Unfortunately, there are some areas in
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3's gameplay where things break down a bit. As a fighter,
Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 seems to simplify the controls a bit from previous games and makes it even easier to deal out amazing looking attacks. On the one hand, you could argue that this makes sense because none of the fighters are learning anymore. They all have their techniques and they all execute them flawlessly, so why make it hard to pull off things like Naruto's shadow clone attack or his rasengan. On the other hand though, it feels like there is no real skill needed to plow your way through the game's story. Granted, when you go online or play against a skilled friend, then simple button-mashing won't get you far, but it still feels like there is more style than skill in
Ultimate Ninja Storm 3's fighting system.
As for the game's story, once again, I feel a bit torn. Unlike most anime-based fighters, including past Ninja Storm games), Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 goes into great detail in covering the plot between fights. There are lengthy cutscenes that are CG recreations of what you see in the anime or manga, and when there is a fight, the cutscene ends and you take on the challenge that the discussions led up to. I like this a lot and I feel it is way better than the skimming of a story that you would find in other similar games. In those, if you hadn't strictly followed the anime, then you would have no idea what was going on. Here, while you still need to know what the story was in the show or manga, the player isn't as reliant on outside information. I say they still need to know what happened in the show because the game starts off just after the Leaf Village's defense against Pain and the rest of the Akatsuki and Naruto being declared the hero of the Leaf. Besides a lengthy bit of text that scrolls across your screen while the game installs, there isn't any back-story presented to the player.
So, why do I say I have mixed feelings about this? Well, I like the fact that the game goes deep into the show's story, but the trade-off is that there is a long time between fights and, quite frankly, a lot of those fights feel like they go by way too fast before you are done and watching another cutscene. It feels like there is a balance to be had between the two, but in the case of this game, it leans too far on the story side.
