NAMCO BANDAI North America & Europe Announce Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Revolution for PS3 and X360
NAMCO Bandai formally announced the newest iteration of the long-running “Naruto: Ultimate Ninja” franchise for North America and Europe just days after the original Japanese announcement. The game will be released in 2014 and is developed by CyberConnect2, who has developed all of Ultimate Ninja PS3-X360 games.
The game will include a new character designed by series creator Masashi Kishimoto himself, and ultimately feature 100 playable characters. While the full list has not been made available to the press, the identity of the new character will be revealed at Japan’s Jump Festa event on December 21-22 (along with a new Naruto OVA that features a “fan favorite” character brought back from the dead).
The Ultimate Ninja Storm series, in which Revolution is a sequel to, generally plays in a manner that can be described as a cross between an RPG/platformer and a 3d fighting game. Outside of battle, there is a world to explore including the ability to freely roam Konoha and chests to discover and break open, but when battle begins the gameplay shifts to something not unlike Soul Calibur, Tekken, or most accurately of all, the many Dragonball Z fighting games.
A teaser site for the Japanese version has already been launched, along with a variety of screenshots from the game, one of which is posted below.
The implication seems to be that Sasuke and Naruto, former friends who have been enemies throughout the Shippuden storyline, seem to be allying together, which should not surprise followers of the manga considering the manga’s recent events. It certainly seems that Revolution looks to adapt more of the “Fourth Shinobi World War” storyline than the game’s predecessor, Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, which adapted part of the storyline before stopping abruptly and opting for an ending that differed from the manga and anime.
The game has been announced for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. No word on whether Ultimate Ninja Revolution will eventually wind up on the Playstation 4 or the Xbox One in any way, shape, or form.
Or, for that matter, whether they will finally sync the lip flaps to match the English dub. The English voice-acting for the games have generally been fantastic (particularly Laura Bailey and Tony Olivier’s performances as Naruto’s parents in UNS3) but it is surreal to see lips moving and no words being spoken, or vice versa. It would be nice to see this long-running issue fixed for once.
We will find out for sure in 2014.