How To Unlock All Characters In Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3

[Ambra Piszczek]

NarutoShippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 refines the gameplay to the absolute best of the series and offers a large roster of playable characters. Unfortunately, it squanders all of that potential with a short and poorly presented campaign fought against buggy AI, a forgettable Adventure Mode and online matches that are plagued with connectivity problems. - Jakejames Lugo, February 9, 2016

Like the four Ultimate Ninja Storm games before it, Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections is a comprehensive ode to the world and characters created by Masashi Kishimoto. Its immense cast of playable characters, each with exceptionally well-animated movesets, and a heaping handful of maps ripped straight from the anime with loving detail look better than ever before. But no level of source material accuracy can save this absolute mammoth of a game from hollow single-player content and a stale combat system that hasn\u2019t meaningfully changed in fifteen years.

As far as Naruto fans go, I\u2019m a bit of a weirdo. I was actually first introduced to the series ten years ago through Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, and I still vividly remember marveling at that entry\u2019s shockingly big roster compared to most fighting games. That spurred me to get caught up with the show, and then I found myself further hooked thanks to the story mode\u2019s faithful recreation of that fictional world. But while I stayed a Naruto fan, my friends and I eventually moved on to games with more depth, like Super Smash Bros. That\u2019s because in order to support a roster that\u2019s aptly described as a literal storm of ninjas, the combat has to stay pretty simple. This makes it approachable and easy to master, but there\u2019s also no pot of gold to chase at the end of this learning curve like there is in better fighting games.

Combos flow like a watered-down version of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta; you can add variations to your moves, but most of the time you\u2019ll be pressing the single attack button until your combo ends with a flashy finisher \u2013 unless you\u2019re quick enough to cancel it into a special move or a dash before rinsing and repeating. Combo finishers usually end by launching your opponent across the map into the ground, putting them out of reach from a follow-up dash. This is where the real game begins: you\u2019ll need to master and understand the ebb and flow of blocking, attacking, grabbing, and moving to get up close and personal so you can lock your opponent into yet another devastating flurry of blows.

Most of the characters in these games are (unsurprisingly) ninjas, which means they\u2019re highly agile and each have three magic abilities to show off in the heat of battle. Just about anything goes here: Kiba teams up with his trusty pooch Akamaru to rush down and drill his opponents into a pulp, Kisame shoots shark-shaped water bombs from a safe distance, and Raikage Ay slams with thunderous force, creating a massive shockwave. But the drawback of that shared ninja DNA is that, aside from the stray puppet user like Chiyo or Sasori, most characters draw their movesets from the same small pool \u2013 albeit with different coats of paint.\u00a0

With 130 playable characters (though many of them are duplicates of main characters, with one or more extra variations of the same person taking up a lot of real estate), choosing a character based on their playstyle is less important than choosing a character you like from the show. That roster sounds impressive, but it actually feels barren as a fan, with only a few characters from Boruto, most of whom are just grown-up versions of other playable fighters. For something that\u2019s billed as a definitive celebration of the whole series, Ninja Storm Connections falls disappointingly short.

Playstyles are generally so similar too that you could swap most characters\u2019 voice lines and models with another and not see a huge difference. That said, using each character to their fullest potential takes a lot of savvy resource management and patient play, which is where Ninja Storm games shine. Using these special techniques consumes chakra, the Naruto series\u2019 life-granting spiritual essence. On top of that, you\u2019ll also need to keep an eye on your substitution gauge, which allows your character to escape any combo or attack at the push of a button. But you only have four substitutions at your disposal, and using multiple will cause your gauge to refill very slowly. This all adds some extra sauce to the otherwise one-note\u00a0combat as players dash and jump all over its 3D arenas.\u00a0

Ninja Storm Connections seeks to further streamline the series\u2019 combat for people who want a more forgiving fighting system by adding in the Simple control mode. By pressing a single button, your character will control itself, deciding when to dash, use special moves, and execute combos, leaving you to simply move and block. It\u2019s great for people who love the show but aren\u2019t into fighting games, but not something that will ever match up to an experienced player. It\u2019s also highly customizable, allowing you to select what\u2019s automated and what isn\u2019t.

Playing online has been pretty smooth thus far \u2013 though results will vary depending on your own and your opponent\u2019s internet connection strengths and speeds since Ninja Storm Connections disappointingly doesn\u2019t use rollback netcode like a majority of other contemporary fighting games do, instead opting for a peer-to-peer connection. In most cases, this makes for a less reliable option that often results in a worse online experience. Netcode aside, the multiplayer options offer a solid range of online features including multiple opponent rating systems, with fail-safes for players who disconnect during a match or engage in toxic behavior. For a fighting game with such broad appeal, that\u2019s a fantastic approach to curbing the poor behavior that permeates a lot of the casual arena fighting genre.

Its single-player story options, on the other hand, are something of a letdown. The History Mode lets you poorly relive the story of Naruto and friends from the beginning of the original series, which follows him as a kid through the end of Naruto Shippuden three years later. Special Story Mode, on the other hand, is a predictable and rarely exciting original story written by series creator Masashi Kishimoto set in the time of Naruto\u2019s son, Boruto, whose own manga series is still ongoing.

I love the world and story of Naruto. Its complex politics, incredibly fleshed-out history, well-defined characters with rich backgrounds, and interweaving relationships are the foundation of why this series has remained so popular over the years. Unfortunately, Ninja Storm Connections\u2019 approach to that story does it no favors. Parsed out like a half-baked flashback, History Mode truncates the events of Naruto and Shippuden in slapdash fashion. Yes, these games are designed with the fans in mind and most of the people playing through its roughly seven-hour recap will probably already know these events like the back of their hand, but that doesn\u2019t excuse shoddy storytelling.

Instead of cutscenes, subtitled stills from the anime pop up in-between the occasional fight, with sound effects like clashing kunai and some sporadic screen-shaking as the only attempts to add flavor. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s challenging to condense entire arcs spanning dozens of episodes into roughly 40-minute-long chapters, but I\u2019m equally sure it could\u2019ve been done in a more interesting way than this. These \u201cmovies,\u201d as the game refers to them, are narrated by the Naruto world\u2019s god-like figure, The Sage of Six Paths. This detached perspective, delivered in English via voice actor Michael McConnohie\u2019s hypnotic rasp, is great in a vacuum, but boring in the broader context of a series that involves so many distinct characters and performances by talented voice actors. And that\u2019s if a given movie is fortunate enough to have any voiceover whatsoever.

You\u2019ll rarely hear from the actual characters involved in these moments, which play out more like YouTube lore videos than interesting scenes. Instead, whenever a memorable quote comes up, our disembodied narrator reads it like he\u2019s a teacher reading a book to a group of kindergarteners. In the same way that a poorly-placed repeated flashback can deflate the tension of an intense moment in an anime, so too can a comically offbeat line read. This isn\u2019t through any fault of the narrator\u2019s performance \u2013 he\u2019s doing his best with what\u2019s been given to him. This is a fault that sweeps this entire mode\u2019s framing, which is just not a good way to retell this show.

That\u2019s especially true compared to past games, which saw you take a much more active role in playing out these stories. In the case of the first three Ninja Storm games, you controlled a character through an entire open overworld that represented a smaller-scale version of the shinobi world where Naruto is set. It helped reinforce the sense of place that makes the world of Naruto so noteworthy. Layering extra side missions and hidden collectibles on top of that open world further established the sense that you were actually part of it, not just looking on as a passive observer who occasionally picks up a controller to shoot out a Rasengan. That all changed in Ninja Storm 4, and Connections picks the disappointing mantle right back up.

All side objectives and collectibles now come in the form of samey battle objectives, which include a very limited range of tasks like ending a battle with a certain amount of your health bar remaining or finishing your opponent off with a specific type of move. Considering just how many battles you compete in throughout Ninja Storm Connections\u2019 single-player content, you\u2019re likely to see every possible special challenge within the first hour or so.

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