Game: One Piece: Unlimited Adventure
Developer: Ganbarion
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Platform: Wii
Website: http://onepiece.namcobandaigames.com/
So, I got a Wii for Christmas. The casual first party Wii Play, Wii Sports, and mini-game collections have been amusing at best, and Mario Galaxy has been relatively fun and very innovative. However, when it comes to third-party games for the Wii, OH MY GOD, do I hate the Wiimote. The awkward slashing around in Bleach left that game completely unplayable after the 3rd battle I was in (Damn you Zaraki!), the need to perfectly place the tiniest of items in My Sims left that game to be more annoying than fun because if your hand had the SLIGHTEST movement when you pressed the A-button, the part you were building moved. All this Wiimote hate changed last week, though, when I picked up One Piece: Unlimited Adventure.
One Piece: Unlimited Adventure is actually the perfect title for this game, I’ve been playing it for a little under two weeks now and have just BARELY scratched the surface of the game, there’s a ton of things you can do while adventuring.
The story revolves around a glowing orb that Luffy picks up while fishing. An island appears and Luffy is left alone at the beginning of the game. After a short bit of exploring and beating up on the Marines — yes yes, I know they call it Navy, but I watch the Japanese subs, and since that’s what it is, that’s what it is, I’m not going to butcher the translation like the American dubs do — but I digress…After a short bit of exploring and beating up on the Marines, you’re quickly re-united with your entire crew.
As you fight with the various Straw Hat Crew members they gain experience and levels in their various attacks. From Luffy’s Gomu-Gomu Gatling Gun attack to Zoro’s Three Sword Style to Nico Robin’s Fleur attacks, nothing from the series seems to be left out.
Walking around the island there are various items you can pick up from coconuts to lumber to rock fragments, etc. Each item you pick up has one of two uses: You can go back to camp and have Franky and Usopp build something or Sanji cook something; or you can feed the glowing orb with these items to unlock areas you otherwise would not be able to get to.
There’s also the ability to log every creature, insects, animals, fish, etc that you find on the island, though I’m guessing I need to get Usopp to make me a bug net or something because everytime I go near an insect it flies away, so I haven’t quite figured that out yet.
As you can tell from what I wrote earlier, I’m not been a fan of the American dub version of One Piece. The v/o work is just abhorrent. However, in this game, it’s actually easy to look past, in some cases the v/o work fits in nicely, and the in-game music is quite fitting for the adventure as well.
Now, for the controls…they’re actually extremely intuitive, you control your character’s movements with the nun-chuck, pressing the c button twice while moving allows you to dash in that direction. The A button grants you your first attack for each character, and as you get more there’s a combination of either hitting A twice, or shaking the Wiimote, nothing too complicated. Pressing B makes your character jump. There’s not a lot of precision pointing to be done, anyone can pick up and play this game after spending a few minutes with the controls.
The only downsides that I’ve found is sometimes it’s easy to find yourself running around in circles trying to figure out what needs to be done next to evolve the storyline, and the lack of being able to set up camp and save anytime you want, you actually have to go around the island back to the starting point to camp and save, which can be a pain if you’re strapped for time
I know it’s VERY early in 2008, but this could be a candidate for my Wii game of the year already, here is my final judgment.
Addiction Level: 9 – Very easy to pick up and play and lose yourself in the adventure.
Graphics: 9 – LOVE the artwork on this, only thing I would have changed would’ve been leaving the characters in their original costumes from the anime isntead of creating “unlimited” costumes for the game.
Sound: 8 – In-game music is great, and the american v/o isn’t all that bad
Gameplay: 9 – The ability to save anywhere would’ve made this perfect.
Replayability: 10 – It truly is an “Unlimited Adventure”, there’s SO much to do you can probably play this for several months before completing it 100%.
OVERALL: 9.0
No Comments Yet
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
