Naruto Shippuden : Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations

As far as I am aware, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is based on an anime cartoon that I myself am not familiar with.  What I do know for certain however, is that this is one of the most clumsily titled releases i have ever had the privilege of playing. 

NS:UNSG (as it will be so elegantly be referred to from here on in) is so reminiscent of the recent Dragonball Z fighting titles on first impressions,  I am certain at least a few copyright lawyers have raised an eyebrow or two.

Given I have had zero prior exposure to the Naruto franchise, story wise there didn't seem to be a hell of a lot going on.  Perhaps to a more familiar audience, everything the game presents makes sense, but what I managed to work out is as follows : There is a village where most of its inhabitants are trained to be ninja of some sort.  There also seems to be some central rivalry between main character Naruto and best childhood friend Sasuke.  

In terms of any kind of story, I think it's fair to say that if you are not already a Naruto fan, there is little for you here.

Gameplay wise, NS:UNSG is a 3D fighter where the player can not only move toward and away from their opponent, but around the arena aswell.  Opting for a somewhat less conventional controller set up, striking, distance attacks and a special move modifier (known as Chakra) are each assigned one of the face buttons.  

While it was somewhat surprising to find there was only one button used for punches and kicks, this does away with any need for specialised move inputs - each of the 70 or so playable characters controls in pretty much the same way.  By activating Chakra whether once or several times prior to striking, players gain access to the more damaging moves available, often filling the screen with the kind of ludicrous moves Japanimation is famous for - from massive fireballs to mental mid air fighting to people transforming into animal hybrids, all of the classic cliches are here.  

Players can refill their limited Chakra meters via holding a button, but doing so causes your character to remain still and leave themselves open for attack while apparently having some kind of blue tinged seizure.  There is also a dedicated button for dodging attacks, where the character momentarily turns into a block of wood for some reason - however, players are limited with regard to how frequently it can be utilised, so simply spamming the button in the face of incoming attacks will not work for long.

In terms of game modes, Story Mode has players working through little narratives specific to certain characters, Free Battle gives access to modes such as Versus, Tournament and Training, Online is pretty self explanatory, and Shop allows players to spend their hard earned cash on things such as in game items and cards which will buff certain attacks.  Especially with regard to the Shop, completionists can expect to be spending a while with the game, given the sheer size of the list of items available to purchase and unlock.

As mentioned earlier, the roster of playable characters is massive - albeit, quite a few of them are slight re-skins of the same character - fighters such as Naruto and Sasuke are represented no fewer than 4 times each on the selection screen, and often the differences between each permutation comes down to different special moves and not much else.

Its not easy to know how to take NS:UNSG - i suspect the title is aimed at a somewhat younger audience, and i could see the game holding appeal for a younger fan of the franchise.  The combat is relatively fast, easy to come to grips with and everything looks fine in motion. 

For non fans and people who have history with other  fighters, i suspect many will be disappointed by a somewhat shallow combat system, as well as a level of repetitiveness that is beyond that of the typical fighting game.  Unless you are a either a massive Naruto fan and/or under the age of 12, NS:UNSG is likely to disappoint.