Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 Review on Xbox 360 Naruto Shippuden ; Ultimate Ninja Storm 2's main mode is its quest mode, which has players taking on the role of Naruto and other franchise favorites as they experience the story of the manga/anime up until the end of the Pain storyline. The story takes place in primarily two different ways: roaming and fighting. You'll mainly control Naruto, but you'll switch to various characters to help serve the purpose of the narrative when it comes to the free roaming portions of the game. When an important story point happens regarding Shikamaru, for instance, you'll control him as he roams through the Naruto world. Besides the game giving you the ability to roam as certain characters, you'll be thrown into the role of others for battles exclusively. Naruto might be running around, trying to bring down one character, but you'll be taken to another character who is dealing with a problem at the same time, engage in a battle where you control them, and then switch back once that fight is done. If I had to break this game down, I'd sum it up as a RPG meets fighting game, which works a hell of a lot better than one would think. If you've roamed through the static towns and environments of RPGs like the early PS2 Final Fantasy games, you'll feel right at home with Ultimate Ninja Storm 2. The entire world is static, so each time you run across that one bridge in the Hidden Leaf Village, it will have the same camera angle and people always populating the scene. Navigation is easy, but there's too much of it, and it gets annoying after a while, especially when you have to run long distances.
There are items and objects you can interact with while you're running through the world, which will net you items like you'd find in other RPGs. Items such as tree bark and seeds aren't worth anything on their own, but by stopping by one of the handful of shops and sellers in the game, you can trade these items in so that the shop will expand its inventory to include more powerful and useful items for you to use both in and out of combat.
Thankfully the fighting game mechanics work better than the RPG ones (besides the storytelling mechanics, that is). Though the combat isn't as deep or combo oriented as some of the more high profile fighters out there, it is a system that's both easy to pickup and play, and yet takes a little finesse in order to perform well. Matches take place in a 3D arena, where players can circle left and right and go into and out of the foreground. The controls aren't that complex either, as you navigate around with the left thumbstick, have one button to throw projectiles, one to perform attacks, one to build up chakra, and one to unleash special moves. Players can also perform moves like dashes, blocks, and substitution jutsus too.
