Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3

 PlayStation 3
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 233 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 164 out of 233
  2. Mixed: 42 out of 233
  3. Negative: 27 out of 233
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  1. Metacriticfan4
    Mar 30, 2013
    2
    As a huge fan of the Naruto manga and anime I was very disappointed with this game. The developers have actually managed to make a worse game than NUNSG which came before it. The problems are many.
    1) A disappointing roster. CC2 continue their 'copy-paste' style and a huge part of the cast are literally the same as in both UNS2 and UNSG. Similarly the game lacks so many new and vital    As a huge fan of the Naruto manga and anime I was very disappointed with this game. The developers have actually managed to make a worse game than NUNSG which came before it. The problems are many.
    1) A disappointing roster. CC2 continue their 'copy-paste' style and a huge part of the cast are literally the same as in both UNS2 and UNSG. Similarly the game lacks so many new and vital characters.
    2) The online section of this game is the worst it has ever been. With massive frame rate problems and poor net-coding the online part of the game has terrible replay value. This is very bad considering that the bulk of your hours playing this game will mostly be online. Why? The offline has very little challenge and low replay value.
    3) The story mode was dull. It dragged out for what felt like an eternity and I feel like they spent to much of the budget making a very easy and unfulfilling story mode rather than a full innovative roster and a good online mode. 4) The DLC concept is a bad turn. CC2 have decided to give us DLC costumes rather than just putting them in the game like they should have been. I guess they follow the trend of wanting to make more money of their costumers. These costumes should have been in the 60 dollar game that we already paid for and it's in very bad taste to charge people for this.
    Overall CC2 have made their worst Naruto game as of yet, and they have lost at least one costumer.    … Expand
  2. Castian
    Apr 29, 2013
    1
    Zero improvement over the last games, cool ting is the story progression, but quirky and feels like playing the old games yet AGAIN.
    Online mode is Laggy as and the removal of several SUPERS is a thing to miss, still, PS2's Naruto games are vastly better.
  3. Garbouw_Deark
    Jan 19, 2014
    4
    Positives: Well, there were a lot of characters. Like, a lot. Really, for a fanfiction fan like me, this was like a dream come true. Also, there were a few epic moments in the story that made me just stop for a moment, and appreciate the epicness.

    Negatives: Well, the game REALLY seemed a bit rushed. I haven't played the other games in the series, nor can I be considered an    Positives: Well, there were a lot of characters. Like, a lot. Really, for a fanfiction fan like me, this was like a dream come true. Also, there were a few epic moments in the story that made me just stop for a moment, and appreciate the epicness.

    Negatives: Well, the game REALLY seemed a bit rushed. I haven't played the other games in the series, nor can I be considered an 'experienced' player, but some of the combat features and a few of the boss fights (I'm looking at you, final boss fight), REALLY seemed rushed and just thrown in last minute. The Open World bits were terrible, and the ending was worse than the **** games I've ever played.

    The item system only gives you a VERY slight edge, when using anything but health, chakra, or stat boosts. This along with the Hero and Legendary loadouts, while a little nice, were sorta confusing. Why couldn't there just be one loadout?

    The final boss fights were a HUGE problem as well. I won't give anything away, but I'll try to explain it. There is no health regen in the game, and the final boss fights don't let you use health items. Also, a flying enemy with a VERY small hitbox. Fun! Not.

    Also, quick-time events. Did I mention those? There's a lot of them.

    The Open World? Yeah, you can sorta travel from place to place, but it's really slow, there are invisible walls EVERYWHERE. You literally are forced to walk down a narrow path.

    The Cutscenes. Kill me now. There are a lot of them, which is to be expected from an anime-based game, but more so than usual. Also, some are unskippable. And the ones that aren't you don't really want to miss that much. Combine this with long loading times for each switch from gameplay to cutscene, it really makes the game longer than it needs to be.

    The Voice Actors. Guess what? It's the English voice actors. You know, the ones that made Kakashi and Itachi sound alright, but made Naruto sound like a whiny brat (who, by the way, you'll be hearing a lot of). They really couldn't have just given the option of Japanese voice actors with subtitles?

    Finally, the ending. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had released the later parts quickly as cheap DLC, but no. The ending itself is terrible. It really is. I'm not even joking. They have this really awesome (sort of) series of quick time events that seem to lead up to an amazing finish, but then....ugh. You'll see. Or not.

    All in all, only the most die-hard of Naruto fans will enjoy this. And even then....I don't know. I only came for a playable Fuu.    … Expand
  4. FatedReality
    Apr 28, 2013
    3
    As a huge fan of Naruto I have read all the manga all the way up to the most recent chapter and played all the ultimate ninja games sense the early PS2 days. I can say this game is very disappointing. The story was quite lackluster and very restricted from previous games in the series. It seems to take different elements from the previous storm games. You navigate the world like you didAs a huge fan of Naruto I have read all the manga all the way up to the most recent chapter and played all the ultimate ninja games sense the early PS2 days. I can say this game is very disappointing. The story was quite lackluster and very restricted from previous games in the series. It seems to take different elements from the previous storm games. You navigate the world like you did in Storm 2 with limited roaming sequences, except they seem to be tacked on in this game and are short and usually very tedious. The other part of the story are the cut scenes and there are a lot. I usually don't mind theses cut scenes but some of them are extremely long and just tiring luckily you can skip these if you want. There are also the battles which are fun most of the time but there are some that seem to be tacked on to the story just to make it longer. The highlight to the story is defiantly the return of boss battles. They are extremely fun and look spectacular, like scenes straight out the anime.

    Perhaps the most important part of the storm games is the roster of characters. Even though Storm 3 has the largest roster of characters in a storm game to date don't be fooled most of theses characters are exactly the as they were in Storm 2. Same look, same combo and same Ultimate. I don't expect for them to drastically change every character but some characters that are important should have different ultimantes.

    Also oddly enough there are characters in the story that you fight that are clearly programmed but yet you cant play as them. This includes the seven ninja swordsman barring Zabuza and the Edo kages. The multiplayer is the same as generations, very fun and addicting to play but is often lagging and can get very frustrating. All in all this Naruto storm fails to make any changes to the series and is in need of a some character changes. I would not advice anyone to buy this game unless you are a die hard Naruto fan.    … Expand
  5. Abstractpurpose
    Mar 10, 2013
    4
    this game is amazing looking with a very cinematic story mode and a well made roster of characters. so why the mediocre review score? I have a very good reason actually. The series like the dragon ball game series has been known to be overly simple. Smashing 1 button is how to combo is unacceptable. I understand there not trying to make this a die hard fighting game but it IS a game basedthis game is amazing looking with a very cinematic story mode and a well made roster of characters. so why the mediocre review score? I have a very good reason actually. The series like the dragon ball game series has been known to be overly simple. Smashing 1 button is how to combo is unacceptable. I understand there not trying to make this a die hard fighting game but it IS a game based off a series about ninja hand to hand combat and inteligent use of special moves which meens there should be more to the fighting mechanics than there are now and this many ga,mes into the series its a bad sign that they havent done anything to make it better yet.

    My next big issue goes for huge fans of the show as well. having only 2 jutsu per character when replicating a show where some use 10 or more even steals the fun of feeling like your reliving battles. Why not allow for a button that when pressed allows you to toggle anywhere up to 5? some could be character specific and others can be picked from a list like in some of the older naruto games. Theres nothing worse than watching the show being amped up about playing and finding that there is no inteligent way to use jutsu. There all for damage but i sometimes want to use a mist jutsu to temporarily blind and enemy or one of itachis genjutsu to have them attacking a fake enemy for a second or so. something ANYTHING to make it feel like the series. This game while very good looking is so simple and so badly lacking in the combat and jutsu use that the show is based on that it gets boring and becomes a backshelf game far to quickly. a little work on combo use and some smart jutsu that arent all just dmg based (and of course more than just 2 per character) and this game will be one you can play on and off all year vs a month or 2 before your done.    … Expand
  6. xRealityxLapsex
    Mar 13, 2013
    3
    This game only confirms to me that CyberConnect2 truly no longer cares about the fighter aspect of this game, and are willing to throw out any piece of crap into the marketplace with Naruto in the title, just to make money. While I did enjoy the story aspect of the game, with it's beautiful visuals and representation, this game is still a fighter at it's core, and unfortunately it's aThis game only confirms to me that CyberConnect2 truly no longer cares about the fighter aspect of this game, and are willing to throw out any piece of crap into the marketplace with Naruto in the title, just to make money. While I did enjoy the story aspect of the game, with it's beautiful visuals and representation, this game is still a fighter at it's core, and unfortunately it's a very bad one at that. You still have your boring, one-dimensional, repetitive one button mashable combos which apparently got even nerfed further in Storm 3 by CC2 removing a combo string (In older Storm games, there were 4 different strings: Neutral, Left/Right, Up, and Down. In Storm 3 Neutral and Left/Right pull off the same combo string.) This goes to show that CC2 is apparently too lazy to do a simple copypaste job, of which the game ultimately already is. The dreaded substitution, or KnJing gauge also makes a return in Storm 3, which shows CC2 would rather listen to whiny casuals and simplify the game beyond it's already simplistic, yet repetitive nature, instead of expanding the game to draw in a wider audience of players. The Storm series for some reason, seems to become more and more repetitive with each new release in the series, instead of adding change and new fighting mechanics to breathe new life into it. I understand that CC2 wants to cater to a younger audience to have them properly enjoy the Naruto series and have something easy to get into, but if you're going to do that, don't release this game as a fighter. Maybe an action/adventure type, but definitely not a fighter. And if CC2 wants this to be a better fighting game so that it caters to a larger audience and potentially make a bigger profit on this title, then they should follow an example from MvC3 and Blazblue and create a Simple Mode and a Normal Mode. The simple mode being what the gameplay is now currently, and the normal mode expanding on different combo strings and button inputs, multiple special attack jutsus, the removal of the substitution gauge and actually requiring precise timing and skill in order to successfully KnJ, as well as expanding what support/assist characters can do. The sad thing about this game is that I'm a GameStop employee and it's only been one week since this game was launched, and already there have been multiple copies of this game traded back in. All of them said that the story was great, but once you finish the story there is absolutely no reason to keep the game, nor is the fighter aspect decent enough to merit keeping the game. If CC2 wants to not lose out on potential customers, they need to consider not only the younger, casual gamers, but also the more enthusiastic gamers that enjoy fighters, and add in new elements to the mechanics in order to revive this game from the droll, one dimensional gameplay that is slowly dragging this game 6 feet under. But as long as CC2's mindset is set on the younger Naruto fans, don't expect it to happen. Such a shame.… Expand
  7. Hyuugaraul
    Mar 17, 2013
    0
    This game sucks! Is a bad copy past from naruto generations, with 10 new characters and a history mode that destroys the original Naruto`s story. The edo kages are all designed but are not playable. The swordsmen with exception of Zabuza are not playable to. If you didn`t play storm 1, buy storm 1, but not this game. If you had already played every ps3 naruto`s games stay with generation,This game sucks! Is a bad copy past from naruto generations, with 10 new characters and a history mode that destroys the original Naruto`s story. The edo kages are all designed but are not playable. The swordsmen with exception of Zabuza are not playable to. If you didn`t play storm 1, buy storm 1, but not this game. If you had already played every ps3 naruto`s games stay with generation, but please, don`t spend your money with this.… Expand
  8. bluclaudino
    Mar 5, 2013
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Totally unworthy for the "Naruto" Manga: few character, few stage, same characters "copy-pasted" from Storm2 with not even a modify, story mode totally wrong.. as a Fan of the Manga i'm really disappointed.… Expand
  9. Gonoru
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I agree with this: This game sucks, cc2 and namco bandai only copy and paste, besides that only important characters get updates, no edo kages nothing realy new its only stuff that was already there, no update on the characters that realy need it like konan or juugo, the story its not like the anime or the manga they just changed it, we have been deceived by namco bandai and cc2. They areI agree with this: This game sucks, cc2 and namco bandai only copy and paste, besides that only important characters get updates, no edo kages nothing realy new its only stuff that was already there, no update on the characters that realy need it like konan or juugo, the story its not like the anime or the manga they just changed it, we have been deceived by namco bandai and cc2. They are very lazy and only think about the money, well think again we fans are not stupid… Expand
  10. Kamarr
    Sep 27, 2015
    4
    No story first of all beyond the world tournament mode which is garbage. Spam heaven I play with friends and all they do is pick the characters that can spam all day. People that give this positive scores are just narutards. There are a lot of lagging issues on top of poor collisions. They really half @$$ed this game just to get some $$ from fans Do not support this game.

Awards & Rankings

53
#53 Best PS3 Game of 2013
36
#36 Most Discussed PS3 Game of 2013
42
#42 Most Shared PS3 Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 32
  3. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Apr 23, 2013
    80
    Delivers a visually exciting experience. [May 2013, p.107]
  2. Play UK
    Apr 23, 2013
    85
    The best Naruto game yet. [Issue#230, p.77]
  3. Official PlayStation Magazine Benelux
    Apr 22, 2013
    67
    Anyone who has watched more than one episode of Naruto, Bleach or any of the Dragon Balls, knows that the pre-fight exposition/tea party can drag on for quite a while. So prepare to sit through some pretty lengthy and non-interactive cutscenes. [April 2013, p.84]
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