Showing posts with label Ultimate Ninja Heroes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ultimate Ninja Heroes. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 (PSP)


At first glance, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 looks like it’s a significant upgrade to its predecessors, Ultimate Ninja Heroes and Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2. The graphics and presentation look sleeker, it’s got an updated roster, and it finally has 4-way free for alls. Unfortunately, all of the improvements are superficial at best, and once you actually get around to playing the game, you’ll get the feeling that Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 is a step backwards for the franchise.

The character models in UNH 3 is indeed smoother and there’s less jaggies noticeable, but the character animation is jerky, like it was made with less frames. Most PSP games run at 30fps, but UNH 3 looks jerky even when compared to other PSP games (worse still is the fact that its predecessors ran at 60fps). We’re assuming that similar to the latter Bleach Heat the Soul games, the FPS was cut down in order to accommodate more complex visual effects. Except that’s not the case here.

UNH 3 seems to have skimped down on the use of transparencies and FBO effects, resulting in some effects – particularly Kakashi Hatake’s Mangekyo Sharingan super – looking a little bit rough around the edges.

But gameplay is still king, right?