Matthew Byers | Contributing Writer
Video games are a huge modern market, and dozens of new video games can be released every month. One new video game with the lengthy title of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution was released rather recently. Now the question every person that plays video games asks, is the game any good?
The graphics of the game are anime style cell-shaded, and the game comes out rather crisp, clear, and beautiful to look at it. All the character models, animations, and objects in the game’s world all set together fairly well.
The sound and music of the game is as you would expect from a game based on Naruto. There are numerous sound bits from the anime used directly in the game, and the English voice actors speak dialogue during the show. This being said, there are numerous instances where there are no speaking roles, and characters give rather brief and somewhat obnoxious yells.
The combat of the game, which is the most important feature of a fighting game, can create mixed feelings. The character roster has over eighty separate characters, which to say the least is impressive. The game itself tries to say there are over one-hundred characters, but in fact there are numerous characters that are the same but with different abilities such as Naruto, Young Naruto, Sage Naruto, and Cloak Naruto. Despite some characters being clones, there are still numerous characters to choose from. Now, despite there being so many characters, the makers were aiming more at quantity than quality. All the characters move sets are nearly identical, and the combo lists are extremely limited. In the end, you could play with thirty different characters and likely you will feel like every character is the same, and you are mashing the same button over and over.
There are two interesting aspects of this game, the first being “Ninja Escapades”, where the player can look at three new anime scenes never shown in the anime itself and learn more about character relations. Despite this interesting feature, there are currently only three episodes available, and one, in fact, has no fighting. The second is an online mode where you can create a clone of your preferred character to send into the games online network to fight other players. This online mode also allows you to simply fight other players online.
My verdict of the game is a 7 out of 10. The game seems solid, but it took me a while before I could like the game, and even then, I find more enjoyment out of the Naruto anime aspects than the game itself. The game is essentially more for Naruto fans than people looking to play a solid fighting game. If one was looking for a great fighting game without paying the new-game-cost, I would suggest Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3 which has a smaller character roster, but there is much more detail put into every individual character, combos can be much more varied, and the best aspect of that game you can switch characters’ special moves and final moves to suit your playing style. Ninja Storm Revolution has more effort into changing the aesthetics of your character with a “dress-up mode” than a variety of combat and game play.
