Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Review

Naruto returns in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja 4 with new missions and new characters. Can this fighter deliver the KO, or should you sit this one out? Check out our honest game review here to help you make your choice!

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Review

Just to be clear this is my first Naruto game and I have never seen the anime series. So with that said the story really started off in a bad spot for me. I won’t knock it for that, I assume most people will be coming into this knowing the story and having previous experience in the series.

The story takes place during the 5th Great Ninja War arc of the story. This is the very end of the series and you are facing off with Naruto’s strongest foes yet. You will mainly be following Naruto and Sasuke’s paths through the duration of the 5th Great Ninja War. You will play as other key characters for certain big fights and have them as allies in others. The story mode consists of only two things: battles and cut scenes. There is no free roam or anything like that, you just follow a line to the next part of the chapter. It will run you about 8-9 hours depending on how good you are at battling some of the harder battles.

Alongside the Story Mode you will have an Adventure Mode to play as well. This is another, smaller, story that takes place directly after the events in the story. Here you play as Naruto while he does a mission for The Hidden Leaf Village, alongside Sakura and Hinata. There are side quests, events and tons of battles. The story actually kind of falls short to the main point of this mode, playing past battles. There are things called Memory Shards scattered throughout the game world and they will have you doing key battles from the whole story of Naruto. This is a good way to learn a bit about the other key characters in the series for those of us unfamiliar with the series. This is also where you buy new costumes for your characters.

Of course we have to talk about the fighting style – it is a fighter after all. Most of you base attacks will revolve around the same button. The trick is to know when to switch from your base attack, to a special attack, new combo, or to Ninja Dash into your opponent. The idea is to keep your opponent locked down as long as possible by continuously Ninja Dashing and attacking building up large chains of attacks. Thankfully there are ways to get out of this with a single button, if your escapes are charged. It did take me a couple of hours to get used to but when I did, everything flowed together very well.

Most people will probably buy this because they want to face players online. I’m not a huge online guy in fighters and my experience in this game is why. Most of the players I faced had definitely played these games before. I’m just tossing the warning out to new players, be ready to get rocked for a few games. Other than that I didn’t run into to many issues. There were a few laggy games but I can’t be 100% sure it was the server and not just the players I fought. Just read up on the characters to figure out who is OP and who is not, facing the OP guys is super annoying.

Last thing I will hit on is the graphics and sound. The game looks great, the art style and combat mesh very well together creating unforgettable attacks. Everything runs smooth and I didn’t notice any frame drops or stuttering. The music helps to set the mood for the cut scenes and the battle scenes. The sound effects help you feel the power in your attacks and skills. It all comes together to help the game tell it’s story and make the battles more interesting.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 proves to be a great fighter with a good story and good characters. If you are a fan of the series, or looking to try a new fighting game, give Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 a shot!