Are the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm games the pinnacle of licensed anime games?

Magneto · May 22, 2020

If you say Dragon Ball FighterZ, it means that you've probably never played a Naruto game. They're not on the same level in terms of... being anime as fuck ? Especially with the garbage story mode in DBFZ.

Oh, and should we talk about the costumes in Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm or we good ? Because that's the kind of thing that DBFZ is missing for being the "pinnacle of licensed anime games".

Now, if we talk about gameplay... Yeah, it's okay.

I'd probably take JoJo ASB and Jojo's Bizarre Adventures (Capcom) over DBFZ tho'.

ReplacementPelican · May 22, 2020

Brazil said:
They're literally the best way to experience Naruto. It's a shame CC2 got stuck with DBZ as a follow-up instead of a series they could get creative with.

I quite liked that game, to be fair but yeah I think maybe they could be given some more free reign with the franchise to make something special.

Gegz said:
If you say Dragon Ball FighterZ, it means that you've probably never played a Naruto game. They're not on the same level in terms of... being anime as fuck ? Thanks to the garbage story mode in DBFZ.

I don't think it's that they've not played it or don't get it. They just have different expectations. You want an anime game to be anime as fuck, they want their anime game to be a great fighting game in its own right.

I prefer what you like but it's different strokes for different folks, I'm happy that with Dragonball something like Fighter Z can exist alongside Kakarot and Xenoverse.

ZeroDS · May 22, 2020

I think Attack on Titan doesn't get enough love especially the second game

AquaWateria · May 22, 2020

Brazil said:
They're literally the best way to experience Naruto. It's a shame CC2 got stuck with DBZ as a follow-up instead of a series they could get creative with.

They are currently making a game for the shonen Jump series Demon Slayer. Now that's a series I can't wait to see their presentation for because goddamn some of the later fights are crazy.

Brazil · May 22, 2020

jack_package_200 said:
I am showing my age but a Yu Yu Hakusho adaptation could be incredible

That or HxH would be amazing.

ReplacementPelican said:
I quite liked that game, to be fair but yeah I think maybe they could be given some more free reign with the franchise to make something special.

I liked it as well, but it plays it way too safe in a lot of aspects. And then you have the battle system which is basically that of every other DBZ game from the last 15 years.

AquaWateria said:
They are currently making a game for the shonen Jump series Demon Slayer. Now that's a series I can't wait to see their presentation for, especially for later fights.

Oh yeah! I'd forgotten about that. That one could be really fun.

Crossing Eden · May 22, 2020

jack_package_200 said:
I have heard the games are straight up a better adaptation than the anime

They are.

Plus some of the OG shit they give us is 👍 They had to come up with an ending since they reached the war arc before the manga had concluded. Which gave us this fantastic scene:

and Jiraiya's death is just an A+, they turn these moments into boss fights and set pieces and you can always tell that the devs were hella invested in the source material:

Normal · May 22, 2020

Some of the supers in that game. Shiiiiit. And the boss fights?! Yeah, there were on another level.

Resident4t. · May 22, 2020

The gameplay is awful, so I hope not.

GuitarGuruu · May 22, 2020

Absolutely, I can't think of one that comes close. The series is a legitimately good way of understanding the whole story. I personally liked UNS2 the best.

Deleted member 69573 · May 22, 2020

Yes. I don't even like Naruto but a friend brought this around and it felt like I was a shounen protag playing it. They nail that feeling.

Deleted member 4034 · May 22, 2020

Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen! 4 hits harder.

Crossing Eden · May 22, 2020

Resident4t. said:
The gameplay is awful, so I hope not.

How? It's so succinct and to the point. With the initial issue, (substitution spamming), gettting solved by giving us limited subs. It doesn't pretend to be an esports experience.

Mesoian · May 22, 2020

jack_package_200 said:
Back in 2013, I was the one person in my group of friends who had a PS3 and one of our friends bought UNS 3 when it launched and we all sat around going through the story mode to unlock all the characters for the very fun but hilariously unbalanced multiplayer. I remember being blown away by the high production value especially in using character's ultimate. The art direction was pretty spot on in recreating the Naruto anime and manga.

The first three games are available on sale in a bundle on the Switch eshop for $20 and I am contemplating grabbing em.

I feel like the only game I can think of that both perfectly represents the anime its adapting while also being just a fantastic game all around is Dragon Ball FighterZ. I don't think anything else comes close.

Ha fucking no.

As a Naruto primer, it's great. It does a fantastic game retelling the story of the anime/manga, taking some really good and interesting liberities here and there.

As a GAME, they are some of the most unbalanced arena fighters on the market and did a lot to poison the well of what it means to release a game purely on a license. UNS1 and 2 are UNPLAYABLE. 3.5 is a direct result of people complaining about how broken the combat systems were, forcing them to release a halfstep that finally tried to introduce solutions to uselessness of melee combat and the fact that every KnJ is an option select, but then broke things further with tilt shifting.

They're wonderful single player games. They are garbage multiplayer games.

DBFZ has the title of greatest anime video game product.

Bobo Dakes said:
Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen! 4 hits harder.

GNT and Ultimate Ninja 3 and 4 are DRAMATICALLY better games than any of the storm games. The PS2 was doing Naruto amazingly well and then flash and pomp ruined it all in the next generation.

Crossing Eden said:
How? It's so succinct and to the point. With the initial issue, (substitution spamming), gettting solved by giving us limited subs. It doesn't pretend to be an esports experience.

It took them THREE GAMES to get that right, and then they still messed it up with tilt shifting.

I honestly don't understand CC2's super aggressive boner towards assists, every game they've made that has them has been garbage, every game that doesn't have them is shockingly well balanced. Even those super weird 3D adventure games they made for PS2 have better balancing than the storm games.

Crossing Eden · May 22, 2020

Mesoian said:
It took them THREE GAMES to get that right, and then they still messed it up with tilt shifting.

Barely anyone even knows how to do that shit though.

Mesoian · May 22, 2020

Crossing Eden said:
Barely anyone even knows how to do that shit though.

I mean CC2 burned all competitive good will with Storm 1. I'd make the argument that anyone who thought that the storm series was good never bothered playing the multiplayer for more than a handful of matches.

And that's almost okay because the single player is so strong. Those games are amazing if you just forget that there's any pvp at all.

jack_package_200 said:
I have heard the games are straight up a better adaptation than the anime

if you are mildly interested in Naruto but don't want to deal with watching 700 episodes, these games are a wonderful way of getting what you need.

Tribal24 · May 22, 2020

Gegz said:
If you say Dragon Ball FighterZ, it means that you've probably never played a Naruto game. They're not on the same level in terms of... being anime as fuck ? Especially with the garbage story mode in DBFZ.

Oh, and should we talk about the costumes in Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm or we good ? Because that's the kind of thing that DBFZ is missing for being the "pinnacle of licensed anime games".

Now, if we talk about gameplay... Yeah, it's okay.

I'd probably take JoJo ASB and Jojo's Bizarre Adventures (Capcom) over DBFZ tho'.

Yup this one here is the winner.

lusca_bueno · May 22, 2020

I feel like this is a topic I could ask this. I played one of the Naruto games on PS2, and was fond of the character design, but I never had a chance to fully experience the story through a game. What would be the optimal way to play Naruto games for the story in a doable way considering I own a PS4 currently? I mean, is the story split evenly between the 4 titles or is there a repetition of parts between them? Any spin off I should be aware of?

Btw, I already know the gameplay might differ vastly from the PS2 experience, but I thought I would like to try something new.

Mesoian · May 22, 2020

lusca_bueno said:
I feel like this is a topic I could ask this. I played one of the Naruto games on PS2, and was fond of the character design, but I never had a chance to fully experience the story through a game. What would be the optimal way to play Naruto games for the story in a doable way considering I own a PS4 currently? I mean, is the story split evenly between the 4 titles or is there a repetition of parts between them? Any spin off I should be aware of?

Btw, I already know the gameplay might differ vastly from the PS2 experience, but I thought I would like to try something new.

The gameplay is completely different. The PS2 game are irregular 2d fighters, the storm series are arena fighters. If you just wanna get the naruto story, the Storm Trilogy and Storm 4 are a great way of doing so, just know that most of storm 3's story is made up and really stupid.

lusca_bueno · May 22, 2020

Mesoian said:
The gameplay is completely different. The PS2 game are irregular 2d fighters, the storm series are arena fighters. If you just wanna get the naruto story, the Storm Trilogy and Storm 4 are a great way of doing so, just know that most of storm 3's story is made up and really stupid.

lol alright I'll keep that in mind about NS3. Btw, REALLY excited about the fact the first 3 ones are in a trilogy release, I thought I was gonna spend a lot more to enjoy the full story.

Kewlmyc · May 22, 2020

In terms of allowing you to experience the story of the series, yes, it's unrivaled.

Gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.

Crossing Eden · May 22, 2020

Mesoian said:
I mean CC2 burned all competitive good will with Storm 1. I'd make the argument that anyone who thought that the storm series was good never bothered playing the multiplayer for more than a handful of matches.

I played the hell out of the MP. It was unbalanced AF but still very fun.

Thera · May 22, 2020

If we are talking about production value and retranscript the original material, yes. From super and boss fight, this is really impressive.
But on gameplay :

CyberWolfJV said:
In term of aesthetics I think they're quite good and only FighterZ matched that; --but, on gameplay level, I think they're quite shallow as every 3D anime fighter; also they take away control of you way too often in exchange of spetacle and some QTE events (especially in the single player campaing);

I liked the gameplay of the Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja games (before Storm and 3D; aka Narutimate Accel), the 2D multi-layer fighting games.

100% this. Narutimate was better to play.

RedEther · May 22, 2020

Ultimate ninja series has some amazing single player experiences but as a head to head multiplayer game? It straight up falls flat on its face, the gameplay hasn't changed much since the first title and the depth is pretty much nonexistent to me personally.

Like many people have said in this thread and I agree with them the real answer is DBFZ

Mesoian · May 22, 2020

Man, why can't we just get an hd update of the narultimate games?

They were so fucking good.

tareqsalah · May 22, 2020

Quick question, does the trilogy have japanese voice? Or is it only in english?

Joker Code · May 22, 2020

Yep, they are probably the best anime games. I'm probably going to buy them on switch and play them again.

BrunOz · May 22, 2020

Not in a world where Dragon Ball FighterZ exists.

Ehoavash · May 22, 2020

Nairume said:
Allow me to present a case for

Specifically the Wii version

-Exhaustive character list of every major character without having to get too esoteric (Tenkaichi 3 went too far to the point that it included background extras as playable characters)
-YOU DO THE KAMEHAMEHA MOTION WITH THE WIIMOTE AND YOU DO A KAMEHAMEHA IN GAME
-An insanely comprehensive story mode that covered pretty much the entire story of Dragon Ball Z, most of the movies up to that point, most of GT, and even some of Dragon Ball.
-An insanely extensive arcade mode with different ladders to give you a lot of different groups of enemies to play through
-YOU DO THE KAMEHAMEHA MOTION WITH THE WIIMOTE AND YOU DO A KAMEHAMEHA IN GAME
-Seriously, the motion/pointer controls of the Wii version were so good this game was low key an early game that actually genuinely showed off in a really good way what the Wii could do
-RPG mechanics to customize characters for the story mode
-YOU DO THE KAMEHAMEHA MOTION WITH THE WIIMOTE AND YOU DO A KAMEHAMEHA IN GAME
-Despite being an anime arena fighter, it actually managed to balance complexity with accessibility. Was probably the first DBZ game to actually really full on get the feel of a Dragon Ball fight down right
-All the moves look like the right moves
-YOU DO THE KAMEHAMEHA MOTION WITH THE WIIMOTE AND YOU DO A KAMEHAMEHA IN GAME
-You can play as Mr Satan and his moveset in the game is priceless

My guy.

The storm games have nice visuals but outside that terrible arena gameplay. The Naruto Clash of the Ninja games were more fun

CRIMSON-XIII · May 22, 2020

WOW.

Dragon Ball Z Kakarot IMO is easily the best thing since DBZ legacy of goku. The ultimate ninja storm 1 game was great exploration wise, but the xbox naruto games were better in that regard. DBZK is the anime game and world i always wanted. Open world and free roam, side quests, story, dialogue. If they make a Naruto game on PS5 with the DBZK template as far exploration and scope, but bigger, that would be wild.

I want to explore the leaf village, go in the forests and go between villages, and experience a deep story with main and side content, and new content.

yurr · May 22, 2020

As a series I guess....I loved what HD has done for cell shading. But that series shit the bed(the manga) and the games got the blowback

yurr · May 22, 2020

ZeroDS said:
I think Attack on Titan doesn't get enough love especially the second game

That shit never goes on sale tho smh anime games be taxing

jack_package_200 · May 22, 2020

tareqsalah said:
Quick question, does the trilogy have japanese voice? Or is it only in english?

Multiple languages including Japanese

Chief Malik · May 22, 2020

Fighter z is probably the first legitimately good as in you don't have to be a fan of the source material to enjoy anime licensed game ever.

FusionNY said:
Those Ubisoft Naruto games were better.

Easily

abellwillring said:
As far as recent games go, Seven Deadly Sins Grand Cross is unbelievable. I am so blown away by both its gameplay and its presentation. It is fully voiced and has cutscenes made up of footage from the anime.. the graphics are great too. It's really amazing especially for a F2P game -- you'd swear with the amount of content and the presentation that this was a full-priced game.

Oh yeah, this is good too, I knew nothing about 7DS before playing and put a billion hours into this.

PunishedPrince · May 22, 2020

jack_package_200 said:
I only rented this and got stuck on Mr Satan vs 18 fight

I played this game when I was around seven years old and barely remember anything but as soon as I read "Mr Satan vs 18 fight" I suddenly had a vague feeling of frustration and anger. That fight probably kicked my ass as a kid too.

TwinBahamut · May 23, 2020

When it comes to licensed anime games, nothing will ever surpass the Super Robot Wars series. Solid tactical RPG gameplay, great 2D animation, and massive crossovers between dozens of shows that range from modern hits to 70s classics. The most recent console game lets the casts of Cowboy Bebop, Magic Knights Rayearth, Captain Harlock, and many more all join together in a sprawling adventure. The mobile spin-offs go all-in in the crossovers, bringing us things like Shinji from Evangelion piloting a customized Mechagodzilla.

No single-anime licensed game can compare.

Fularu · May 23, 2020

My answer would be Astro Boy on the GBA

absolutely brilliant

VeePs · May 23, 2020

Varth said:
Holy shit, is this one of Naruto OPs? It's super close to the Gundam Iron Blooder Orphans 4th OP.

Loved iron blooded orphans.

Mediking · May 23, 2020

Naruto Ultimate 4 is so much fun. I loved the game on PS4

Giga Man · May 23, 2020

Mesoian said:
Man, why can't we just get an hd update of the narultimate games?

They were so fucking good.

I only played Ultimate Ninja 1 on PS2. Did they properly localize the rest of them or did they screw it up like Clash of Ninja? I still want a properly localized Gekitou Ninja Taisen 4, or just make a new game with all the characters but with GNT4's gameplay, since I heard Gekitou Ninja Taisen Special felt a little worse to some players.

rAndom · May 23, 2020

Chrno said:
no.

this is.

Agreed.

We need another one of these. Jump Force sucks.

Reinhardt Schneider · May 23, 2020

Chrno said:
no.

this is.

Funnily enough, that's a manga game

Hate · May 23, 2020

Gundam Versus games are the best no contest.

A fan service game that actually has top notch combat.

RROCKMAN · May 23, 2020

Chrno said:
no.

this is.

Almost, but the real answer is...

copelandmaster said:
As a fanservice cutscene factory, sure. As actual good videogames, hell no.

Gundam VS Gundam/Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Versus series

This.

Thank god some one other than me posted it.

Thank you copelandmaster.

Hate , your taste is impeccable as well!

Yasumi · May 23, 2020

I'm not a Naruto fan, but I adore the Ultimate Ninja games for just how absurdly high they are on their anime bullshit. When Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 came out, I'd replay boss fights just for the spectacle. Everything about it is so lavishly extra, I love it. Nothing else comes close.

inner-G · May 23, 2020

Yeah because of how much story they cover

RROCKMAN · May 23, 2020

Like CC2 should seriously consider stepping into Anime with their own works. They have visuals down perfectly, even if there stories are not so good outside dot hack. But if trigger can manage then they should be able to too.

Asura's wrath and Naruto basically prove they have the directing chops

Lagamorph · May 23, 2020

The Ninja Storm games are probably the best way to experience the actual plot of Naruto.

AwakenedCloud · May 23, 2020

I really enjoyed the UNS2 story mode. 3 and 4 were fine, but the amount of filler and lack of budget between the showcases really started to lessen my experience.

MnM · May 23, 2020

No, it's FighterZ.

Cantaim · May 23, 2020

For Shippuden it's great. For the pre shippuden stuff it's shit. Bought the Trilogy and booted up the first game to experience the best part of Naruto. Only to find out none of the shit ya wanna see animated in CC2 fashion is animated. Outside of the intro I think the first animated cutscene is Naruto summoning the giant frog

Would really love it if they remade the first game to cover the pre shippuden story but give it Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 production values. God damn now that would be an amazing Naruto game.

Are the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm games the pinnacle of licensed anime games?

Prophet of Truth

Actual Brazilian

Chicken Chaser

User requested account closure

▲ Legend ▲

▲ Legend ▲

▲ Legend ▲

▲ Legend ▲

One Winged Slayer

Alt-Account

Alt-Account

Prophet of Truth

Final Fantasy Best Boy (Grip)

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

One Winged Slayer

Wrong About Chicken

Alt-Account