The game is due in “early 2018” on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. Right now, it still feels like like an early prototype. At Gamescom I was able to try a few flag battles set in one of the forests surrounding Konoha, where Naruto, Boruto and their friends live. The knocked-over tree trunks and barbed wire fences are reminiscent of the manga, but the space is still quite small and feels like a stadium, rather than a natural slice of Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto’s ninja world. Again, that’s all part of the “tournament” fiction, but I was hoping to feel a little more liberated in Shinobi Striker.
Capturing flags and running them back to your base can be quite mundane. A couple of times I was able to take a quiter “route” to the opposing base and pick up a flag undetected. Only once I was half-way back did someone notice and try to give chase, at which point I was disrupted mid-wall run and plummeted to my death. All of my progress was lost immediately. The combat, however, is exciting and true to the manga source material. Sasuke is able to shoot fireballs and Naruto has his classic “Rasengan,” a powerful ball of wind. Each character has a mixture of light and heavy attacks which, if successful, unlock more powerful “jutsu” moves and awakenings.
The iconic Naruto cast have been assigned one of four classes, which roughly equate to attack, defence, range and support. Much like Overwatch, success is dependent on understanding and utilising different team compositions. A big part of Shinobi Striker is the character creator, which let’s you customise and train a ninja from scratch. Unlike the traditional heroes, these avatars are able to switch style between respawns. So you might want to push aggressively at the start with three attack types, before switching to a more balanced squad to see out the match.
“There is no real, ‘best answer’ for what is the best team,” Niino says. “It all just depends on the situation.”
Bandai Namco says you’ll be able to train with the original Naruto crew and learn their jutsu. That includes Shikamaru’s shadow stitching jutsu and Choji’s spiky human boulder. For fans, this is pure wish fulfilment. It’s a chance to build their dream ninja by cherry-picking techniques from the manga’s most memorable characters. You won’t obtain them all right away, however. It would be a little silly, for instance, if you could instantly learn Amaterasu, one of the most powerful techniques in the Naruto universe.
Unlocking them won’t turn you into a one-hit K.O. machine, either. “If you could do that in the game, it would get boring,” he suggests. So while there are some power differences between the various jutsu, they’ll actually be quite small to maintain balance across the community.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to create my own ninja. There was, however, some pre-built custom characters that I could switch to before a match. They looked pretty generic, with standard ninja jackets and headbands, but hopefully there will be some crazier options in the final game. The Ultimate Ninja Storm series was always generous with its costumes, offering outfits both from different eras and outside the Naruto universe. Shinobi Striker seems perfect for this kind of treatment and could be a way for players to explore little-seen or discussed parts of the world.
