Reviews// Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution

The tournaments are ranked from D to S, and naturally you start out at D and progress through the ranks. As you progress, new areas will open up for you to explore, and new side missions and challenges as well as new characters for you to recruit will appear. The challenges will earn you medals, which you can exchange at a general store for accessories with which to adorn your character.

Once D rank has been cleared, another story mode opens up focused around 'Mecha-Naruto'. This is a great addition and was a lot of fun to play through. Mecha-Naruto has his own set of skills, some of which are exaggerated to the point of silliness, but that’s what makes him a great character to fight with.

The tournament battles are fast and furious; it’s you versus three other (AI-controlled) characters. It’s not a simple case of KO-ing your opponents though - if a character is damaged, they will drop battle orbs. The person with the most orbs left at the end of the battle wins. You have to pick three characters to fight with so there are three stages to this. I’m usually not one for strategising. I’m more of a run-in-guns-a-blazing kinda gal, so in these battles the higher ranks really tested me. Three on one is mighty unfair but that seems to be the way things go if you have the highest amount of orbs, so spamming your substitution jutsu really isn’t going to cut it.

Chakra has to be reserved, you also need to keep an eye out on who has a lot of orbs, so you can target them and relieve them of their burden. The higher ranks you fight in, the more happens on screen. Other characters come in to create havoc, little NPCs carrying awakening and ultimate jutsu orbs run around, and you can use the environment to your advantage. It can get a bit hectic in the higher ranks but it makes it ridiculous fun!

Whilst roaming around Festival Island, you will come into contact with other players’ characters, called 'Network Clones'. You can challenge these clones to a battle. If you win, you will gain rewards as well as unlocking the character they have used if you haven’t done so already. You can set up a Network Clone of your own by going into Online Battle mode in the main menu. Here you can send your clone out for online training, which will make them appear in other players’ games for them to challenge. When they return they will gain experience points as well as bringing you back items.

Whilst this is a nice distraction to the main tournament game, it doesn’t really have any advantages other than your clone bringing you back some items. Thankfully it’s not much of a time sink, so I didn’t worry about it too much.

Online Battle mode has been bulked out nicely – you can choose to do a quick match, or you can adjust the settings to your liking to enjoy a greater challenge. Online fighting can be a challenge in itself, with occasional slow reaction times which make pulling off counters and such a bit of a pain.

The addition of one other mode called 'Ninja Escapades' is what made me fall in love with this game. I have often wanted a Ninja Storm game that was basically like watching the anime and then getting to fight the battles yourself. This mode is exactly that - there are three mini-stories to play through, all containing some brilliant new animation, new insights into some of the more interesting characters and some really fun battles. If you’re not interested in the story, I would still recommend playing through this mode if for no other reason than to unlock the characters to use in other modes.

Overall, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution has plenty to offer: fast-paced battles and intriguing story lines make it one not to be missed for fans. New characters, areas and stories breathe some well-needed life into the franchise. Whilst some areas let it down, the game still has good enough gameplay to make you keep picking up the controller time and time again.

Pros:
+ Plenty of content to keep players interested
+ Plethora of characters and environments to choose from
+ Revival of free-roaming areas
+ New stories in Ninja Escapades are fantastic
+ Fast-paced, action-packed battles
+ New Ultimate Combo Jutsus make battles even more fun

Cons:
- Unpredictable and sometimes sluggish online gaming
- Can choose only two Jutsus, major disappointment

SPOnG Score: 4.5/5