NOT
Gets Boring Over Time
Easily the biggest problem with Naruto Powerful Shippuden is the lack of lasting appeal. This can be easily seen in the combat system, since you can win every fight (bosses included) by mashing the Y button, although some situations might call for some occasional X spam too. In addition to making this game dull, the same repeated environments only remind you how bad the lack of diversity is. This does get better as you unlock missions in other areas, though the feeling is short lived. Needless to say, this is a real shame as they could have done a much better job with the environments or combos.
2 Stories that Rely on the Other
Whether you care about doing both stories or not, you will need to progress through them both to reach the end. This is because a number of stages will be locked and will require keys from the other side to unlock them. Not only is this incredibly tedious if you just want to play though Shippuden (first half isn’t included), it also undercuts the whole concept of having two different stories. Thankfully Lee doesn’t have a lot of stages, though that also means his story isn’t really long either.
While this is a shame if you just want to experience the story, there isn’t a lot of that to begin with. The vast majority of scenes are merely character interactions, which can be hard to follow if you don’t know the story of Naruto. As you might expect from such a simple game, a good number of elements/characters/events are not included, so it gives the Shippuden story a lacking feeling. On the other hand Rock Lee’s story is just silly jokes and randomness, though this should be expected since it’s based off the SD manga.
Lack of Characters
Contrary to a number of other Naruto games, Naruto Powerful Shippuden is quite lacking in characters. For starters the game is limited to Naruto/Rock Lee for playable characters and features a mere 14 support characters. When you consider the series has 50+ popular characters, it would have been nice to see a larger selection of playable or support characters. Besides merely excluding a character you might enjoy, it also limits the amount of combat variety. Factoring in the complete lack of depth in the combat system, this choice seems all the worse.
VERDICT
Naruto Powerful Shippuden could have been a fantastic game, since it’s fun to play at first, but quickly the game will wear thin. Between the lack of characters, shallow combat system, minimal variety and purely Japanese voice acting (Yes, no English dub), there are a lot of lacking areas in the game. Even when you compare it to other Jump/anime games it falls short, which is a real shame. Hopefully it will get better in the sequel, but till then I would suggest waiting.
[Editor’s Note: Naruto Powerful Shippuden was reviewed on the Nintendo 3DS platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
