Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact is a 3rd person crowd-brawling game for the PSP, following Kizuna Drive and Akatsuki Rising. The main difference between Ultimate Ninja Impact and its predecessors, besides tweaks under the hood and roster updates, is the use of cel-shading in order to provide anime-like visuals. For the uninitiated, 3rd person crowd-brawling games give you a character, an expansive stage to run around in, and waves upon waves of enemies that you have to wipe out. Sometimes you also get a boss fight at the end. If you’ve ever played any of Tecmo Koei’s –Warriors series of games, then you know what crowd brawler game is like. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact is basically like that – Dynasty Warriors with Naruto Shippuden themes.
The bad things first, because they’re few and far in between: the game is lengthy and takes you from the rescue Gaara arc all the way to the Ninja summit, but once you’ve finished the story mode, the extra missions won’t be that appealing.
There is a tendency for the combat itself to be repetitive, but this is more a flaw of the genre than the game. I mean, crowd brawlers by design will have you fighting tons of cannon fodder over and over again; complaining about it is like complaining that water is too wet. Lastly, the extra modes, as mentioned, isn’t that different from the story mode so there’s very little incentive to take them on once you’ve had your fill of the main game. It would have been better if they included a 1 on 1 vs mode against the CPU.
Now we get to the good parts:
As mentioned above, the engine is vastly improved from its predecessors. The cannon fodders are still dumb AIs, but they’re at least capable of fighting and will chip away at you if you stand still (whereas the previous games had AI that literally stood still and waited for your attacks.)
The graphics are exceptional, and the decision to go with cel-shaded instead of textured 3D is right on the money. The game looks good, even when blown up on the large screen (you can do this if you have the later PSP models, which had a TV out, or by using remotejoy to output to a computer screen.)
The roster is also above average, and is the most updated one you’ll get on the PSP. Since it goes all the way to the ninja summit, you’ll have access to the Raikage and Killer Bee, along with Naruto and Sasuke’s most powerful forms at the time, such as the Sage Naruto (which can transform into 4 tailed beast mode) and Hebi Sasuke, which can use his Susano’o.
Gameplay is also enjoyable, barring the repetitive nature (see previous paragraphs re crowd brawling). The characters have access to their trademark attacks and each one has a transformation that can be accessed when you fill the game’s version of a musou bar. This is probably the first Naruto game that lets you play with Itachi and Sasuke’s Susano’os, and Killerbee’s tailed beast mode and as the 8 tails.
Lastly, we get to replayability. I’ve already harped on about the repetitive nature of the game, but don’t take it to mean that the game has no replayability. As mentioned before, the story mode is lengthy, and there are extra battles to fight once you’ve finished the main game. Additionally, the game also lets you replay the missions using different characters. So if you’re a fan of Naruto Shippuden and want a Naruto game on the PSP with an updated roster, definitely check Ultimate Ninja Impact out. It’s not something that you’ll play over and over again indefinitely, but it’s something that you can bust out from time to time if you’re hankering for some Kishimoto-flavored portable Ninja action.
