The Epic Ninja Storm 4

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Madara of the Uchiha and Hashirama of the Senju Clan faced one another at the climax of their fight in The Valley of The End. They both knew that it would conclude with one of them taking their last breath. As the battle raged on, they both used up massive quantities of chakra, pushing them both to their limit. Hashirama formed several hand signs and shouted, “Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands”. Emerging from behind him was a great wooden statue of epic proportions, with an enormous amount of arms. He unleashed a fury of fists upon his foe, Madara. After the endless onslaught of attacks brought on by the statue, Hashirama had defeated his rival and best friend. He had overpowered Madara, bringing peace to the Shinobi world, for now. This epic battle is the intro to the story mode of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4. To me, this was perhaps one of the most breathtaking intros that I’ve played in my entire life.

(The Thousand hand Jutsu)

Shortly after the battle comes to an close, I began my journey into the story of Naruto in the medium of a fighting video game. I personally am a huge fan of the Naruto series, and Naruto Shippuden is perhaps my favorite anime. When it went on sale on Steam I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get my hands on it. The game throws you into several of the bigger and more important fights from the series and essentially takes you on a journey similar to the show. As I defeated opponent after opponent sometimes large groups of them at the same time, I realized that this was a truly special fighting game. I of course played it with metal music on in the background to enhance the badass factor of my bouts. I found myself either singing along with the music, or yelling as I sent my foes flying with fierce combos and incredible jutsus.

(The battle between Madara and Hashirama continues)

I also got the opportunity to play against another person, not just the computer. My friend Dylan and I would queue up fights with our favorite characters from the show, ready to beat each other to a pulp, in the game of course.

(Naruto and Obito clashing on the battlefield)

Player vs. Player brings about an entirely different fighting experience. It forces you to rely heavily on melee combos, as well as using your substitution jutsus effectively rather than hoping to land an ULT (Ultimate Attack). These are moves that are the strongest your character has. It has a cinematic that shows how awesome they are and usually can close out a game when your opponent has lower health. Substitution jutsus are a way to evade people in Naruto. This is done by swapping yourself with another object. In many instances over the course of the series, this object ends up being a log. As we fought mashing our controllers faster and harder in order to compete, the game went from epic battles against the computer to what can only be described as an all out slugfest.

(Kakashi and Obito fight with quick time actions)

Ninja Storm 4 is one of those games that takes a little getting used to, but as you get the hang of it your potential damage output grows exponentially. It’s incredibly different than most fighting games I’ve played. Because of this I found it to be a truly unique experience. I’m also the type of person that rarely plays fighting games. However, unlike other fighting games, Ninja Storm 4 had me hooked from the very first fight in the story mode.

(Sasuke using his ULT)

I wanted to play with each of the characters and use the attacks I watched them perform when I was watching the anime. The story mode gains you more and more characters to play with as you progress. There are significantly more playable characters than every fighting game I’ve ever played. The best part is that if you like Naruto, you get to play as the characters you like the most! Playing as characters like Itachi, Might Guy, Killer Bee and others is something I really didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to do.

(Obito and Kakashi using a tag team ULT)

This game is also incredibly relevant since the anime, Naruto: Shippuden is drawing to a close next week. The show that aired for almost my entire life and got me into most anime is almost over. Being able to grab a controller and fight battles from several seasons back fills me with nosetalgia. I’m sure almost any fan of the series would have memories of the epic battles they had watched years previous when they play this game.

(Kakshi using his Lighting Blade combined with Kamui)

I’m fairly certain I'll be playing Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 for quite some time. It’s one of the only fighting games I’ve actually enjoyed playing and it just so happens it’s based on one of my favorite animes. Coming from the perspective of someone who never really got into these type of games, I think that Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 has that special something that sets apart from other games in it’s genre. It’s incredibly fun and the moves in many of the playable characters’ arsenals are some of the most badass attacks I’ve been able to use ever. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes fighting games, likes Naruto, and to people who have considered playing fighting games but, like me, never got into them.