POSTED 10/2/16


NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: ULTIMATE NINJA STORM 4

CyberConnect2/Bandai Namco

Ladies and gentlemen. Please fasten your cigarettes and extinguish your seatbelts, as we have commenced our descent into Naruto...

It’s the fourth great ninja war, and Naruto – star of the insanely popular anime if its popularity has somehow alluded you - is coming to the end of his quest. So, does this final entry in the Ultimate Ninja series go out with a bang?

Yes. Yes it does.

What, you want more? Alright then.

As per previous games in the series, dedication to fans is at the forefront, rather than trying to water things down to offer broader appeal – which usually just fails more failyish than the failiest of faily things. As such, the outbreaks of seriously manic fighting are punctuated by serious story interludes. Often seriously long story interludes. It’s fan manna.

This isn’t to say, however, that if you’re just digging for an insanely fun and totally OTT fighter that you’re shit out of luck, for all the story stuff is easily skippable. Doing battle seems all too simplistic at first, with one button doing most of the heavy biffing. But subtlety is at play – along with a whole lotta combos, bonus boosts, shootouts and the odd QTE.

Then there’s the funky new feature where you have two teammates who you can call on whenever. This makes for some hyper-cool combo stuff when you pull one in, let loose a special move, swap to another, let loose a special move and completely obliterate some poor schmoe who was just plain dumb enough to challenge you.

This system works through the main story, the epilogue ‘Adventure’ walkabout mode and that which will entice many, multiplayer (be it online or off).

While sensory overload hits within seconds of taking off in NS:UNS4, when it clicks it clicks hard. It’s a striking send-off for the series. BANG!

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