Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 - Best Anime Game Ever

Rasengan!

There have been many disappointing releases when it comes to the transition from anime to video game form. Usually with clunky controls and gameplay, and poor graphics, most of them are only bearable to die hard fans of whatever series. Well, luckily that isn't the case with Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2. The new installment of the Naruto series is a breath of fresh air, for long time fans and people who have never heard anything about the knucklehead ninja.

While Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is a fighting game at heart, the story mode has a surprising amount of depth to it, featuring some RPG elements in between intense battles. The story covers ALL of the Shippuuden series to where it stands now in Japan (episode 1-175, minus the fillers). What's amazing about this is that CyberConnect2 put a lot of detail into the story mode, so even people that have never followed the show can understand what's going on.

Aside from the story, you have an extremely fun fighting game in this title. It's not as technical as Super Street Fighter 4, Blazblue, or Tekken by any means, and some people looking for a hardcore fighter might be turned off by how simple this game appears to be. The gameplay mechanics are very unintimidating at first glance, with one button for punch/kick attacks, and another for ranged attacks. You have a chakra gauge, which is used to pull off different special attacks, along with up to two different assist characters, who will come in briefly and attack your opponent. Each character also has four different sub-items which are preset and designated to the D-pad buttons.

Poor Kakashi

Once you scratch the surface of the gameplay, you'll find there's quite a bit of strategy to winning. You have to plan your attacks carefully, keep a constant watch on your chakra gauge and know the best time to use your teammate assists. Using your assist characters builds up a meter, which allows for more deadly combos and team attacks when filled up. Your teammates can also take an ultimate jutsu to the face, in place of your own. Good stuff. Guarding at the instant you get hit lets you perform "substitution jutsu", basically teleporting you behind your opponent. Perfect chance for RASENGAN!

 Another big plus for Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is the graphics. They are simply amazing, quite frankly. The backgrounds have plenty of detail, and all 44 characters are crisp and colorful. The animations are all very smooth and signature moves look exactly how they should, and all without any noticable drop in framerate. I'm almost willing to say that I wished the show looked more like this game, rather than vice versa.

As a fan of the series, I'd have to say this game about as close to perfect as it gets. Some fans were upset about the changes made to how some of the story mode fights played out, and I can see how that would bother some folks. I can also understand why some of those changes were made, though. CyberConnect2 did a great job of improvising and adding sequences to make the fights a bit more action-ish, which I assume was to keep them from being too long.

Story battles get pretty hectic.

In my opinion, Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2 is one of the best games to come along this year. Almost any gamer can find something to like about this game, I think. Between the lengthy story mode, the huge roster of characters to pick from, and online battles, there's plenty of replay value. Luckily, there's also an option to turn on japanese voices, since the english dub is horrid. Below are some of the official trailers for the game, in case you're interested.


This game has set a new bar for anime-based games, and that bar is pretty damn high above any of its competition. Believe it!