Namco Bandai Games’ Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm series has been consistently successful. Arguably the most popular in the series, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst, walked a fine line. It arrived less than a year after the original Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3. However, it added substantial amounts of new content and an improved visual quality. Ultimately Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst was only likely to appeal to fans of Naruto Shippuden, but its staying power a decade later is worthy of note.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst’s Upgrades

Owners of the original Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were invited to purchase the additional content via the Xbox Games Store or PlayStation Store respectively. However, those who had sold or misplaced the original title – or bypassed it altogether – would surely relish the chance to experience the videogame once again. And an experience it is. Unlike most Naruto Shippuden videogames, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst is an adrenaline rush variety of action-based gameplay that changes tact regular to keep it’s audience entertained.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst screenshot

There are three main components to Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst’s gameplay. The familiar arena based combat, story-led action sequences and ‘free movement’ maps. The traditional Naruto Shippuden combat arenas return almost untouched. The player is able to move freely within the environment and use items to enhance their abilities or extend their life bar. The free movement sections allow the player to explore, gather items and interact with other characters in a similar fashion to the towns seen in the latter entries in the Warriors Orochi series, though much more expansive. Most interesting however, are the asides dictated by the story.

Perfectly Blending Story with Gameplay

These sequences vary greatly, but are rarely less than impressive. Using the exact same animation style as is used for the cutscenes, the player will engage in a variety of different combat styles with various different characters. You can take on formidable screen-filling beasts or huge armies. The combat here does resemble the traditional structure, allowing players to drop into the action with very little in the way of a training barrier, however the freedom of movement is typically much greater and the camera more responsive. It’s a wonderful change of pace when these sequences occur.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst screenshot

In addition to the key campaign, the game also offers online gameplay. Open for up to eight players, the competitive mode allows for competition between those who purchased the retail package and those who own the original Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 plus the Full Burst downloadable content, resulting in a welcoming audience ready and waiting. The online gameplay does demand that the player is already skilled – there is no room for learning on the job – but the fact that there’s very little in the way of technical issues means that it remains an attractive prospect after the campaign has bee completed.

Ultimate Nina Storm 3 Full Beauty

From a technical standpoint Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst is by far the best presentation any Naruto Shippuden videogame has yet offered. Even in comparison to it’s successors, the game stands as the pinnacle of the series’ visuals. They may, in fact, be what has lead to the game receiving subsequent releases and even remaining playable on all modern consoles. Yes, that includes PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

The characters and environments are bright and colourful and the animation is impressively fluid. The hand drawn sequences are just as impressive as the anime at its best. The fact that the whole videogame was originally presented in stereoscopic 3D sets it on a plateau above many of its peers. This functionality wasn’t kept for later editions, however. And sadly, the sound quality isn’t quite to the same standard as the visuals. Lip synching had obviously been given very little attention during the localisation phase of development.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst screenshot

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst is one of the finest adaptations of the anime to videogames that has been offered to fans. With this second edition Namco Bandai Games had made it so that fans of the anime had no excuse to have missed it. In subsequent years, repackaging as part of the Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy and subsequently Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy means you still have no reason not to play.

Categories: Games