Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations Message Board

CyberConnect2's president Hiroshi Matsuyama was signing autographs at Wondercon in Anaheim, CA this past weekend, and he kindly took a break from showing off his latest game - Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations - to chat with us about how his other games are doing.

And by "other games" we of course mean the one with the god destroyer: Asura's Wrath. Despite both critical acclaim and a strong sales start, Matsuyama is still cautious about the new IP. "It's only been a month since it's been out," Matsuyama told Joystiq through a translator. He said that he expected both positive and negative reactions, and that's what he got. "Obviously, it was a challenge to create something new. And when you try to do that, obviously the people that get it will enjoy it. But for people where the game doesn't fit their expectations, they're not going to jump up as much."

We also checked in on both the dot Hack title in progress as well as a possible sequel to Solatorobo, but for both of those, Matsuyama says he needs more support from North American publishers. For dot Hack specifically, "as long as we can get more requests from the fans, there's a possibility." But he there are other factors in play as well. "It's not that people don't know about it," he said. "But I think it's more than Namco Bandai Games America is not interested in the typical JRPGs and that's why they're not looking to pick it up."

Matsuyama said he's not trying to make directly Japanese or Western games, however. "It's most important to be able to see the whole world. Back in the day, a lot of developers and publishers were focused on Japanese games and sent them out to North America. Obviously that's not going to be accepted as much. From our standpoint, we're really looking to create a game that's fun for everybody in the world."

That said, we kindly asked Matsuyama to show us what might be the next evolution of the Asura pose, given that we've seen it twice already so far. But because Matsuyama happened to be in the Namco booth and not the Capcom booth (not to mention that he was dressed up as Naruto anyway), we got the very serene pose above. In other words, the Asura Pose has evolved yet again.

#naruto It's been nearly ten years since Naruto made its animated debut in Japan. Over the past decade Studio Pierrot has told countless stories of the young ninja and his friends, introducing dozens of characters into the ever-expanding sage. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations attempts to cram all of that into a single fighting game. We might need a bigger disc. More »

Bold, brash and bombastic, the world of Naruto and his ninja cohorts seems tailor made for video games. Often revolving around larger-than-life conflicts and epic battles, this tale of a young warrior with overwhelming power has been the subject of numerous games, including two previous installments...

I'm a fan of Naruto, but something about the games based on the anime and manga has troubled me - there are no surprises. Much of what I experience in the video games is very much what I've read or watched before. I feel like I'm going through the motions of something very familiar to me. The same goes for many licensed games, really. Fortunately, with Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations, developer CyberConnect2 breaks that tradition...

Naruto takes on the Raikage, leader of Kumogakure in this gameplay from San Diego Comic-Con 2011!

Enemies old and new have surfaced for the next chapter of the Cyber Connect 2 and Namco Bandia Games collaboration, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations.

Naruto games can be tough to fully absorb in one sitting. Like the hyperbolic clashes of the series itself, the games are, at first glance, blisteringly surreal fighters where one or two button presses can ignite the screen in a frenzy. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations is the newes...

Two new games in longtime Namco Bandai anime franchise series are on the way. People who either love Naruto or love CyberConnect2's brand of cinematic fighting will be delighted to hear that a new Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm game is on the way next year, called Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations. The PS3/Xbox 360 game includes a "number of playable and support characters far beyond any Naruto game" and promises some kind of updated online functionality.

In other Namco anime license news, the game formerly known as "Dragon Ball Game Project Age 2011" has been named by fan feedback. Proving that they fear change, the community decided upon "Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi" for the new fighter, which is coming out on Xbox 360 and PS3 October 25.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Leading video game publisher NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today announced NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: Ultimate Ninja STORM Generations for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Based on the popular animated NARUTO...