Parents' Guide to Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

After more than 15 years, the story of Naruto Uzumaki and the ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village has finally come to a close, and the end of an epic tale needs an epic finale. For gamers, that's where Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 comes in. From a presentation standpoint, the game is top-notch. The characters look as if they've been pulled straight from the series and brought to life. It's genuinely like you're playing an active part in the anime. With its massive, more-than-100-strong roster of characters from the entirety of the Naruto franchise, as well as a story that recounts the conclusion of the Shippuden series, Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is bursting at the seams with content and fan service. As great as this may seem at first glance, you might realize too late that it's too much of a good thing.

Unfortunately, much like Naruto has learned over the years, it takes a lot of practice, as well as trial and error, to be effective in battle. Controlling the on-screen action with any real skill requires a good sense of timing and being aware of your surroundings. When characters start pulling off huge moves, running up walls, or otherwise flooding the screen with action, there's simply too much going on at once to keep track of. And with so many characters in the game, fans are likely to fall into one of two distinct categories. On one side of the spectrum will be the fans that pick only one or two characters to try to master, thereby missing out on all the unique features of the rest of the fighters. On the other side will be the fans that try out all the characters and, without taking the time to learn the intricacies of the sometimes-confusing controls, fall back to simple, repetitive button-mashing. The result is a fighting game that's an embarrassment of riches, falling just short of achieving balance despite itself.