Ever thought about watching Naruto but never got to it due to the density of the show? Look, lets be honest: it’s been well over five years and you’re not getting into the show now, as you scroll through social media for the nth time. Instead of giving up, play ‘NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS’.
Developed by CyberConnect2 (“CC2”) and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, this game is a sort of ultimate compilation of the Ninja STORM series with a massive roster, lots of unlockables, an original Boruto story with elements close to CC2’s heart, and of course a condensed version of the original Naruto and Naruto Shippuden story.
Rice, chew your salt to this review of a fun collection.
Linked Connections
CyberConnect2, known for its licensed arena fighters and .Hack games, have been putting out Naruto games since the middle of the Xbox 360’s lifespan. And since the first Ultimate Ninja STORM title, CC2 has only made each entry of the series bigger and flashier in terms of combat but not always in terms of world exploration. The first Ninja Storm let players explore the Hidden Leaf Village while later entries focused more on a linear narrative experience. Ninja Storm Connections takes on the later style of story telling, splitting the original Naruto story into several chapters that give the gist of the whole story.
You end up losing a lot of story telling and cool moments from the prior Ninja STORM titles this way, but on the bright side this History mode will catch you up to speed on Naruto in a couple of hours or so. You’ll get your story beats through a slideshow and voiced lines and then get a chance to revisit bosses of prior games. Heck, these fights more or less look and feel like they come from their respective games, except now they run at (almost always) 60 frames per second . I’ll take that. But these parts are so condensed that I had a hard time taking footage that wouldn’t be a fairly big spoiler, Naruto being a decade plus old series and all aside. A cute little thing is that you can react to chapters now and let your fellow players know how much you cried over Naruto punching Sasuke.
After you’ve completed the History mode, you can take on Boruto’s extra story that’s included as well. It’s a second campaign mode that follows Naruto’s son as he picks up a new VR MMO game to win a replica of his dad’s necklace for his sister, all the while the adults are trying to figure out a new menace that wormed into their ranks and stole a bunch of important data. Particularly one plot point had me thinking “why would you put something that important in there?” but that’s par for the course with this series continuation. Still, this mode is fun and you can play the game’s entire 130-something roster of characters while clearing the main and side missions.
As I mentioned, there’s plenty of unlockables to go for in this game. Some of them come from clearing specific challenges within the campaigns, others can be bought with monies you earn by playing. Match voices, names, character colours, you name it. Playing as specific characters ranks up your affinity with them and that’ll unlock stuff specific to them. There’s a lot to go for that you can use to show off in the game’s online mode which features casual and ranked battles. Connections has a greater focus on being online, even going as far as offering daily login bonuses to keep you playing, but I feel that sort of thing doesn’t pull anyone well enough in a non-live service game anyway.
Speaking of which, I should talk about Ninja Storm’s gameplay. Connections is a casual 3D arena fighter, like most shounen game titles tend to be. You have your guards, dashing, counterattacks, link attacks if working with a team, and so on and so forth. CC2 has a knack for these kind of games, so controlling characters feels nice and fluid, no matter who you have the reins on. There are ways to keep your distance and close into your baddie in a flash and it’s a lot of fun to do so.
And don’t let the word “fighter” fool you, just about anyone can pick up and play Connections. You even have a “simple” control scheme you can use, which lets the game more or less pick combos for you while you mash the B and Y buttons. Naturally, if you go up against anyone that’s even a bit familiar with the game’s mechanics you’ll get slapped, so once you’ve gotten bored of that you can switch to the normal scheme and have a bit more flexibility with what combos you’d like to pull off.
The only complaint I have about the roster is that some characters feel a lot more floaty than others. Particularly characters from older titles like Jiraiya, where I swear his kicks should do more than just literally float in front of your opponent. I’ll also use this space to say that Kakashi looks goofy without his mask.
Flair Jutsu
As is with all CC2 titles, Connections is a great looking game. The cell shaded aesthetic pairs well with the company’s signature animation style, making for some really awesome scenes all fully rendered on your console. Fighting the foxes is just as cool as ever and it’s nice to see them at high frame rates for once. Connections also features full voice acting across multiple languages and even lets you change the user experience language from the menu without having to mess with console region settings and whatnot, which is always appreciated. Bonus points for the game’s use of the word “noobs”.
I’m not too big a fan of how much was stripped away in Ninja Storm’s Connections History mode, but it still does a good job of picking the right moments to sum up for Naruto-noobies while still offering fun fights alongside Boruto’s extra story. Ninja Storm fans will know what they’re coming back to, this time with a larger roster than Storm 4. Connections is ultimately a great little collection of all things Naruto. ∎
NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Combat is stylish and fun.
- History mode is a nice condensation of the entire Naruto series.
- Lots of characters and unlockables to go through.
- Great visual presentation, particularly with large-scale fights.
CONS
- History mode strips too much from prior Ninja Storm games.
- Combat's simplicity can become repetitive.
- Characters of yore can't quite keep up with the new.
I dont think its worth it tbh. They removed a lot of the boss fights of past games.
I wish this studio bothered with making a actual story mode in the sense of how Ubi’s Naruto games did it. I really liked Rise of a Ninja and The Broken Bond. Solely fighting is not for me.