"Fan of Naruto or not, this is a fun and very accessible fighter."

There are a lot of ways to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. You could try to balance the most spoons on your face, eat a 12″ pizza the fastest, or type the most books backwards. CyberConnect2 tried to get in the spotlight by having the world’s longest game title, Shonen Jump Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2.

As if the title wasn’t confusing enough, there are two more unrelated Naruto games coming out in a week. But before you assume this is another slapped together licensed game, I’m here to tell you that, not only is Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 fun, it also has some insanely high production values.

Like the first game, Storm 2 is a 1 on 1 (excluding support characters) fighter. But rather than the typical side-view perspective that dominates the genre, the camera is closer to that of a third person action game where you and your opponent share the spotlight equally. Given that both players have free movement in all directions, it’s an impressive feat that local multiplayer matches are possible without the need to split the screen and still manage to not have any camera problems.

Much like the Super Smash Bros. series, Storm 2 is incredibly easy to learn. You won’t be performing any “quarter circles” or remembering giant lists of input that only apply to a single character. Instead, melee combos are all performed with a single button, but can be altered by holding different directions on the analogue stick. Projectiles, guards, throws, and everything else can also be accomplished by one or two simple button presses.

One of the interesting aspects of the controls is the “Chakra Load” button. While holding it will make you power up DBZ style (filling your Chakra gauge), pressing it acts as a modifier to your other buttons. It can increase the ferocity of your projectiles, turn melee attacks into special attacks, and make your jump button perform a super fast dash maneuver; all of which spend Chakra.

“Playing online is less daunting than more technical fighters.”

But while the input for every character is the same, that doesn’t mean every character plays the same. Each of the game’s 40+ characters have their own distinct flow. Special attacks can be especially different. While one character’s special has them charge forward, another generates a dome of energy around them. The same goes for characters in the support role. In fact, when selecting support characters (which pull from the same roster as the characters you control directly), an indicator shows whether your support is an Attack, Guard, or Balance type.

While it isn’t as technical as Street Fighter or Tekken, that doesn’t mean Ninja Storm is devoid of strategy. It’s a game of timing and managing the distance between you and your opponent. Timing is especially key when you’re on the defensive. Hitting the guard button at the precise moment an attack is about to hit will make you appear behind your opponent. This allows you to break free from your opponents combo and unleash your own brand of ninja-related punishment.

The story mode is leaps and bounds better than the original game. Unfortunately, that really isn’t saying much considering how monotonous the first game’s campaign was. It definitely has a slow start, but once it get’s going it’s actually pretty enjoyable, assuming you ignore the boring parts in favor of moving forward.

There are a lot of sidequests you can do for people in the village, but none of them are particularly interesting. There are also a lot of shops where you can purchase items and use materials to expand each shops’ inventory. But like a “filer arc” in the anime series, it all feels very unnecessary. If you ignore these elements, the campaign becomes much more enjoyable. Sure, the world becomes an empty (but beautifully rendered) vehicle to get you to the next fight, but the actual fights and the story itself are the interesting part, so why waste your time?

“Elaborate boss battles don’t happen often, but are stuffed with QTEs when they do.”

I was surprised at how closely the story follows the manga it’s based on. It’s a compressed version of course, but there were plenty of opportunities for them to shoehorn in extra fights and for the most part, they avoided this. What’s most astounding, though, is the story’s presentation. This is cel-shading at its best. It’s amazing that a video game can actually look better than its cartoon counterpart. Almost everything is fully voiced (thankfully with the option for Japanese), and all the animation is full of life.

This is especially apparent during the large-scale boss battles. There are only a small handful of these, but they are real visual treats. This is where the game periodically wrestles control away from you in favor of Quick Time Events. In fact, unlike the first game, these select few battles are thankfully the only time you’ll see QTEs. Don’t worry. You’ll still perform some normal combat on these parts as well, and it’s admittedly hard to get too upset when the QTE segments are so mind bogglingly gorgeous.

My experience playing online has been excellent. I never experienced any lag, and getting into a match was never a problem. And thanks to the accessible nature of the gameplay, fighting random people online is far less daunting than in more technical fighters. There are a few balance issues with certain characters, but they aren’t too bad.

If you’re already a Naruto fan, chances are good that you’ll love Ultimate Ninja Storm 2. But even if you’re not, this is still a really enjoyable fighter. The combat is extremely fluid. It’s really easy to learn, but still has enough depth to be interesting. There are tons of unlockables and multiplayer (local and online) can be a lot of fun. But do the clerk a favor and find it on the shelf yourself. If they have to type that full title into the computer to check their inventory, their fingers will start to hurt.

This review is based on a copy of the Xbox 360 version of Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 purchased by the reviewer.

"View the latest sections of your disc, now available for purchase!"

In our modern age of online-capable gaming consoles, downloadable content (DLC) is becoming increasingly common. There’s no denying this fact. But is this a positive trend? On the outside, it would appear so. DLC allows developers to continually provide their users with new content for games that might otherwise be put back on the shelf quickly after their release. In theory, it’s a wonderful system to potentially add a great deal of longevity to a game over time. Unfortunately, developers don’t always use this concept in a way that’s fair to their users. That’s right. DLC has a dark side.

I remember when Beautiful Katamari came out for Xbox 360, several news sites were reporting that DLC that included entirely new stages were contained in a file too small to be the stages themselves. The files were most likely doing nothing more than unlocking existing content already on the disc. This wasn’t the first time a situation like this occurred, but it received added attention due to the fact that buying all the DLC would move the game from “budget title” status to the normal sixty dollar price tag. It was a game of deception.

Sadly, this kind of practice is becoming commonplace. Games are getting released the same day as their first DLC pack, at times. Things that in days past would be unlocked as a reward for your actions in the game, are now unlocked by how much extra money is in your wallet.

Worse still, DLC is even used sometimes to manipulate our actions. Soul Calibur IV had console “exclusive” characters. The Xbox 360 version had Yoda and the PS3 version had Darth Vader. Despite that there was clearly a space for the absent Star Wars character of your choice on the character selection screen, the game’s director, Katsutoshi Sasaki, states that they had no plans to bring the absent players to their respective versions through the use of DLC. People desperate enough to play as both Yoda and Vader bought both versions of the game. They were in for a surprise. Months later, new Soul Calibur IV DLC was released that contained the absent characters. This just happened to fill the suspicious empty spaces from earlier. Now why would they say they had no plans to do something if they already prepared for it in advance? Hmm.

Another example of this manipulation, though much less severe, is Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm. Their DLC packs are all free. Truly they must be generous to give us new content for free, right? First off let’s take a look at the content itself. Each new pack contains a new support character to be used in Vs mode.  So what’s wrong with that? Well, as you progress through the single player story mode, you will take on the role of several different characters in the battles. In some of these battles, your support characters are people that will later be released as DLC. All the DLC will do is allow you to use these support characters in Vs mode battles instead of the specific story mode battles featuring them.

What is the advantage of holding back this already existing content if no money is even exchanged for it? I wondered that myself, that is, until I read Dave’s article on used games. Think about it. If that content was unlocked through normal progression of the game, somebody could blow through the single player, unlock everything, and exhaust those new multiplayer features in a relatively short amount of time. After this, they might trade in the game for something new, allowing the next guy to pick up the used copy at a reduced price. As Dave pointed out in his article, the developer sees none of this money. If the developer lures the purchaser of their game to hold on to it because free DLC is coming, the amount of used copies on store shelves would be lessened.  Now it’s all coming together.

This is not to say that all DLC is bad. The rhythm genre, for example, has legitimately been able to provide its fans with new songs to rock out to as additional copyrights are acquired. Games like Little Big Planet are able to add entirely new gameplay mechanics such as the “paintinator” featured in the Metal Gear Solid pack. DLC can truly be a wonderful thing. But sadly, some developers are going to continue abusing this system of exchange and frankly, I don’t see a light at the end of that tunnel.