Naruto Shippuden : Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 for PSP is a fighting game developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Namco Bandai Games. Released in North America in 2010, it is the western version of Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Accel 3, the third and final Ultimate Ninja Heroes entry outside Japan. It draws on the Naruto Shippuden anime and manga while retaining the portable branch's classic, arena-based style of fighting rather than the fully three-dimensional approach used by the Ultimate Ninja Storm games.

Battles take place in compact stages built around movement, spacing, and exchanges of melee attacks, projectiles, chakra techniques, guards, and substitutions. Fighters can move between parallel foreground and background planes, creating a way to evade pressure or reposition around an opponent. A single attack button strings together basic combos, while characters bring their own jutsu and cinematic ultimate techniques. The roster's awakening states can be activated during a match and differ by character, adding another layer to a fighter's available options.

Free Battle supports encounters involving two, three, or four combatants, and its setup permits different team arrangements alongside the usual individual matches. Players choose the characters and jutsu they bring into a battle, allowing familiar combinations from the series to be assembled. The game includes more than 50 playable characters drawn primarily from Shippuden, with Sasuke and Team Hebi among the additions, as well as young versions of Kakashi Hatake and Obito Uchiha from Kakashi Chronicles.

Master Road is the central story-driven mode. Its map presents missions and events as connected spaces on a branching route, so players can advance through the story while revisiting completed challenges. Missions alternate between direct fighting-game confrontations and side-scrolling action stages with objectives such as defeating a set number of enemies or reaching an exit before time expires. Completing them awards Ninja Points, which can be spent on tactics, collectibles, jutsu, music, artwork, and other unlockable material.

The main Shippuden campaign begins with Naruto's return to the Hidden Leaf Village after his training journey and follows the early rescue of Gaara from the Akatsuki. It continues through material reaching the Hidan and Kakuzu storyline, while allowing scenarios to place other characters in the lead when the situation calls for it. Additional game-exclusive story material expands the mode with a separate village-focused episode and a storyline following Sasuke's pursuit of Itachi.

Tactics selected before a Master Road mission can improve attributes such as speed or jumping ability, giving players a single situational enhancement to consider before entering a stage. Story progress also unlocks fighters and techniques for use elsewhere, tying the campaign to Free Battle and the collection screen. Practice mode provides a space to view character commands and learn each combatant's jutsu, substitutions, and awakening behavior.

For local play, the PSP's ad hoc wireless connection supports four-player free-for-all battles, and designated Master Road missions can be tackled cooperatively. The feature lets nearby players join selected story challenges as well as stage separate versus sessions. As the final Heroes release in the West and the final Accel installment in Japan, Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 stands as a PSP-exclusive continuation of the older Ultimate Ninja fighting format during the Shippuden era.