At E3, Namco Bandai had a short build of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 to play. Unlike past demos, Naruto (Shippuden Naruto) was the only playable character. I fought against Kakashi in the welcome back to Konoha battle.
The fight had two phases. In the first, Kakashi was a pushover. A few punches and an Odama Rasengan later, Kakashi was out. Before he could switch to phase two, I had to run through a sequence of quick time events to dodge a Lighting Blade, appear behind Kakashi with a Thousand Years of Death jutsu poke, and call out Sakura for an earth shattering punch. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm appears grade players on their reflexes. After you hit a button, stars appear to tell you how you did.
Sakura shattered the arena into pieces when she punched the ground and it remained that way for the rest of the fight. Kakashi switched gears and used a new set of moves. First, he summoned a water dragon that leaped out and chased Naruto on the battlefield. Then Kakashi jumped into the water with a fully charged Lighting Blade, which would shock Naruto if he was standing in water. I had to stand on the islands to avoid being hit.
But, you just can’t stand on an island and wait for Kakashi. The water dragon jumps out twice and will hit Naruto, sometimes pushing him into the electrified water, if you stay in one spot. You have to leap to a different island right before Kakashi lands. Sometimes jumping felt spotty. A few times, I tried to reach the smaller islands only to jump too far, which meant I landed right in the charged water. Islands broke apart as the fight continued.
This battle appears to be from the story mode. Kakashi had infinite chakra and jumped out of range on a ledge made up of broken rocks. CyberConnect2 usually invests a lot of energy into a single player story mode, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 also has online play and I’m curious to see how that is going to work. Unfortunately, Namco Bandai wasn’t ready to demo that.
Published: Jun 16, 2010 08:50 pm