I take been a long time fan of the Naruto anime and manga series, and a long fourth dimension begrudging purchaser of the Naruto video games. It isn't that the games are bad, exactly, merely rather that they seem content to practise the absolute minimum amount of work because the developers know fans will buy them all anyway. If there have been any bright spots, it has been the Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm series which refined all the crude points in the Ultimate Ninja series until the game was actually fairly enjoyable. The recent release of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Total Burst is essentially the complete version of Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 which was released earlier this year. While this is basically only a glorified DLC (and information technology is an actual DLC if y'all already ain the original title) pack, it represents the most comprehensive and consummate Naruto title to appointment, and if yous can slog your way through the intrusive story and mediocre combat there is enough hither to appease near fans of the series.

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The story here focuses around the titular Naruto, and fans of the anime or manga should already be largely familiar with the events covered in the game. It throws you right into the action without much caption every bit to what is happening or what has already happened, then hopefully you're already entrenched in the Naruto storyline otherwise the plot will be lost on you starting sometime shortly after the opening credits ringlet. Naruto'south father is battling a mysterious masked homo and an enormous fox creature known as the 9-Tails. While both seem intent on destroying his home village, they unfortunately picked a fight of a village consisting of super powerful ninjas, and the opening boxing is grand in scale and impressive visually. After resolving this state of affairs in the punchiest way possible, the game throws you into the hereafter every bit Naruto and the events surrounding the Fourth Bang-up Ninja War. While the intensity drops a chip from the opening sequence initially, the story notwithstanding manages to be relatively compelling provided you have the slightest inkling equally to what is going on.

The story itself is enjoyable enough, only information technology keeps getting in the way of the game, shouldering its manner on to the phase and demanding it gets another guitar solo considering it's afraid you'll take control and mess things up. There are multiple times where an intense fight will terminate and right when y'all're ready to bound back into the action, the game slaps the controller out of your hands and throws a twenty minute serial of cutscenes at you. Because of this, the pacing ends upwardly being completely uneven, and these huge gaps in the action occur basically every chapter. Even worse, because of how dumbo the lore and backstory for this game is, the huge focus on dialogue and story is going to be completely lost to someone who hasn't been following along so far. Fifty-fifty with all the time the game spends talking at yous, newcomers aren't going to exist able to discover their way to the path of story coherence without at least three roadmaps and a  Sherpa Indian guide to help them along. This is admittedly a game for hardcore Naruto fans only, with a story and then front end and center and completely inaccessible to outsiders that I have a difficult time imagining anyone who hasn't already been following along will glean any enjoyment out of this at all. With all of that existence said, if you are invested and can follow forthTotal Bursttells a compelling tale all the way through, with the but questionable hiccups occurring near the very terminate of the game.

The game varies in quality depending on exactly what sort of fight the game throws at you, but there were parts I plant genuinely enjoyable. The focus of the game is clearly on the story mode, and in the story mode y'all will either be taking part in big epic boss battles, frantic mob battles, or more traditional one on one fights. While the gameplay feels a fleck uneven in each segment, the accent seems to exist on the spectacle rather than actual complex and immersive gameplay. The very beginning encounter in the game throws you upwards against an enormous boss that is destroying buildings, and by leaping from one building to the side by side yous tin can trigger some cutscenes that require yous to press the correct button prompts. The actual gameplay really isn't that impressive as it isn't that much more than complex than most quick time events, but the whole run into is grand enough in scope that it nonetheless feels epic. All boss fights are similar this, and while they could've used more creativity in terms of gameplay, the frantic free energy they provide is a nice boost for the game. Mob battles play out a fleck like most large scale brawlers, like the Dynasty Warriors serial, although these too are fairly unproblematic. More than combos or moves or anything would've been great, because while everything looks impressive information technology ends up getting slow after a while.

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I was, nevertheless, decidedly less excited most the actual one on i battles which are pretty much the meat of the game. Y'all have your big ballsy boss battles or mob fights every once in a while, merely for the about part the story is continued by a series of fights that are more than reminiscent out of what would announced in a typical fighting game. While these retain some of the spectacle, for the most role they are adequately brainless in comparing to the more than interesting battles in the game and to the fighting offered in various other fighting games. Mashing the set on button and dodging seems to work well for fifty-fifty the later fights, and equally long as y'all have plenty health and stat boosting items on hand, about of these encounters are fairly trivial. At that place are some other pocket-sized elements to the story that could've been interesting, like the free roaming segments and the ability to buy items from store and equip them in battle to help customize what items y'all can use, just these things feels somewhat under utilized to actually have much of an touch on.

In that location is a versus way outside of the story mode that allows for both local and online play, just honestly this is even less interesting than story mode. They did a bad job balancing the game, giving y'all big chunks of the roster that are either useless or completely overpowered. People online seem to use the same handful of fighters with the same basic strategy, making the encounters deadening and predictable. Even taking these things out, the battles are simply non complex enough to hold anyone's involvement for a long stretch of time. You can choose from back up characters, and their sudden appearance and attacks when triggered practice add together to the intensity and complexity of the battles. Still, these do more to heighten the spectacle of the fights than the actual substance backside them, and while they are a squeamish idea you don't practice much other than choosing when to have them come out and attack.

In terms of new stuff,Full Burstdoesn't really offer every bit much content as I was hoping for. There is a brand new chapter added to the story fashion, and while it is adequately substantial and meaty, information technology doesn't really add nearly plenty to justify some other look at this game if you've already finished information technology. Perhaps the best addition is the inclusion of 100 new missions, which is by far what I spent most of my time on in regards to new content. In that location is some real challenge here, and if there is any reason to look at this glorified DLC this is absolutely it. You also get your hands on 38 different costumes, which hateful nothing to me, but are probable to appeal to someone that loves to dive into fan service. And so you lot get a whole ane new character to use in the versus fights, which is actually just a variation of a character that you could already use. The playstyle is completely different and then information technology isn't like yous're simply getting a new skin, merely again it feels like versus takes a backseat to the other stuff as these minor additions are barely even worth mentioning.

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Closing Comments:

I'm a fleck dislocated as to who the target audition for this game is supposed to exist. The huge focus on the story and insane amounts of fan service tell me this is for the hardest of hardcore Naruto fans, merely surely if someone is that hardcore they already ainNaruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Tempest 3not full burst edition. These relatively minor additions brand this game amend suited equally DLC (which it is and is available if you lot already ain the previous edition) and a full release feels almost giddy. There'southward an interesting story hither and it does a great job of creating a spectacle to lookout during the battles, so if you lot are a huge Naruto fan but somehow managed to miss out on Ultimate Ninja Tempest 3, then this is certainly worth a purchase. If you oasis't been fully committed to the series earlier at present, even so, this is a terrible point to jump aboard as there aren't enough adept features to attract non-fans of the show.
score3.5
Version Reviewed: Xbox 360