Game: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road To Boruto
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fighting, Role-Playing
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC)
Developers|Publishers: CyberConnect2 |BANDAI Namco Entertainment
Price: US $49.99|AU $79.95|CA $68.24|EU €49,99|UK £44.99
Age Rating: EU PEGI 12+|Au PG |US ESRB T
Release Date: 24th of April 2020
Bought the game myself to make this review possible for the site.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road To Boruto for the Nintendo Switch is a licensed anime arena fighter based on the extremely popular Naruto manga and anime with the content being based on the final few arcs of the manga and Boruto: Naruto The Movie. It’s a re-released port of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 containing all of the previously released DLC including the Road to Boruto expansion and two new characters that were previously non-playable. The game has a lot to offer but is this game worth taking on the go? Let’s find out!
Stylish visuals and a lot of content? Believe it!
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road To Boruto runs at 30FPS on both the Switch Lite and the Handheld Mode/Docked Mode of the regular Switch model and even though the visuals look a slight bit downgraded from the other console releases the graphics are still amazing and the performance is well-done like most of Bandai Namco’s other Nintendo Switch ports of their anime games. Sound-wise the soundtrack is really well done and fits the style of the anime quite nicely and the voice acting is also superb with it having both the English dub cast and the Japanese voice cast included.
The game’s presentation is also really stylish. It’s almost like playing episodes of the anime. However, I do have a slight knock against the fact that the games story mode uses a lot of screenshots from the anime itself but it makes up for that by having amazing in-game cutscenes and amazing setpieces to boot with some quick-time events during specific fights and these action scenes are absolutely hype. The developers CyberConnect2 pride themselves on having really amazing visuals for the anime games they produce from the beautiful cutscenes to the amazing Ultimate Secret techniques that the various characters can perform.
There are a lot of modes available to you from Story Mode which is a series of fights and various other events. Adventure Mode which has a few side stories available and lets you free-roam through the Hidden Leaf village and other locales of the series though I would argue the free-roaming in this game isn’t as great compared to some of the earlier entries in the Ultimate Ninja Storm series, Boruto’s Tale which is basically the same as Adventure Mode but follows the events of Boruto: Naruto The Movie. You also have Free Battle where you can duke it out with the CPU or have a local friend fight with you and an online mode that features friendly matches and ranked matches. Though how well these online fights go is up to your connection and other factors.
Following one’s Ninja Way!
In terms of Gameplay, you pick from up to three characters out of the Impressive number of over 100 characters that have appeared in the series with one of them being your main character and the other two being support and able to be tagged in during a fight.
You fight in an arena which allows you to move in various directions and perform various close-ranged and long-ranged attacks and string attacks together in combos as well as having various defensive options like blocking attacks and getting out of combos with the Substitution Jutsu which is limited to four times until the Substitution gauge needs to charge. There are also special attacks that you can use that consume chakra from a regular Jutsu and a jaw-dropping and stunning Secret Technique that puts out high damage and some combinations of characters even have Tag team Secret techniques!
Admittedly this game is pretty simple to learn and pick up and play compared to other fighting games that I enjoy but it’s still really exciting thanks to the very hype presentation and the gameplay being accessible for fans of the series who may not be as experienced with fighting games or are new to Anime arena fighters.
Conclusion!
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road To Boruto is a really well-done port of the original game on the Nintendo Switch offering a complete package full of content for fans of the anime to enjoy. While the combat system of the game isn’t the deepest there is still a lot of fun to be had especially thanks to the very stylish and jaw-dropping visuals that CyberConnect2 has been known for since the start of the Ultimate Ninja Storm series. I can recommend it to anime fans who are huge into Naruto but haven’t had the chance to play this game on other systems.
Final Verdict: I like it a lot!