of a RPG system, and this is done through its use of items and small durations of free roaming outside the initial tournament."

The difference in terms of structure however is that Naruto seems to do more in terms of fan favor such as more choices of battles, a gigantic quantity of characters, and never before seen content which is essentially shortened TV episodes exclusive to the game. Gameplay however, feels almost identical when looking back on the DragonBall Z Tenkaichi games.

This is largely down to the size of the game’s arenas and the way in which players are free to navigate and attack their opponents from distance, as well as button layout and mechanics. It should be said that the battles do play out slower and don’t go over the top with the speed and intensity of the battles.

Battles are fast-paced just not to the extent of DragonBall Z, and this makes sense in terms of the Naruto universe and the way characters fight and interact from the TV series. This is also where similarities end, and restrict the game from becoming a game of copy and paste re-skinning.

There’s no denying the enjoyability that can be had from the game but the requirement of background knowledge which can be gained from reading some of it’s books or playing previous games feels like a must. The good news here however is that if you do enjoy the entertainment that forms from it’s cut-scenes and character interactions, going back on previous games will feel all the more enjoyable and well deserved. The large roster of characters in the game is something of a marvel.

"Gameplay however, feels almost identical when looking back on DragonBall Z's Tenkaichi series of games. "

Spanning to around one hundred characters with a large majority already unlocked from the start, and the rest attainable from completing events within the game, progress is something to be awarded. Characters such as Kiba, Shino, Sasuke, Neji, and Rock Lee make an appearance with plenty more to follow such as The Fourth Kazekage and character variations such as the Nine-tailed transformation of Naruto.

There’s plenty to choose from. Where the game expands upon it’s character selection lies within the it’s different customization presets and it’s selection of fighting styles which each character contains changing their skill settings and player styles when taking part in battle. These are known as Ultimate Jutsu, Awakening, and Drive.

Other game modes that lie within the free play section do well to provide options for players who wish to tone up their skills or experience something different from the tournament based battles, that are subject to random battle-specific conditions.

With free play mode further branching down in to a survival mode, practice battle, league mode, and a local versus mode, there’s certainly a lot to experience. These game modes cater more to the player’s own input and decisions by providing multi-team battles, as well as tag team and eight player battles, which can be played both locally and online.

"Where the game expands upon it's character selection lies within the it's different customization presets and it's selection of fighting styles which each character contains changing their skill settings and player style when taking part in battle."

The benefits of playing in these team-based battles is the role in which additional players provide to the battles. Similar to the Marvel Vs Capcom series, characters provide leader and supporting roles in which they can interrupt or join the battle.

Teaming certain characters with one another provide special character specific attacks that other combinations may not provide, or differ in another way. The game carries a real sense of customization throughout everything it does and this keeps battles from feeling stale.

As touched upon previously the gameplay is best described as something similar to that of Namco Bandai’s DragonBall Z Tenkaichi games. Buttons are mapped to character states and attacks, that play out differently depending on the combination in which it’s triggered in reference to how much power your character contains.

This power is known as Chakra and is gained from holding down the corresponding button in order to raise it’s gauge. Depending on how far the player raises it will give different use cases and deliver a certain amount of damage upon his or her opponents. Chakra can be used for faster movement, counter attacks, special attacks, range based attacks through the means of ninja shurikens, and teleportation to be used as a means of dodging.

" The game carries a real sense of customization throughout everything it provides and this keeps battles from feeling stale."

Known as Jutsu these special moves play out differently in regards to how much chakra the player has, and can also be combined for a team based assault where by special moves are combined in order to destroy your opponent. These Jutsu attacks play out like a shortened cut-scene using camera angles that one might recognize from the TV series.

What’s good about these is that they’re not subject to certain times or conditions within the battle, if you have the power then use it. These never get old and are entertaining to watch. This also feels satisfying and raises a feeling of intensity.

All of this combined it makes the game all the more enjoyable considering the learning curve is fairly low. Where this learning curve changes however is through the adjustment of difficulty, which ranges from super easy right up to very hard based on a scale of five levels. This makes practice all the worth while as well as enjoyable in delivering a sense of progression to keep the player engaged.

Ranging to around forty backgrounds to do battle upon Naruto Shippuden provides more than enough fan favourites to keep players satisfied. Orochimaru’s Hideout, Samurai Bridge, the Sulphur stone temple, and the Hidden Sand Gate are just a few of what the game has to offer. With variations of these arenas also available to rage war in, each battle can feel very distinctive and different from the last.

"This also feels satisfying and raises a feeling of intensity and it makes the game all the more enjoyable, considering the learning curve is fairly low."

The only issue I find with these levels is that the game doesn’t do enough in terms of interaction, other than certain levels containing drop off points where by the player would fall to a lower level. It feels like more could have been done here and would be something to think upon should there be any future titles.

Character customisation mode is used to set up presets that can be chosen from the character selection screen. From here you can equip different character items and accessories to use in battle as well character specific finishing attacks.

While the game embraces many items and accessories to effect the course of the duration of battle, this are best thought of as perks. I only wish the game did more with them however as I they where never something I really needed or relied upon in regards to my own skills and time spent practising.

Naruto Shippuden is visually relatable to that of it’s TV series. Using similar colour tones and traditional anime style graphics Naruto Shippuden isn’t something that’s here to be visually ground breaking, it’s here to replicate what’s shown through its television series, and it succeeds on that front.

" It feels like more could have been done here and would be something to think upon should there be any future titles."

Produced through a 720p resolution at a frame rate of thirty, input felt a touch slow at times and the reasoning for a higher frame rate or resolution doesn’t appear to be anything out of the consoler’s reach. A frame rate of sixty would have been very much appreciated, especially in a fighting game where it’s gameplay moves a reasonably fast rate and input time is crucial.

The only other issue I have with the game lies in it’s neediness. Over blown loading screens that swarm the player in paragraph size hints and tips on how to play the game, that are never fully read before the game actually loads up. This should have never been incorporated considering the game’s pause menu simplifies all of this within it’s character command list. It looks flashy but it’s pointless.

Naruto Shippuden has a few short comings but none of which are truly game breaking or disrupting from it’s enjoyability. While fans will no doubt have fun with the game regardless, it’s going to take quite a substantial amount of effort for newcomers to reap the enjoyability for what the game contains. And while I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Naruto Shippuden as a starting point, it has shown me what an interesting an entertaining set of characters and a possible story may exist within it’s universe.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

“It is with great joy that we release the latest game born from our association with the exceedingly talented CyberConnect 2 team. With more than 2M units sold for Storm 3 & Storm 3 Full Burst combined; our expectations for Storm Revolution are set quite high! The game content and quality are greater than ever, thanks to a tremendous work from everyone. Our fans feedback is really important to us and this is why we created the Storm League platform; we wanted the fans to have an official platform to create their tournaments and compete in the best environment possible!” Herve Hoerdt, Vice President of IP Strategy at Bandai Namco Games Europe.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on this game.

Bandai Namco announced today that Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, the newest fighting game in their series of fighting games based on the popular anime and manga, will be releasing September 16 in the west on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC via Steam.

There will also be a day one edition available across America with extra content, should you be interested in that. It will include costume DLC, as well as a Naruto short story anime featuring Itachi Uchiha.

In addition, there will also be numerous pre-order offers for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution available at various retailers throughout the US and Canada. Among the pre-order promotions and offers are included:

• Summer Cloth Pack ­ a collection of four summer costumes for Sakura, Tenten, Hinata and Ino (available at Best Buy and Future Shop while supplies last).
• Samurai Armor Pack ­ Fight as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura dressed in special Samurai Armor (available at Amazon.com while supplies last).
• Mecha-Naruto Poster ­ Exclusive Japanese Mecha-Naruto poster (available at GameStop and EB Games while supplies last).

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/naruto-shippuden-ultimate-ninja-storm-revolution-launches-september-16/feed 0 201692 https://gamingbolt.com/kushina-uzumaki-is-the-newest-character-inclusion-in-naruto-shippuden-ultimate-ninja-storm-revolution https://gamingbolt.com/kushina-uzumaki-is-the-newest-character-inclusion-in-naruto-shippuden-ultimate-ninja-storm-revolution#respond Mon, 12 May 2014 22:04:53 +0000 http://gamingbolt.com/?p=195888

Kushina Uzumaki, known to Naruto fans as the mother of Hidden Leaf’s hero, has been announced as the newest character to be joining the fight in this year’s Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution, the new fighter from Bandai Namco games based on the popular anime.

Kushina Uzumaki is well known for having a fiery disposition and temper, both of which we are promised she will bring into this game with her, reflecting her unique fighting style. She will also be one of the narrative pillars upon which the new storyline presented in this game will be built on.

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution is an enhanced take on last year’s Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, but with an all new story and more refined mechanics. It will be hitting the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC this September in Europe and Australia. Stay tuned for more coverage of the game.

The title is set to be published by the series publisher Bandai-Namco Games (Dark Souls & Super Smash Bros on Wii U + 3DS). Serving as a direct sequel to Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, the game is set to launch on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows in Autumn 2014 in Japan, some time in September in North America and an unspecified date in Europe.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Characters

Development

While not much is known about the development of this sequel, we do know that the Naruto series creator will be returning to the game to help create new costumes, character designs and the special technique of the newly introduced character Shisui Uchiha. The studio responsible for the the anime series will be returning to provide original animations for the latest entry into the video game franchise.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution remains largely unchanged at a fundamental level, rather a focus on new player attacks and narrative options have been included. One new story addition is that the games narrative will also support a number of new side stories that have a focus on the Akatsuki (literally translated as Dawn or Daybreak, the Akatsuki are a criminal organization comprised of rogue ninja, they serve as a series antagonist) and the character, Shuisui Uchiha. This new story content is going to be fully supported by the anime series developer Studio Pierrot who will be providing a full 50 minutes of original animation to coincide with this new story arc.

The games support system (similar to tag characters found in Marvel vs Capcom) has been reworked and offers the players with the option to perform a series of final techniques called Combination Ultimate Jutsu that can feature up to 3 characters at once. Outside of this new feature, a number of already established characters will be able to make use of two stage awakenings similar to Narutos nine tailed fox transformation.

 The original creator and artist for Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto has also been involved with the game’s development process to design and implement a new character that is essentially a Mecha-Naruto (a robotic version of Naruto) that will feature a dual stage awakening process.

The first stage being a Kurama (Kurama = a nine tailed creature, this time specifically in the form of a fox) transformation and a mecha kurama stage. Alongside this new character, the mangaka will also be creating new costumes for a number of already established characters in the Naruto universe. 

Characters

A number of these characters have been established as dead at one point in the series and brought back to life through evil abilities, these characters will have Reincarnated after their name, other characters will have their alliances after their name.

This is simply because some characters (Gaara for example) were at one point in the series actually enemies but are now an ally of the forces that fight for good. Other sub-titles are a reference to their transformation stages.

A list of currently known characters:

• Naruto Uzumaki (Tailed Beast Mode)
• Mecha-Naruto (Three-Tail Form and Mecha-Kurama Form)
• Sasuke Uchiha (Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan)
• Sakura Haruno (Allied Shinobi Forces)
• Kakashi Hatake (Allied Shinobi Forces)
• Sai (Allied Shinobi Forces)
• Hinata Hyūga (Allied Shinobi Forces)
• Might Guy
• Danzō Shimura
• Asuma Sarutobi
• Jiraiya
• Tsunade
• Gaara (Allied Shinobi Forces)
• Kankurō
• Temari
• Ōnoki
• Itachi Uchiha (Reincarnated) (Akatsuki, Anbu)
• Tobi (Fourth Shinobi World War)
• Madara Uchiha (Reincarnated)
• Mū (Reincarnated)
• Second Mizukage (Reincarnated)
• Third Raikage (Reincarnated)
• Fourth Kazekage (Reincarnated)
• Yugito Nii (Reincarnated)
• Yagura (Reincarnated)
• Rōshi (Reincarnated)
• Han (Reincarnated)
• Utakata (Reincarnated)
• Fū (Reincarnated)
• Pain
• Konan
• Kisame Hoshigaki
• Kakuzu (Pre-Akatsuki)
• Sasori (Pre-Akatsuki)
• Orochimaru (Akatsuki)
• Shisui Uchiha

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Yes, it may be one of the more ridiculous names we’ve ever seen in gaming, but that doesn’t make it any less of an awesome game. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution now officially has an all new gaming mode included: Ninja World Tournament mode.

In Ninja World Tournament Mode, players will get to compete in a 4-way melee combat against 3 computer-controlled opponents in an all-new tournament-style environment. In order to win a match, players will need to collect a certain number of battle orbs, which are dropped by damaging your opponents. The first person to reach the goal wins.

Tournament entrants will participate in multiple battles as they work across the island on which the tournament is held until they make their way up to the coveted S ranked battle, which will determine the tournament winner and the ‘Ultimate Ninja’.

Excited? Let us know in the comments section below.

As of today, Namco Bandai Games has announced that the upcoming latest installment in the series of video game adaptations of the hit anime/manga series, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Revolution, will now release in Europe as well as in Japan.

Developers have promised that Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Revolution will feature the most streamlined playability we’ve yet seen in any entry of the series. Over 100 characters from the acclaimed series will be fully playable in this entry.

“We’re excited to continue in the Naruto Shppuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution tradition, and bring a new game with such a rich and renewed content to fulfil all of our fans’ expectations!” said Mathieu Piau, EMEA Marketing Director for NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe, “Boasting an unprecedented number of characters, plus a Kishimoto-sensei exclusive, Naruto Shppuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution will have a lot on offer for fans of the Naruto series!”

We also have new screenshots from the game which you can check out below.