If you didn’t indulge in the previous offering, then what is bundled in with the Full Burst retail release offers excellent value. VERDICT: Full Burst is more of an expansion than a brand new entry in the series in fact, it’s available as DLC for those who own the original release. One cannot help feel that saving this for the expanded release is a bit cheeky, as virtually every other fighting game on the market features similar missions as standard, day-one out-of-the-box content. It gives an extra lease of life to proceedings, but more importantly gives you more of the best bit of the game. Defeating missions unlocks high-def wallpaper artwork, meaning fans are rewarded for their efforts while having great fun. The most significant addition to Full Burst is the crop of Challenge missions, which engages you in a splendid century-long gauntlet of battles, that feature a variety of different conditions and parameters. There are the usual versus and online modes, with the code noticeably more stable in the latter than last time around.
Once you beat the story, you get to mess around with some interesting sub-quests that allow you to upgrade some of your support characters, making them more effective in battle. Rather than having to learn complex joystick acrobatics and multiple button combos, the prevalence of QTE sequences and use of teleportation, support characters and basic attacks keep things nice and simple.Īway from the enjoyable core gameplay, the expansive yet rigid story mode mixes in some dull village-wandering and occasional side-scrolling levels to accompany the kick-ass set-piece encounters and multiple trips down Cutscene Boulevard. Apart from bosses that in the grand tradition of fighting games are cheaper than hell, fights are designed to be accessible to everyone. QTEs, ri-donk-ulous Ultimate Jutsu attacks, button mashing and splendid trans-morphing Awakenings are present and correct. The proper fights are still big, dumb fun. Where a Street Fighter tweak may address character balancing issues, there is no such technical attention to detail here.
Storytelling aside, the Full Burst experience does not tinker with the Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 gameplay whatsoever.
The entertainment is undeniable, however, particularly when a movie sequence segues effortlessly into a terrific battle under your control. If you’re not already a fan of the franchise, chances are that many of the cutscenes will have you hitting the SKIP button, as they have a running time that would trouble an episode of Corrie. You can even engage the old stereoscopic 3D, if you have the capability to do so. The story is told using a huge number of cinematic sequences, which are now crafted in the finest high definition. The last Ultimate Ninja Storm title was a classic example of their wares.īringing the game further in line with the ongoing manga story arcs, Full Burst still takes place during the Fourth Ninja War, but takes things a little further along the road with a new chapter, even indulging in a bit of on-the-fly storytelling of its own with a brand-new ending of sorts.
Their titles may not be overly deep in their complexity, but offer supremely entertaining experiences that are as fun to watch as they are to hammer the buttons to. They operate in a world of high bombast of living, breathing cartoons. Anyone with even a passing interest in manga, anime, or indeed the beat ‘em up genre can find something to love in the works of CyberConnect 2.