Review: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2

G'day guys.

For Masashi Kishimoto, he longed to create an Amine that was as popular as Dragon Ball Z and to spread his belief that bonds with people should be most protected. And with his tale of Naruto Uzumaki, he is finally seeing this dream come true.

First point to address in this game is the level of the graphics. In previous Anime-to-Video Games, it has always been a large challenge to traverse 2-D objects into a 3-D state. And in Ninja Storm 2, they nail this quite well. The AI controls were great and the use of the "buyable" objects were interesting. I particularly liked the Ninja tools and the Info Cards. 
Another mention is the Multiplayer section of the game. The Info cards added a great customisation to each person. And of course, seeing as my nickname and Gamertag being Fatman, I was overly enjoyed by the customisation for my card to read; "The Chubby - FatmanXVIII" with a picture of a crying Sasuke with his eyes as the new Mongekyo Sharingan. Finding a match was quick and simple and an added feature being able to see who had the best connection with you before joining their game to battle out with your favourite characters, and anyone using Tenten was a fool to face the awesomeness of Killer Bee, yo!

This brings me to the unfortunate setbacks.

While I do not mind for either the English or Japanese version, I found it a little annoying that the game designers would go to the trouble to sync the Japanese voice acting but not the English. I am fluent (Or at least decent) at the language but its either play in Japanese or in an un-synced English.
Also, while I know the actors try hard and are brilliant in some places, some overlook into the game design might be necessary. For example, in the Naruto Vs Pain Arch (Or the opening video) Sakura is pleading for Naruto to come home. In the Japanese version, she screams for his arrival and the AI applies appropriately. The English version of this (played by the gorgeous Kate Higgins) was not quite suiiting, Sakura moaning Naruto while the AI screamed. This is understandable with the English voice as the English version Anime is not even halfway through the so far 186 episodes of Shippuden. One small annoyance is the map layout. In previous 360 Naruto games (Such as Naruto: The Broken Bond) the player had free-roam of the entire Konoha village. In this, it limits you to specific areas; this was a small disappointment but otherwise can be overlooked.



The game itself was great. As an man who grew up watching Naruto and Dragonball Z, I can appreciate Ban Dai and Dolby Digital making a game of this type of class. While the game is not the greatest in graphics, it is in still in great quality. I highly recommend any lover of a TPF to buy this wonderful addiction to my collection

Out of 10, I gave Ninja Storm 2 an 8.5/10