Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm TGS 08 Trailer

Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm launches Nov 4! NUNS is a PS3 Xclusive and dam it looks gorgeous, and from the demo I took for a test drive from the PlayStation Store the fighting engine is tight. This is the best looking Cell shaded game I've ever seen. Fans of the series will grab this game day1, even if you've never heard of Naruto you don't need a masters degree from the hidden leaf academy to pick up NUNS and unleash your inner Rassengan.

New Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Trailer

A new trailer for Naruto Ultimate Storm is out and this one shows more characters that are gonna be in the game to some capacity, Itachi Uchiha, Kimimaru, Shukaku, the 3rd Hokage, Tsunade, Orochimaru. The visuals, as I stated before, are gorgeous, and this new trailer showcases the Hidden Leaf Village that you can explore in the adventure mode, which will follow the series pretty faithfully.
Being a fan of the anime I'm really looking forward to this PS3 exclusive!

Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm demo impressions

I got to check out the upcoming PS3 exclusive Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm today, color me impressed! The Demo is limited to choosing Naruto or Kakashi, and there is a quick tutorial that gives the button commands and explains support characters. First thing I noticed was the choice of English or Japanese language, for those hardcore Otaku this is a plus. Next you choose one of the two available characters then you go into the character intro and the fight begins. I have to admit I wasn't expecting the game to be as fluid and faithful to the artistic style of the anime as it was. The button commands become familiar after two or three times, it's a button masher in a similar vein to Soul Calibur, I did notice that when I performed Naruto's secret Jutsu it incorporated the button command setup from previous Naruto U.N. games, where you and your opponent need to enter the corect sequence of buttons to maximize/minimize damage given/taken. I'm glad the two plane fighting system is gone, I felt it broke the flow of a fight when you were constantly trying to close the gap on your opponent and stay on the same plane as they are.

I also didn't spot a bit of lag even when I called in both of my support characters Sasuke and Sakura! They'd unleash on Kakashi and I'd be attacking and using substitution jutsu's on Kakashi as his Ninja hounds attacked me! I'm adding Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm to my "must have games" cue.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm

Sony may have lost Final Fantasy XIII as an exclusive, but let me remind you we still have many other exclusives like NUNS! After seeing the trailer for this new Naruto game I have to admit if it really looks like that in game OMG! If you downloaded the second issue of Qore the demo will be available 7/17/08. Harem Jutsu in 1080p :)
I spoted allot of the shows characters in the trailer, but not Zabuza, Haku, Grandma Tsunade, or Itachi Uchiha, but I'm sure they'll be in the game in some form, wether playable or not I'm not sure yet.
Check out the website for more info and the lastest trailer that kicks all sorts of ninja ass@ http://ultimateninjastorm.com/

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm trailer

Game Review: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

Being a fan of the show I couldn't pass this up for only $19.99, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja has all the qualities that make the show so enjoyable, the characters are faithful to the show and thankfully use the same voice actors. Naruto Ultimate Ninja uses cell shading for the visual style which works but I personally would've prefered sprites instead. Naruto Ultimate Ninja takes the 2D fighting game engine and adds elements from the show, for instance Street Fighter has a "super meter" NuN has a Chakra Guage that when full allows the player to perform "secret Jutsu's" straight from the show, like Naruto's Shadow Clone or Neji Hyuga's 8 trigrams 64 palms jutsu's.
When the secret technique sceen is activated to two time limit guages apear for the attacker and defender and a combination of different buttons appear that need to be input correctly in time to execute/defend the secret jutsu technique. By giving the dender the opportunity to defend massive damage can be reduced by half, this is an interesting spin on the old super move where the defender will have two options block or take massive damage.
Other aspects that differentiate Naruto Ultimate Ninja from other 2D fighters is the 2 plane battlefield, in NUN the there's a foreground and background which fighters can instantly switch to if fighters are on different planes they can still attack their opponent with weapons like suriken and kunai.
The battle ground is interactive also, by breaking lanterns or crates status altering items can be acquired and each character has a support character that can apear with support items and be called in for a special attack.
NuN has 12 playable characters, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Kakashi Hatake, Neji Hyuga, Hinata Hyuga, Rock Lee and Shikamaru Nara from the village hidden in the leaves. Gaara from the village hidden in the sand, Zabuza Momochi and Haku from the village hidden in the mist, and Orochimaru one of the seven Sannin and founder of the village hidden in the sound.
Not every character is available from the start, by playing thru characters senario (story mode) you unlock the hidden characters.
There's also missions to do at the ninja academy that earn you money, which you can use to buy stuff to clutter up naruto's house. Not only do the missions earn you money but they net you points towards becoming a genin, jonine, kunoichi (Sakura or Hinata) or maybe even hokage!
So what to do with the money (Ryo) you earned from those missions? Go spend it on Konohamaru's gum drop machine of course! There is a ton of things to get from the machine, screen shots from the show music tracks to listen too, sound bites from the game, ninja info cards, and video clips of characters secret techinques.
Overall there's plenty to keep a young ninja busy, the fighting game is unique and offers alot of variables to the typical 2D fighter, but I think most people will pass this game by unless they're a fan of the anime already. This game has all the charm of the anime, but if you're looking for a more traditional fighting game this may not be for you.
7/10