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Platform: PlayStation
2
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One
Piece Grand Battle
Every
so many years a new anime series comes along that every kid on the block
seems to absolutely love. Ages
ago it was Dragonball, then there was Inu Yasha, but nowadays it’s One
Piece that looks likely to take the crown as the most popular series out
there. It’s already got
an extremely dedicated following in Japan, and is picking up steam in
North America as well. That
being said, it would only be a matter of time before games started
coming out to cash in on the series’ popularity, one of which is
Bandai’s One Piece Grand Battle for the PS2.
While
the game does have a story, it isn’t really all that robust, leaning
more to a premise than a full-blown narrative.
Basically, players follow Monkey D. Luffy as he tries to find the
legendary treasure, One Piece, all while attempting to become King of
the Pirates. So yeah, the
story here probably won’t be winning many awards, but that’s not
really the point of the game, the action is.
If people want One Piece stories, they should probably be
watching the show.
As to how Grand Battle will play out, the game is shaping up to look quite similar to that found in the classic Dreamcast game, Powerstone. For those unfamiliar with the title, |
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Powerstone
was a sort of action / fighting game, where the camera had a ¾ overhead
view of the battlefield. On
it, players would run around, trying to beat down their opponents, all
the while collecting power-ups, and using the landscape to their
advantage. The attacks
one could use were kept fairly simple to emphasize a more frenzied,
high-energy game experience, while the areas where one fought were kept
reasonably confined, ensuring things didn’t turn into too much of a
cat and mouse match, thus keeping the intensity of competitions up.
While Grand Battle is looking quite similar to Powerstone, all |
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signs
point to the experience being not quite so refined in terms of how
versatile the combat is, and the game will only support up to two players, whereas in
Powerstone matches could support up to four players.
Also, the came will go with cel shaded graphics to better emulate the
anime style of the series. At
this point, the game appears to be doing a good job of recreating the
somewhat offbeat artistic direction found in the series, which should
make fans quite happy.
Looking
at what One Piece Grand Battle has to offer, it looks like something
that could get the attention of all the young’uns out there that drag
themselves out of bed bright and early on Saturday mornings to watch the
show. Now we just have to
wait until late September to see if the final version of the game lives
up to expectations.
Mr. Nash (July 25, 2005) |
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