Reviews// Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

Once the Story Mode has been completed, it's over to Adventure Mode to take part in this semi open-world RPG fighter. A new story is introduced - set after the events of the Shippuden story line. This story is very light-hearted and is a lot of fun to play through. In previous iterations there wasn't really much to hold my attention in the Adventure modes. They felt more like an afterthought - the 'fillers' of the game series if you will.

This new Adventure Mode is meaty - a plethora of missions and side quests which at times can leave you running in circles because you have that many things to do. In this mode you can collect what are called Memory Fragments - essentially memories of past battles which were important to the main story of not just Shippuden but the first Naruto series, too.

You can choose to fight or leave them until later if you wish. The game does not force you to do anything in this mode - you pretty much have the freedom to do whatever you want, which is fantastic. It made me want to do the thing that no other Adventure Mode in the Storm series has done - come back and play a lot more!

When completing battles in any mode in this game, you of course are scored based on your performance as well as a few prerequisites that can be completed in battle. You will receive special items which can be used in the Bandai store to buy things such as new outfits, Ninja Info Card titles and pictures and so on. These can also be bought outright with the in-game currency, ryo, but the rarer of the items will need the special items as well as ryo to be purchased. Thankfully the special items earned are relatively easy to get.

Online Battle Mode is also present, though there isn't really much new content to speak of. It's mostly the exact same as the previous Storm games. Included in this game is what's called a Bingo Book - essentially a hit list of characters for you to defeat, earning rewards as you do so.

All in all this is the Storm game that I have been waiting so long for - a massive roster of characters, perfected cell-shaded graphics, fantastic sound editing and absolutely some of the most epic battles I have ever seen in a fighting game of this caliber, a heady concoction of awesomeness which at times took my breath away.

The past Storm games were missing that certain something and felt like just another regurgitation of the older ones... this one completely breaks out of the norm... and runs up to you, shouts and slaps you in the face while it does it and leaves you with a feeling of I-don't-know-what-just-happened-but-it-was-awesome.

If you have been hesitating about buying one of the Storm games, don't hesitate to get this one - absolutely the best send off for the Storm series and I don't think I could really sing it's praises any more than I have. But let's face it, it's not really a review without at least one decent whinge about something now is it? The only fault I can find is the ever-increasing list of DLC content that should have really been included in the main game.

Go out and buy it. It's worth every penny.
 
Pros: 
+ Cel-shaded graphics perfected 
+ Fantastic audio editing 
+ Most epic battles ever seen in the Storm series 
+ Great re-playability

Cons: 
- Unnecessary amount of DLC which should have been included in the main game 
 
SPOnG Score: 9/10