Game #895: Naruto Shippuden Ultimate NInja Storm 4 - Road to Boruto(Switch)

 Well, let's try this one more time.

 Back when Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 - Road to Boruto first released Cyberconnect 2 swore up and down that the older system couldn't handle Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 because of the graphical enhancements, mostly done to the particle effects. Well, here we have UNS4 running on the Nintendo Switch, a machine that's barely more powerful than the PS3/X360. Concessions were made to get the game running on the Switch, but boy, did the get it right.

 Well, the Story Mode is as disappointing as it was on Playstation 4. Ever since they started re-creating the entire story of Naruto with their in-game graphics on UNS2 the games became something truly special for fans of the series. And then comes UNS4 and 40% of the story is told through anime stills, and most of them are fairly ugly, featuring characters looking very off-model. Well, this mode is still a pale shadow of what it could've been. In order to get the in-game cutscenes running smoothly on Switch, they've gone from running in-game to  simple pre-recorded cutscenes. Sometimes they can get a bit pixelated but they get the job done. This time around I noticed that quite a few things were changed in the adaptation. Some work better here, since it's a videogame, others do not, but it's still a decent adaptation of the series' final stretch.

 To celebrate this re-release, Namco released Boruto's two villains as playable characters, as well as 'Road to Boruto' skins for most of the main genins as well as the Gaara siblings as paid DLC on PS4. Thankfully, these new additions are present on the Switch cart, no need for additional downloads. A bit lazy? Sure, but I like having new characters, even though I dislike Boruto and these two should've been playable from the get-go. Heck, even Adult Konohamaru has an in-game model as well as animations, he probably should've been playable too. Ah! But I'm not complaining, as this version has everything the PS4 original had and then some. 

 But what matters is how the game runs, and I'm happy to report that it plays really well. Fights can maintain a very stable 30 FPS, I only noticed major drops during the more cinematic ultimate attacks, which isn't too bad since it's just cutscenes, as well as when I was traversing the overworld in Boruto's Tale mode, which once again, isn't critical to this game's enjoyment. So, yeah, CC2 did a superb job in scaling down what they needed in order to get the game running well without sacrificing too much graphical fidelity.

 Alright, fine, I admit I may have been a tad too harsh on the game back when I first played it on PS4, but c'mon, the Story Mode being such a HUGE step down from previous games' really soured the whole experience. And while I'm still baffled by how much they cut corners, I was able to appreciate the game more for what it was, a fun, simple anime fighter that allows you to play as a ton of different characters from the world of Naruto. It's also quite a looker, while it's not the best looking or cell-shaded game I've ever played, it does a fantastic job of looking like a playable anime, and CC2 are masters of style, bestowing some very fluid, cool animations to most characters Plus, I'm really impressed with the job they did porting the game to Switch, so there's that.

 7.0