One Piece: Grand Battle

"Gomu Gomu No...!"

Following the hit manga/anime series comes an all-new action-pumped videogame for the North American fans. As a One Piece fanatic myself, I spent my money on this game (with high expectations) and, what can I say? It's the ultimate One Piece (Or fighting for that matter) videogame released.

Graphics - 9/10

Okay, if you watched previous trailers then you must be thinking: "What's with the tiny people?". The graphics are very similar to Super Smash Brothers Melee and such. The characters move smoothly and the cel-shades and settings look adequate enough to be 3-D realistic. Fruits and items are colorful, and explosions and "Secret" techniques are off the bat.

Story - 8/10

Pretty cool. There are events for each character you have and you'll go through a mini-adventure featuring actual cut-scenes from the series, "breaks" where you can play short mini-games, and high blood pumping fights. It's pretty short though, and it makes easy to unlock characters. But overall it's just a fun event to play around with.

Music - 9/10

I don't know if the music changes for the NA version, but I don't think it matters. The background music for each stage fits and some of the "Secret" technique music is awesome! (Kuro and Zoro's for example). I really can't say much for music but it's definately not bad or ear-killing.

Controls - 10/10

The controls are pretty simple yet hard at the same time. Unleashing combos takes a matter of 3 buttons, but using hidden moves like the 'Gum Gum Balloon' requires a mixture of the R1/R2 button and the Square+X buttons. It's easy to master, and there's tons of combos for you to use.

Replay Value - 10/10

I might be giving too high of a grade for this but in my opinion I've been playing this game nonstop. It's really fun, and pretty long if you include getting all the Art cards, secret characters, mini-games, and every singe "treasure". Just using the Gum Gum Rapid Fire is really addicting.

Overall - 10/10

It was close to a 9/10 for me, but I really like this game a lot. Just take Tekken, Mortal Combat, Super Smash Brothers, and Dragonball Z Budokai III all into one mixture.

If you're planning on renting it, fine, but trust me, you'll want to buy this game sooner or later =)

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05