I've never read Shonen Jump magazine, and I've never watched the television adaptation of their popular manga Naruto. However, it has become so ubiquitous in anime culture that anyone who so much as dabbles in it from time to time should have a sense of its visual style. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations replicates that style very successfully, despite being rendered in three dimensions. This is an attractive and colorful fighting game that features a healthy roster of wonderfully illustrated and well-animated character models. The interface is also easy on the eyes (a definite break from standard anime fighting game conventions). The fighting action is fluid and very fun to watch; camera angles swoop in for dramatic effect whenever a devastating attack is landed, and every attack is a joy to watch.

I've played my share of anime-based fighters, and I've come to expect nothing but blandness from their soundtracks. Again, Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations breaks from that standard. Random keyboard doodling and incoherent guitar solos are the exception rather than the rule. In fact, there really isn't any of either of those, and that's a very good thing. Voice acting is tolerable, provided you like it in the show. I've always found Naruto's high-pitched growling to be on the grating side, but it's faithful, for better or worse.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations seems content to follow the template laid out by the legions of mediocre Dragon Ball Z fighting games that have been clogging store shelves for years. However, it differs from those games in one key area: the fighting mechanics are actually pretty good.

Story Mode allows you to progress through a number of storylines from the perspectives of different characters. This is pretty standard fare for anime-based fighters. If you're unfamiliar with the lore, however, don't expect the game to completely fill you in. It generally does a better job of storytelling than its contemporaries, but if your fights absolutely need context, you'd better be a hardcore fan of the series. Otherwise, you'll only have a vague sense of what is actually going on. That being said, Story Mode features several perspectives to explore and constantly showers you with rewards.

I suspect most franchise fans will be most interested in what lies outside of the primary Single Player Mode. Free Battle gives you four options: Standard VS Battles, Survival Challenges, Tournament, and Training. All of these deliver exactly what they advertise.

Of course, you can take your ninja battles online. Online Battle offers a varied and remarkably robust suite that admittedly borrows a lot of the same ideas that have been circulating throughout the online fighting genre. By that, I mean experience systems, extensive personalization, strong leaderboard/replay support, and lots of rewards to bask in. Whether you're engaging in a friendly Player Match or competing in a Ranked Match, Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations offers a fluid and consistent online experience each time you play.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is a good fighting game, but it makes the mistake of assuming that you have history with the franchise. If the words "Jutsu" and "Chakra" mean nothing to you, I recommend you flip to the second and third pages of the enclosed instruction manual and keep it where you can read it easily. If you're new to the franchise (like me), you're going to have to experiment with all of the different inputs in order to figure out how everything works. Thankfully, the system is actually quite simple; specific button combinations are few and far between, but more importantly, they are easy to remember. It would have been nice to have a more newbie-friendly Training Mode.

Story Mode fights often include special battle conditions to fulfill. Most of these restrict the use of Awakening and up the attack power of your opponent. This naturally results in fights becoming more difficult as you progress through each storyline. The margin for error closes quite a bit between the first and final fight of each storyline. So much to the point where ending up on the business end of an Ultimate Jutsu results in a halved health bar.

If you haven't played other games in the series, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations might throw you for a loop at first. Sure, it's a three-dimensional fighting game, but it's not nearly as restrictive about movement as most other 3D fighters. You're not locked into a position where you absolutely must be facing your opponent. Each fight takes place in an open arena where your range of control is somewhat similar to that in a traditional platformer. So you can run, jump, dash, throw projectiles, and close in to deliver a good, old-fashioned beat down. You even start out with a handful of special support items. And provided you're fighting under the proper conditions, you can call in an ally for an assist (much like in Marvel vs. Capcom).

Managing and using Chakra is a huge success factor in Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations. You can build it by holding (Y); any orbs lying around will be absorbed. Tapping (Y) causes your character to execute a Chakra Load. Immediately following up on that input with another usually results in a special move. If you tap the dash button after performing a Chakra Load, you will dash faster and cover more distance. If you perform a basic strike after a Chakra Load, you will unleash a Chakra Shuriken. Performing multiple Chakra Loads before tapping an attack button almost always results in an insanely cool Jutsu attack, some of which may or may not involve your teammates.

One critical skill you must master is Substitution. If you're being attacked and you can't break out of it, one tap of (LT) teleports you directly behind your opponent. There's a catch, though: a four-part gauge measures how many Substitutions you can use before you enter an automatic cooldown period. So it's often a race to force your opponent to deplete his/her Substitutions. It's a neat mechanic that looks great.

If you're a fighting fan and a fan of Naruto, I can recommend this game without any hesitation whatsoever. If you're a fighting game fan who hasn't yet jumped on the bandwagon, give it a rental first. Regardless, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations feels like a step in the right direction for anime-based fighters as a whole.