Review | Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
Very long title-itis
Format: PS3/ Xbox 360| Genre: Beat em up | Publisher: Namco Bandai | Developer: CyberConnect2 | Release Date: 15/10/10 | RRP: £39.99
Brendan Caldwell delves into the world of insane animation with NARUTO: SHIPPUDEN ULTIMATE NINJA STORM 2. Phew.
HERE ARE the facts. There are roughly 720 ninja left in the world today. Ninja are approximately 10 times stronger than the average American Football player. They are 98% genetically identical to human beings. Although I may be confusing one or two or all of these facts with what I know of the Mountain Gorilla, it is still clear that a better conservation effort must be made to protect the humble ninja. Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is perhaps, a step in the wrong direction.
An explanation is due, so let’s begin with the obvious. There is that name. You didn’t even read it did you? You did that thing. Oh, don’t give me that look. I know exactly what you do. You read the first two words and then skip over the rest until the text stops using capital letters – then you started reading again. Because that name is just not worth reading. Look, what if we try once more? Naruto Shippuden Ultimate No Sorry You’re Doing It Again. I don’t blame you. As we all know, Naruto is Japanese for “I’m wholly unlikable.” Additionally, Shippuden means “Bestower of cruelly lengthy titles.” Ach, we shouldnae judge a game by name, though. A turd by any other name would smell as pungent, as they say. That isn’t to say Naruto Shipwrecked Underling Nonce Scrum 2 is turd-like. At least, not in every respect.
Madness
The source material is God here. From what I’ve learned of the Naruto anime series it’s mad, colourful, incredibly fighty and it flashes lights at 35 epilepsies per hour. It’s pure carbonated seizure in a can. The kind of can that’s been kicked around in the off-license store room before you open it.
The game is no different. It follows Naruto, a ninja-in-training, and all his friends and enemies. He has a lot of both. So many that they get muddled up sometimes and he ends up punching his mates hard in the jaw. It’s good that he has this many weirdoes to scrap with, considering it is a beat-‘em-up. But it’s an odd beat-‘em-up. It has an “Ultimate Adventure Mode” which adds a big dollop of typical shonen manga storyline to the fighting. The world of the series is realised in a screen-by-screen fashion and you can run around, collecting materials to unlock items, buying health ointments or ramen, or talking to all the creepy people hanging around.
There is only some purpose to all this wandering and scenery. Between fights you have to keep your health maintained, otherwise you’ll go into your next bout still damaged. It’s a fighting game in fancy dress as an RPG, and really all you end up doing is moving from one place to another until your next fight. It is progress at its most linear, which is why I describe it only in “fancy dress” as an RPG and not, say, as a fully committed cross-dresser. It lacks the intricacy, variety and choice of normal role-playing titles. And yet it nails the poor dialogue, bad voice acting and unlikable characterisation that too often plague the genre.
Continues…
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You’re Resolution’s mad hatter and I love you for it. However, I found the game – I won’t use its ridiculously long title – to be an interesting and extremely enjoyable interactive story. Sure the RPG elements phone it in a little and the combat requires very little if any skill, but the sheer bad-assery of the cinematic punch-fests are outstanding.
The compulsion to see the next fight was overwhelming, and the RPG filler was focused enough to keep me on the critical path. I liked it a lot.
You call it a review, really? Three short paragraphs and you don’t say absolutely NOTHING relevant about the game? Oh, and you did you know that you can buy healing items from the shops in any village. Ohhh… did you know that?!
Wow, learn to play the game first before making a review of it.
One more thing… bad voice acting? Rofl, in the options menu you can change the voices for the original japanese voices. Really, just pathetic. I’m outta here!
Wow, are you still on for that numeracy lesson later? Today we’re gonna learn to count to ten.
Resolution Magazine, i feel you are inexperience in gaming and anime. i didnt even bother to read ur crappy review. i wont waste my time trusting you crappy website for gaming again.
NARUTU ULTIMATE STORM 10/10 PERIOD!!!
I found this review to be highly entertaining. I’ll still be picking the game up eventually, since it seems your (the author’s) biggest gripe is your disconnect with the story, which is made up for if you’re a fan of the series.
Kudos to making a negative review still a joy to read. It wasn’t a pithy attempt to dissuade people to not buy it, it was just your insane experience with something you’re unfamiliar with, and hilarity ensued. Laughed out loud at the end of the paragraph before “Insanimation”.
My bad, pal. You’re very funny, but where are the arguments? I didn’t see the other page. Anyway it’s no excuse at wall, i did read the whole review and it’s utterly crap. His IQ must be of one digit, since he can’t even buy an healing item, ROFL.
Woops, ‘at all*’
@Wow. I did mention the health ointments. Towards the end of the fourth paragraph. I used them a lot. And quite liked how they healed everyone’s health at once. But not how they only healed about a third of the health bar, meaning a lot of extra button pushing which shouldn’t really be necessary.
@Andrew, Yeah, if you’re a fan of the series then you’re pretty much guaranteed to enjoy it. Go for it.
Hopefully they can fix the major issues before the next game in the series. Think it has a working title of “Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Turbo Power Ninja Lightning Storm 3: The Final Chapter (of the First Series)”.
Should be a classic.
Lovely review. Having sat and watched about three hours of this game being played I wholeheartedly agree. The cutscenes were not only confusing but their delivery lacked any connection to the sudden and frequent battles, besides being too concerned with aping the cartoon’s style without developing its own voice.
My favourite response is tag’s, its so charmingly incoherent. While the numeracy lesson is on I’m running literacy classes where we’re going to study capital letters and punctuation.
NARUTU ULTIMATE STORM 5SLASH10 PERIOD EXCLAIMATION MARK EXCLAIMATION MARK EXCLAIMATION MARK
@Wow: I understand where you’re coming from on the voice acting front. I myself prefer to watch animes with the original Japanese voices, even though I have no knowledge of Japanese at all. That the game includes an option to do this is good.
However, that does not counter-act Brendan’s problems with the English voices at all. If it’s included in the product, it is perfectly valid subject for the review. The fact that you can turn off the abysmal English voices for the incomprehensible Japanese ones is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for the quality of the English voices in the first place.
@Brendan Caldwell
You are legend, f**k all these bawbegs
“The fact that you can turn off the abysmal English voices for the incomprehensible Japanese ones is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for the quality of the English voices in the first place.”
THIS!
Oops, someone must have linked here from Uncompromising Anime Fan Perpetua. Nice words, kid. You’re alright.
I have never seen such lack of profesionalism in a game review before. You spent a whole paragraph talking about the title… I don’t know this website, I just wanted to see who gave this great game a 5/10. Now I know why, this is a terrible review, period.