A fitting end to a great franchise

The final installment of the infamous Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 has been a long-anticipated release. But is it more of the same or something revolutionary?

First off, a huge round of applause for the developers, CyberConnect2, for realizing that they needed to make alterations to the gameplay mechanics after the lukewarm response that Ninja Storm Revolution received. The gameplay mechanics this time around is top-notch. Always known for its fast-paced battles, the new changes fit perfectly to the classic system, making this an extremely well balanced fighting game. One feature that got me excited was when they announced the return of the ability to wall run. And the developers took full advantage of the new consoles' capabilities, by making sure that during wall runs, players can fight it out when one character is on the wall and the other is on the field, something that the previous installments couldn't give us. 

The introduction of elemental damage and the omission of the option to choose three different fighting types, in order to bring back the good old Awakening and Ultimate Jutsu features, are definitely decisions well made. Who doesn't like Sasuke's Awakenings? And this time around, players can swap characters during a battle and if a character's jutsu meter is filled up, the swapped character can also use it. 

But, a major flaw of the character swapping feature is the fact that all characters share the same life bar. And if you are using someone like Hinata and have Killer Bee in your team and Hinata gets beaten badly, you cannot fully utilize Killer Bee's strengths, as they both are now greatly weakened. 

Naruto Shippuden : Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 has all the characters from the Naruto universe, making it the only title to do so. With the story mode following the final arcs of Naruto Shippuden and the side stories featuring the adventures of the younger versions of Kakashi, Obito, and Sasuke and his group's quest of resurrecting the Hokages, Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is the perfect farewell to a series that has made its mark by providing a fun fighting experience. Despite the character-swapping and lifebar issue, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is a near-perfect title and is definitely one of the standout games of the year, so far.

Fardeen Zareef is in a war with carbohydrates but his love of Doritos overwhelms him. He also does not know how to use Twitter and loves to game. Message him your love/hate at https://www.facebook.com/fardeen.zareef