PS3

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm

FightingAdventure

Time to beat: about 100 hours

Overview

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, known in Japan as Naruto: Narutimate Storm is a 2008 fighting video game developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Namco Bandai Games (now Bandai Namco Entertainment). It is based on the popular manga and anime series Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto, and the first installment of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series, followed up by Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (2010). The game has since been remastered and released as part of the series Trilogy on newer platforms in 2017, as well as mobile platforms in 2024.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm retains many of the gameplay elements from earlier installments of the Ultimate Ninja series. However, Ultimate Ninja Storm allows players to fight in three-dimensional environments, as opposed to the two-dimensional planes in previous games. The other games were much like Street Fighter II (a 2D fighting game that emerged in the 1990s), mainly because of the lack of plot and mostly made for the fighting aspect.

The game was first unveiled in September 2007, under the code name Naruto PS3 Project. Namco Bandai said the title would start with "Naruto: Ultimate Ninja" and asked fans for suggestions on a suffix consisting of one or two words. In April 2008 the game was officially named Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, in addition, the developers allowed fans to choose the final front cover for the game out of a possible six.

A limited-edition version of Ultimate Ninja Storm was available to those who pre-ordered the game at select retailers. It included a steel book case with an alternate art plastic slip cover, two exclusive cards for the Naruto collectible card game, a CD of the game's soundtrack, and an individually numbered "Laser Cel" depicting Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. The game was first released in North America on November 4, 2008, in Europe, on November 7, 2008, and in Australia on November 20, 2008. The Japanese version of the game was released on January 15, 2009, under the name of Naruto: Narutimate Storm.

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm received "generally positive" reception, on review aggregator Metacritic.