Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few fights are built to make you feel like you are already good at Naruto. You can move freely around a 3D arena, close distance quickly, and turn a small opening into a flurry of recognizable ninja attacks. That immediate momentum is the point. Storm 4 is less interested in making you memorize dense inputs than in getting you to the fun part, where two familiar characters collide and the screen erupts around them.

Its strongest idea is the three-character team system. Rather than treating teammates as occasional assist buttons, you can change your controlled leader during combat. That gives you a reason to think about team composition beyond picking favorites. Switching can refresh an attack plan, alter who you want in front of the opponent, and make a match feel more reactive than the simple controls initially imply. Awakening forms and combination secret techniques add further incentive to build teams with intent.

There is a ceiling to that accessibility. Repeating basic attack strings can become a little samey, especially if you come from fighters where every exchange hinges on precise spacing, complex routes, and difficult execution. Storm 4 has choices, but they live in movement, timing, leader switches, and character selection more than in elaborate command lists. If you want an anime fighter that feels immediate and flashy without asking for hours in training mode, that balance works in its favor.

Local versus is a natural fit for the game’s pick-up-and-play energy, while online versus lets the team-building side travel beyond the couch. For some helpful historical context, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 shows an earlier CyberConnect2 take on Naruto fighting, but Storm 4’s free-roaming arenas and leader switching make it a very different kind of match.

Graphics

The battles look like anime artwork pushed into busy 3D spaces. Thick black outlines and flat character colors keep Naruto’s orange-and-black outfit, Kakashi’s green vest, and Sasuke’s blue clothing easy to pick out against Hidden Leaf stone pavement, tan roofs, trees, fences, and wooden storefronts. The bigger techniques are appropriately excessive: turquoise lightning, yellow-white impact bursts, teal feathers, and dark orbs edged in purple can fill much of the screen. Those effects look great in the moment, even when they briefly obscure the fighters.

Story

Story Mode tackles the Fourth Great Shinobi War and brings Naruto and Sasuke’s long-running rivalry to its climax. That is a lot of dramatic ground for a fighting game to cover, and it gives the constant battles a stronger sense of destination than a disconnected arcade ladder would.

If you have followed Shippuden, the material has built-in weight. Major confrontations are not just excuses to test a new character; they belong to a conflict and relationship the series has spent years developing. The game is at its best here when you want to revisit that late-series intensity in playable form rather than merely browse a roster.

Adventure Mode shifts to the postwar world, giving you a change of pace from the main war-focused story. It broadens the package without confusing its priorities: the headline remains Naruto, Sasuke, and the war’s final stretch. Newcomers can still enjoy the action, but fans with context will get more from why these clashes matter.

Overall Experience

Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 knows exactly what kind of Naruto game it wants to be. It wants you into a dramatic fight quickly, wants your favorite characters on screen, and wants every big technique to land with maximum impact. CyberConnect2 makes that directness feel confident rather than shallow for much of the ride.

The weak point is longevity for fighting-game specialists. Once the thrill of the roster and explosive moves settles, the repeated basic strings may not provide the depth you expect from the genre’s most competitive heavyweights. But the leader-switching system keeps the match flow from becoming completely automatic, and it gives casual sets a tactical wrinkle worth learning.

Give it a chance if Naruto is the main draw, if you want approachable local battles, or if you would rather pilot a three-person team than grind difficult combos. It is a strong anime arena fighter with real energy, not a replacement for a deeply technical tournament game. For a closer look at the developers’ discussion of its roster, Awakening, combination attacks, and switching system, see CyberConnect2’s Storm 4 developer discussion.

Retro Replay Score

7.7/10