It’s been seven long years since the last Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm and five since Shinobi Striker launched and refused to die, so when I saw the series’ 20th anniversary logo appear last night during the February State of Play, my heart skipped a beat and I screamed like Kakashi had just hit me with One Thousand Years of Death.
My heart quickly returned to its normal depressed thud asNaruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections was revealed as not a new game, but a “cut together” version of the first four entries. Essentially, it’s Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy, but all in one game and with some new features sprinkled on top to keep fans like me happy. Except I’m not.
Related:It’s Time To Let Naruto To Boruto: Shinobi Striker Die
Why is this bad?As one of the many Naruto fans who got excited when rumours of a new Ultimate Ninja Storm started doing the rounds, this feels like the worst possible outcome. We’ve already been resold these games several times over with Generations, Legacy, Full Burst, and several different ports, and now we’re just getting a slightly spit-shined version yet again. This is how GTA 5 fans feel, isn’t it?
It’s bad enough that we’re being asked to quadruple-dip for a few more characters and modes, but this is such a missed opportunity. In the years since Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, Boruto’s story has become so much bigger than the Naurto clone it seemed to start off as - it’s no longer just torture for anyone wanting to see Naruto and Sasuke happy, but something entirely its own with new characters, arcs, and powers.
Boruto has gone from being disliked by most of the fanbase to being more positively looked upon and even loved by Naruto fans. I don’t pay as much attention to the manga as I did with Naruto, but the last chapter appears to be setting up the series’ own long-awaited Shippuden moment. There has never been a better time to make Ultimate Ninja Storm 5, but instead, we’re right back where we were in 2016 when the original series ended and Boruto was barely a thing.
Not to bare my normie weeb soul too much, but Bandai Namco has been doing the exact same thing with Dragon Ball for the last console generation. XenoVerse 2 released when I was just starting college and is still getting new DLC characters to this day, despite most Dragon Ball fans begging for a new entry. Similarly, Kakarot launched during my third year of university and seemingly has plenty of gas left in the tank three years later.
I have no problem with any of these games being supported - Ultimate Ninja Storm, XenoVerse 2, and Kakarot are all great games that have seen pretty big playerbases, but there comes a point where something new needs to be done, and all of these games have long passed that. Well, Kakarot can keep going, that’s doing original Dragon Ball content and that’s justdope.
It’s even worse in the case of Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections because it’s just the same four games being sold in one package with a few new characters and modes on top. There’s going to be more than just two characters, but it still doesn’t even feel comparable to DLC. At best it’s a generous current-gen update - Ultimate Ninja Storm and its fans both deserve better than that.
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