Ninja Storm Revolution
Developed by CyberConnect2
Published by Namco Bandai
Available on Xbox 360 &
PlayStation 4
Synopsis:
The latest Naruto game with 100+ playable &
support ninjas, the most content in the series
& evolved battle system with team based play
mechanics. Select from three types of teams
& depending on the ninja chosen, you can
perform Combo Ultimate Jutsu or be in a
state of True Awakening! A new mode called
Ninja World Tournament lets you battle 3
other ninja & the last one standing wins!
Enjoy 50+ minutes of new animation & learn
more info about the Creation of the Akatsuki,
The Two Uchiha & more!
Review:
The biggest challenge with this review is how
start it professionally. I think I just need to
kick things off by saying that Naruto
Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution
(or NS:UNSR as it will be henceforth known)
is insane, like serious bat-crap crazy and
somehow, against all the odds, this works
surprisingly well in it’s favor, something I was
pleasantly surprised about.
with very little experience of the Naruto
series themselves and aside from the fact
that I knew fighting would be involved, I
couldn’t quite figure out what I was about to
step into. Obviously with the animations
being as Anime based as they are and with
the knowledge that it is a fighting game you
would be forgiven for thinking that this could
be a bit of a Streetfighter knock-off, I know
initially I was a little guilty of that but let me
assure you that you would be very wrong
indeed!
So very, very wrong!
The game itself includes some of the staples
that are to be expected from games of the
genre such as free fights and online
battles, anyone who has ever played a
fighting game before will be able to grasp
what is included with these modes so I won’t
waste all of our time by explaining. What I
was very impressed with was the sheer
amount of depth that the other two game
modes had, these modes are the Ninja World
Tournament mode and the Ninja Escapades
mode.
The Ninja World Tournament is pretty much
exactly as it sounds. It’s the World Cup of
Ninja fistfights and like I mentioned before it
is so very very easy to go into it expecting
the same old trope that comes with the genre
of facing fight after fight until you reach the
top rank where everyone cheers and you get
a medal or a cookie or something, NS:UNSR
is yet again happy to stand back and prove
your silly assumptions wrong. As you start
this mode, you are entered into D-Rank
tournament which is broken down into 3
stages; a 4-v-4 solo fight as the tryouts, a 4-
v-4 team of 2 fight as the preliminary, and
then a 4-v-4 team of 3 fight for the main
event. Between these fights you are free to
explore parts of the island that you have
unlocked (depending on the rank of your
tournament) and either go shopping, talk to
people, find items that are scattered around
or take part in some of the side missions that
are available. This starts as an optional extra
where you can have a little break between
fights if you want to but when you reach the
further stages and have to build your own
team then it gives the free-roam more of a
purpose as you have to look around and
choose other fighters to join your crew. To
gain other fighters as your allies you often
have to fulfill certain requirements for them,
these are pretty hit and miss and one in
particular involves you going to a trader to
buy some reference books which you then
need to read and memorize the history of the
game’s universe. This is definitely one of the
times that it falls into the ‘ miss’ category!
Nobody plays these games because they
want to spend their punching time doing
revision!
It’s not just the layout of the Ninja World
Tournament that that is different than I was
expecting as well, the battles themselves
were also brand new territory! These battles
are not just about simply pummeling your
opponent until you are the last one standing
(however that is still undoubtedly involved).
At the start of every battle each fighter has
1000 battle-orbs and every time you take
damage you drop some and every time you
dish out damage your opponent drops some
of theirs, the goal is to be the player at the
end of the match who has the highest
number of orbs. If you or your enemies orb
count drops to 0 then the character gets
knocked out and if they take any further
damage while knocked out then they get
eliminated from the tournament altogether.
See, I told you that pummeling was still
involved!
Once you have worked through the three
rounds of the tournament and been declared
the glorious victor and most important person
ever then you are free to start the whole
thing over again, but this time at a higher
rank!
Even if NS:UNSR had only included the Ninja
World Tournament as the main story
mode then I probably would have still
applauded the depth that it had as that by
itself is certainly no small task to work
through. Of course they weren’t satisfied
with just that though, the wanted to EARN
the right to use the word Revolution in their
title! The additional of the Ninja Escapades
was certainly a good choice in terms of
content, it is essentially three different
stories based around the Naruto universe that
explore some of the different factions and
characters involved. They play out like a sort
of interactive Anime story where you are
watching the history unfold but then take
control as soon as a fight is involved. If you
are a fan of the series or a fan of Anime in
general then you would probably take a lot
from this mode but sadly, while I certainly
admire the art form, I have never classed
myself as a true fan of the genre so I’m sure
some of the slight nuances may have been
lost on me. These stories act as a decent
balancing act to the main tournament mode
as well because it completely changes the
pace of the game and, especially so in the
first story, it makes the game a hell of a lot
darker than in other modes!
Fastfingers five reviews
4/5
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