One Piece: Grand Adventure hands-on

Grand Adventure mode features tons of story-based battles, and the game's basic fighting engine is just about as solid as we'd expect of a well-done anime fighter, with simple controls and fast, frantic action. A mere two attack buttons keep the attack strings simple (though tapping or holding the buttons sometimes results in additional effects), while long-range grab moves and devastating super attacks provide some variety. You can also pick up and hurl items like barrels. The main gameplay innovation this time out is the accel-heat system, which basically lets you spend power meters to break out of combos or power-up your attacks... at the expense of losing your blocking ability.

In the course of your grand adventure you'll also encounter various types of alternate battles and mini-games, such as one vs. many melees and sports, shooting, and racing-centered challenges. Many of these feature special performance requirements, such as finishing by a certain time or getting a certain score. Measure up and you'll gain special items which can boost your character's stats... or just help them look cooler. A password system will let you transport your custom characters to a friend's game, so you can easily visit the wrath of a level 99 Monkey D. Luffy upon them.

The game looks slick and typically runs extremely smoothly, with some good music and the engagingly enthusiastic English voicework making up the audio. With seemingly all the bases covered, One Piece: Grand Adventure should provide series fans with a lot of high-seas havoc upon its release in a few weeks.

CATEGORIES
Latest in Fighting
Minecraft characters Alex and Steve riding in mine carts in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, being chased by Bowser Jr..
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate villain Minecraft Steve is the star of the "best Smash clip of all time," as genius player makes a literal Trojan Horse to destroy an unsuspecting opponent
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS key art.
Masahiro Sakurai says Super Smash Bros "might have died out" if not for late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata: "There's no doubt that he influenced me in many ways"
Mortal Kombat 2 3DO
After 32 years, Mortal Kombat 2 has finally been ported to the one hyper-expensive '90s console that could actually do it justice
jinx in 2xko weilding a big hammer with a smirk on her face
The League of Legends fighting game spin-off won't be getting its big playtest, but that's so that more of you can play it later this year
Retro Gamer
Retro Gamer celebrates Capcom’s greatest fighting games
A screenshot shows Fatal Fury ninja Mai performing a combat move in Street Fighter 6.
Fatal Fury's top anime girlfriend Mai "bounces" into Street Fighter 6, and her bouncy arrival is driving Capcom to horny madness: "She's giving fierce. She's slaying"
Latest in Features
The Punisher holding two machine guns in the rain
Daredevil: Born Again - Learn the bullet-riddled comic book history of the Punisher before he officially joins the MCU
A woman in a underwater machine waving during the cinematic teaser for Subnautica 2.
Subnautica 2: Everything we know about the new underwater survival game
The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G being held above a motherboard by a reviewer
AMD's pro-consumer 9070 strategies are exactly why it's primed to dominate the CPU market in 2025
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Shadows' transmog looks set to combine the best of Odyssey and Vahalla to make changing my drip easier than ever
Split Fiction screenshot of Zoe and Mio in a fantasy world
Split Fiction feels like a Mass Effect-meets-Fable platformer and I'm obsessed with it after just one hour
Monster Hunter Wilds characters share a meal
Oh no, Monster Hunter Wilds is so good that I'm already counting the days until its inevitable Master Rank expansion