Quick Verdict: I didn't like it much, but has definite strong points. The game is gorgeous and has a lot of content, but the basic gameplay is not all that fun.
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Naruto Shippuuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 ("UNS4") is the latest is a series of arena fighting games based on the Naruto manga/anime series by CyberConnect2.
This is definitely a game for fans of the series. Immediately striking is how faithfully everything has been implemented into the game, to the point where it can be overwhelming for someone new. There are tons of characters and variations thereof, and an incredible amount of techniques is represented. Graphically it looks great, the characters look very true to the anime and especially the ultimate skills are extremely flashy.
Content-wise, this game is very satisfying. Up first is a Story Mode, which has long cutscenes interspersed with fights. The story starts late in the Great Ninja War arc and then goes from there to the ending, so if you were looking forward to some of the earlier stuff you're out of luck. If you were looking to defeat several incarnations of long-time villains Obito and Madara over a dozen times, you've come to the right place. The narrative on the whole is pretty poor, but the fights are quite entertaining due to being so varied. All of them have at least different modifiers, and some of the fights have you playing or fighting giant monsters and such.
Next is Adventure Mode, which takes place after the normal story. Rather than advancing the narrative it has you going around doing menial tasks and collection "Memory Fragments". These are basically flashback fights, and this is where you'll find most of the well known fights from the series' history. Without any context via cutscenes I feel like these fall a little flat though.
In addition to these two multi hour singleplayer modes there's a handful other basic ways to fight either the CPU or human opponents, be it on- or offline. There's tournaments, leagues, challenges and basically everything you could want.
While playing you collect all kinds of little bobs and bits, like ninja info cards, sound clips, substitution items and a lot more. If you are a pack rat this might be up your alley.
It's in the basic gameplay where I feel the game disappoints. There are many, many characters but they all have overly similar playstyles. Character strength is largely decided by how fast and long certain of your simple moves are, and some characters are much more blessed in this respect than others. This makes many matchups quite harsh. In general though, I just did not find the fighting enjoyable. The constant chucking of really low damage knives, the abundance of combo escaping Substitution Jutsu, the unending guard-while-double-jumping.. it just made for a general feel of the fighting I don't appreciate, even in comparison with other arena fighting games.
Verdict:
+ Lots of content
+ Looks great
+ Fantastic representation of the franchise
- Just not that fun to play
- Boring narrative
3/5 stars - I don't like it, but it has strong redeeming qualities.
