Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations

This game is a cliff notes version of the anime. It condenses all of the episodes from the original TV show (all 220 episodes) and almost all of the Naruto Shippuden episodes into one game. Unfortunately, if you were looking for another Role Playing Game to play from the series, you’ll have to look elsewhere. “Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations” is a fighting game through and through.

There are various Modes to this game, there’s a Story mode, Tournament, Training, and Survival modes. You know, the usual for any fighting game.

The Story mode is a total -albeit brief- recap of the anime / manga, and it is broken up into individual character storylines. For instance, there are the following modes; Young Naruto, Teenage Naruto, Sasuke, Jiraiya, Minato, Zabuza & Haku, Itachi, Kakashi (both young and old), Tobi and Killer B. All of the stories briefly cover the anime of the respective character in question, for example, Young Naruto’s story is from when he passes the Ninja Academy exam, through to fighting Sasuke at Valley of the End. This whole story line lasts for round about 10 battles, so there’s a lot of anime to cover, and not a lot of battles to cover it!

Although saying that, the studio has drawn over an hour’s worth of new anime content,  and it’s very pleasant to look at. Something I recommend you aim to do is complete all of the story stages to unlock Killer B’s story (which you unlock by completing all the other characters’) which has some very interesting and amusing scenes.

The battle system is exactly the same as that of the Ninja Storm games, with the close combat attacks being chained together by mashing a button, and the combos of which change depending on the direction the left analogue stick is being tilted. There is also the option of utilising long distance attacks, and chakra attacks. The support gauge makes a reappearance, as does Team Ultimate Jutsu. These have by-and-large not changed since “Ultimate Ninja Storm 2.” There are 72 playable characters, and 15 characters designated to the support position.

A new addition to the combat system is the substitution gauge, which sits below the chakra gauge. This bar is divided into four segments, which represents the number of substitutions your character can make. This adds a new strategical element to the game, as the gauge refills over time, so long gone are the days of endless substitution!

Another new element to the combat system is the, what I like to call, CD2C. This stands for “Combo-Dash Cancel – Combo.” Halfway through a combo, if you have enough chakra, you can do a Chakra Dash which cancels the combo but enables you to immediately start a new combo straight away. This tactic is very useful in clocking up hits, especially when your opponent hasn’t got any substitutions left! Hello 50 hit combo!

The Tournament Mode is pretty fun. You can choose between an online or offline battle. So far I’ve only done the offline setting, but from there you can start either team battle or a single battle. (I always go for a team battle. I like to obliterate the opponent with a Team Ultimate Jutsu to finish the battle!) And there are various ‘ranks’ to the tournaments. The first rank is Genin and there are three teams which you have to beat in order to advance to the next rank of the tournament. Progressing through each Rank increases the difficulty and the amount of fun to be had.

If you really love the game, you may consider purchasing some Trading Cards, which you can only get from Zavvi. Why? Well, each card has a code on it, and if you go to the “Collectibles” menu, and “insert code,” you can unlock some really cool stuff in the game. These range from art work for your profile, to fighting a mini-battle to unlock new bonus skills for your characters. It’s well worth a look into if you’ve got some cash to spare.

All in all, a very good game, especially if you love Naruto half as much as I do. I was sad to see the Role Playing element of the game go, but it turned out to be a welcome change. Although I do hope that Namco Bandai returns Naruto to the Role Playing elements that it once was in the future. Regardless, it will be exciting to see what they do with the series next!