Back in 2008, Namco Bandai and CyberConnect2 teamed up to bring the Ultimate Ninja series onto the next-generation of consoles with Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm. Well prepare to sharpen those kunai, mold your chakra and fight for your “way of the ninja” with Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2.
Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 takes place 2 1/2 years after the first Storm ended. Naruto is returning to the Leaf Village after being trained by Jiraiya in order to become more powerful. He not only has to protect himself from the Akatsuki, who are out to capture him, but also become strong enough to bring his friend Sasuke back to the village. Naruto is back and he shows everyone that he isn’t the same “#1 Knucklehead Ninja” that he once was.
The story of Naruto Shippuden takes a much more darker and serious tone than the original Naruto series. Naruto isn’t the only ninja who has trained over the past few years. All of the main characters from the previous game rose up to the challenge and have become more powerful, skilled, and knowledgeable. The ninja world of Naruto seems even larger and more epic than in the previous Storm, with players now being able to travel to multiple villages, hideouts, and battlefields.
Gamers will notice that Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 plays very similarly to the other games in the Ultimate Ninja series, but there have been some additions to gameplay. The support characters are now essential to winning battles thanks to the new ‘Support Drive’ feature. By calling out support characters multiple times in battle, players’ Support Gauge slowly fills up and will enter the ‘Support Drive’ state once full. The benefits of using Support Drive are that your support characters will jump into the battle automatically in order to block different jutsu from hitting your character, extend a combo, or even just provide time to gather chakra, which is a character’s energy that is used in a variety of ways in battle. This adds a very deep layer of strategy because if used correctly, support characters can help you easily land an ‘Ultimate Jutsu’ on a opponent.
Ultimate Jutsus have taken a pretty drastic change in Storm 2, but it is a welcomed change. When a character lands an Ultimate Jutsu on an opponent, there are no longer any buttons to press or analog sticks to twirl in order to successfully do damage. Each Ultimate Jutsu is drastically shorter than in any of the previous Ultimate Ninja games. This makes the fighting both in Offline and Online play go much smoother and is more fluid than before.
The Online Mode is a completely new feature in Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 and provides a competitive and addictive gaming experience. Players are able to set up a profile with a Ninja Info Card, which is a screenshot from the anime used for a profile picture. Players start off with a Beginner rank and can progress by acquiring Battle Points (BP), earned through defeating other players in Ranked Matches. There was not a hint of lag that I experienced in playing against other gamers online.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is now available for PS3 and Xbox 360.
