Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is a licensed Fighting Game (based on the Naruto franchise) developed by CyberConnect2, serving as the sequel to Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2. Instead of free-roaming stories like the past two Ultimate Ninja: Storm games, the story focuses on each character and uses a flip-book effect summarizing events of the series intertwined with unique-to-the-game anime footage from Studio Pierrot. It has, in turn, balanced the characters while adding new ones, fixed the Substitution Jutsu spamming with a new meter, and fixed the online play, as well as add in a new Cancel system.
The game itself has been released since Febuary 24th, 2012 in Japan (the same date as CyberConnect2's other big game of that month, Asura's Wrath) and was released on March 13th, 2012 in the United States and March 30th, 2012 in Europe and other PAL regions.
A sequel for the game, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, has been released in 2013 on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, and goes all the way back to the beginning of the manga series with the Kyuubi attack (while adding the details recently revealed in the manga on what actually happened), and is shown to have the big Boss Battles in the game again, while keeping many of the gameplay enhancements of Generations.
Tropes exhibited by this game:
- A.I. Breaker: Itachi's Clone Jutsu: Super Explosion as demonstrated here
. - Ascended Meme: One of the available titles is "
Good Boy". - Assist Character: There are 15 characters in this game who aren't playable but can be selected for support. These are characters who either don't have enough known about them to make a full set of moves from,
unimportant characters popular enough to make the roster, or characters from early on who have stopped being important.- Although it's kind of jarring in the case of the Sound Four, which were major antagonists in the Sasuke Retrieval arc. And they were also given full move-sets in the Ultimate Ninja series, also by CyberConnect2.
- The Bus Came Back: Because this game begins roughly where the manga and anime begins, there are a number of characters who died or just fell into the background long ago but are featured here, most notably Zabuza and Haku due to popular demand. Some even get their own story mode chapters (see A Day in the Limelight below).
- Colon Cancer:
- Although not present on the box-art, the title manifests as this (Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja: Storm: Generationsnote ). Just look at how many different fonts are utilized on the game's logo alone!note Rather than opting for a number like its predecessor, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, it uses the subtitle of "Generations" instead.
- Kage Summit Kankuro's Ultimate: "Secret Black Move: Flame Control Scorpion Show" may qualify too.
- Combo Breaker: Just like with previous Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm titles, this one comes in two varieties. Substitution exists for precisely this purpose, allowing a character who's been hit to teleport somewhere else (but not necessarily somewhere safe). Support characters can also be deployed while the player character is getting attacked, forcing the attacking player to either dodge, put up a guard, or get hit by the support character.
- Comeback Mechanic: When a character's HP is below a certain amount, his or her chakra gauge fully replenishes and he or she can enter Awakened Mode. In addition, a player's Substitution meter fills up while getting attacked but not while doing the attacking.
- A Day in the Limelight: Each chapter of this game's story mode is centered around a different character or set of characters (except Naruto, who gets two). Some of these characters only appeared for a short while in the series, such as the chapter about Zabuza and Haku and the chapter about Minato.
- Also becomes A Death in the Limelight mixed with Shoot the Shaggy Dog. Most of these chapters require the lead character to die at the end. ("The Tale of Zabuza and Haku", "The Tale of Jiraiya", and "The Tale of Itachi" all end like this, and in "The Tale of Madara Uchiha" practically every fight is like this. "The Tale of Minato Namikaze" implies he died sometime afterwards, but doesn't directly state it.)
- Dream Match Game: There are plenty of playable characters in this game who have been killed off.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- Snake Cape Kabuto. Since this game doesn't cover the events of the manga introducing him, he doesn't feature in the story mode at all until The Stinger. And yet he's still made a fully playable character in Vs Mode. It's not until Storm 3 that he starts to figure in the story...in quite a significant role at that.
- Nine Tails Chakra Naruto is this too. It's the Awakening of Five Kage Summit Naruto in this game, but in the Manga Naruto doesn't learn the ability until the arc directly after.
- Easter Egg: Using Part I Hinata's Ultimate Jutsu on Part I Naruto results in a slightly different animation, as does using Karin's on Sasuke.
- Fixed-Floor Fighting: Most (but not all) of the stages are completely flat, though they're not necessarily the same size or shape. In the one stage that isn't completely flat (Uchiha Clan HQ), characters and projectiles go up and down the gentle stairs as if it was flat.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Practically the entirety of "The Tale of Madara Uchiha". It involves playing as each member of the Akatsuki and reenacting their main fights... 90% of which end in them dying. Expect to hear "'[Akatsuki Member Name]'s strength was seemed unstoppable, but suddenly [Opponent Name] gained the upper hand and..." a lot.
- How We Got Here: Gaara's story is structured like this.
- Joke Level: "The Tale of Killer Bee", which consists of him rapping about his awesomeness and whoever he's fighting next. It really has to be seen to be believed. Gameplay-wise though, players will probably stop laughing once they face +100 Attack Kisame.
- Lag Cancel: Combo-breaking is so easily done in this game that doing a full combo is impractical in most cases, so a new mechanic allows players to cancel a combo and make a hasty retreat.
- Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: The premise of this game. Young Naruto and Modern Naruto don't really meet besides in the introductory video, promotional artwork, and multiplayer modes, though.
- Nerf:
- Previously, Sage Mode Naruto, Minato, Deidara, and the puppet masters were able to trap players in high-damage moves that were difficult to escape from and could be re-initiated once finished. Not anymore—they have either been slowed down, or some mechanics now grant temporary immunity to these moves.
- As far as non-character related nerfs go, Substitution has been changed from using bits of your chakra gauge to running on a separate meter altogether. Substitution was also assigned to a separate button from guarding, so there is no more of the "Substitution Dance" in previous games where people would just stand in one spot and press the guard button rapidly to negate any moves done to them.
- Non-Indicative Name: You don't actually get to play as Madara Uchiha in "The Tale of Madara Uchiha". "The Tale of the Akatsuki" would have been a better title, but the developers probably couldn't fit all of the Akatsuki members' portraits on the "select story" screen.
- Numbered Sequel: The first Aversion in the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm subseries.
- Posthumous Narration: The narrator is Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, who died fairly early on in the series. He even speaks about his own death and funeral but continues to narrate the rest of the series' story anyway.
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Many characters are just as good at fighting in this game as children as they are as teenagers or adults, if not better, despite the anime and manga itself showing them growing considerably stronger as they age. There are also some playable characters who are non-combatants in canon.
- Recap Episode: In hindsight, this entire game is a glorified Recap Episode in preparation for the events of Storm 3. Both sides of the Time Skip turned out to contain a veritable Chekhov's Armory, so it was pretty much necessary. And the one flashback that seems totally new, and disconnected from the others, turns out to be the most significant of them all...
- Spiteful A.I.: In Survival Mode, you fight up to 12 battles in a row, with minimal healing in between depending on how well you do in each battle. The easiest way to restore health is to get S Ranks. The easiest way to get an S Rank is to finish your opponent with an Ultimate Jutsu. On higher levels of Survival, the AI loves to spam "Balance" type Assist Characters (take an Ultimate Jutsu in your place) seemingly just to confound your attempts to do this.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: PTS Tenten's Ultimate Jutsu, Millin Blade Chaos. It was toned down from the Storm 1 version, but is still as over the top as ever.
- Unstable Equilibrium: Survival Mode. As mentioned above, your health is only restored slightly between matches, depending on the time you took and your rank. But since one of the main factors in your rank is how much health you finished a match with, the more you get damaged the harder it is to get health back. This means that if you do badly early on, you'll have a really rough time later.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Kimimaro in battle, which is strange because his "versus screen" artwork shows him fully clothed.
