Of course, this rampant success has carried over into video games, and Unlimited World Red is the latest game that has spun out of the franchise. The story drops you into the boots of Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates, as they are transporting new friend Pato, a talking raccoon, home to “The Island of Promises” and Transtown, a small, seaside port. The crew lands to drop Pato off and gather supplies, and finds themselves enjoying the hospitality of the local inn after Luffy rescues the innkeeper from some local ruffians. When Luffy wakes up after enjoying a hearty meal, he finds the rest of the crew is missing, and sets off to rescue them.

What follows is a self-contained romp across multiple locations. This is great, especially for those of us who have never really experienced One Piece before now. I’ll admit it: before this, all I knew about Luffy was that he was a pirate with stretchy arms and played a mean game of Street Fighter IV on his days off, but I was pretty interested in the game world when all was said and done. Naturally, the story also contains a number of references and in-jokes, and finds an interesting way to bring back many vanquished friends and foes, which will no doubt please longtime fans.

"A lot of effort has clearly been put into capturing the anime’s colorful art style and mannerisms of the major characters, and this adds quite a bit to the experience."

The characters, in all of their silly, hilarious, absurd glory are the real stars, however, whether it’s Luffy’s never say die attitude, Franky’s tendency to get excited over the smallest things, or Sanji’s obsession with Robin. A lot of effort has clearly been put into capturing the anime’s colorful art style and mannerisms of the major characters, and this adds quite a bit to the experience. It’s a good thing, because Unlimited World Red’s gameplay isn’t really anything to write home about.

You’ll move around the game’s fairly large environments, encountering enemies as you go. Often, the game will lock you into a confined space until you’ve beaten the baddies, and then allow you to move on. Combat is fairly simple: you’ve got light and heavy attacks, special moves, and a team attack that takes your entire special bar and will all but wipe out an entire group of enemies. Add the requisite context sensitive block/dodge button, and you’ve got what amounts to Dynasty Warriors-lite. The big difference is that you can switch between your party members on the fly, and that your allies are actually useful, and do not take damage.

These are welcome additions, but they don’t do much to change what is a pretty standard combat system. The game does its best to distract the player by challenging you to complete a series of combos without being hit for more damage, but that doesn’t stop the combat from becoming a repetitive slog during long play sessions, especially when the game forces you to go back to an area you’ve previously cleared and fight enemies until they drop an item you need to unlock the next area. The one exception to this is the boss fights, which are challenging, engaging, and varied. The patterns behind the bosses are pretty simple, but they’ll force you to change up your combat style, and provide a nice change of pace from the more standard villains the game throws at you.

"When you’re not fighting, you’ll be exploring the environment for items, fishing, and catching local critters, all of which can be used in the game’s crafting system. You can spend the materials you find to craft items, but the real reason to chase this stuff is so you can expand Transtown."

Fighting and completing chapters will gain you levels, which will increase your stats and allow you to access new abilities. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t really do much to teach you how these abilities work. You’ll eventually get it through experimentation, but good luck trying to figure out the difference between a Skill Word (skills you can use in the environment to access new areas), an Item Word (buffs you can use in battle), and a Custom Word (passive buffs) before that.

When you’re not fighting, you’ll be exploring the environment for items, fishing, and catching local critters, all of which can be used in the game’s crafting system. You can spend the materials you find to craft items, but the real reason to chase this stuff is so you can expand Transtown. Get enough materials, and you’ll be able to build new buildings, like a tavern, factory, or pharmacy, which will allow you to access to side quests, minigames, and farming, all of which give you access to more crafting materials.

It’s a neat little system that encourages you to interact with Transtown, which serves as the game hub, and the people within it, and gives you something to do when you don’t feel like going through a mission. It’s a lot of fun to fly around town with Luffy’s stretchy abilities, and expanding the hubworld is actually quite rewarding.

"That’s where Battle Coliseum comes in. This mode eschews all of the town building and RPG elements of the Story Mode, and focuses squarely on the action. Battles boil down to small skirmishes, one on one duals, and two on two team fights."

The only problem is that the game will occassionally lock you out of the story missions until you’ve expanded certain sections of the town, which forces you to go back to old areas and play minigames before you can advance the plot. This would be fine if you had some investment in building the town beyond “Get more stuff so you can build the town so you can get more stuff.” As fun as it can be, it’s completely ancillary and has no impact on the main plot whatsoever, and the requirement can be pretty frustrating when all you want to do is go to the next area.

That’s where Battle Coliseum comes in. This mode eschews all of the town building and RPG elements of the Story Mode, and focuses squarely on the action. Battles boil down to small skirmishes, one on one duals, and two on two team fights. There are three tiers to fight through, and each win will earn you points until you rank up, which will grant access to the next tier. Progress far enough and you’ll unlock new characters as well as quests that you can play in Story Mode.

Ultimately, One Piece Unlimited World Red is a game for the fans. It’s all here: the look, the characters, the art style, the fan service. It captures the look and feel of the series it is based on perfectly. Some will no doubt be let down by the lack of English voice acting and the presentation issues that come with being ported from the 3DS, but it’s a solid package overall, if one that feels a little repetitive. It’s let down by some weird design decisions, but those looking to join Luffy and crew on a fun romp through some uncharted waters will find a lot to like here, even if it is a little stretched out.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation  3.

Bandai Namco Games has revealed that Ganbarion’s One Piece Unlimited World Red will be releasing in North America on July 8th for PS3, PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The game will be an action adventure title based on the popular manga/anime where you’ll be able to control 20 different characters.

The game will also include a Battle Coliseum Mode, in which you can choose from any of the 20 different characters and go on a punching spree against the toughest enemies from the One Piece universe. Characters that will be selectable include “Flame Fist” Ace D. Portgas, Empress Boa Hancock, Luffy, Nami, Zorro, Sanji, Jimbei and many more. No word yet on how much filler the game will contain to match the show though.

One Piece Unlimited World Red will be releasing in Europe on June 27th for the above consoles; Japan gets it slightly earlier on June 12th. Stay tuned for more details.

Namco Bandai have announced that the manga based, Ganbarion developed action RPG One Piece Unlimited World Red will be releasing in the western markets later this year for the PS3, Wii U, PS Vita and 3DS. No, we don’t have any specific release date yet, but I’m guessing Namco will divulge that information soon.

Namco have also released a trailer along with the announcement, which we’ve embedded above. Check it out if you’re interested in buying the game.

The 3DS and PS Vita versions of the game will include local multiplayer for upto four players whereas the PS3 and Wii U versions of the game will include split screen gameplay for two players.

“As one of the most successful manga we ever witnessed, One Piece is a phenomenon that deserves AAA adaptations,” said Hiroaki Ochiai, senior VP of IP strategy at Namco Europe. “We decided to team-up with Ganbarion to create a new opus for the “ Unlimited ” series. Thanks to their expertise, we are sure to have an amazing game where all the details from the One Piece universe will be perfectly pictured. On top of that, we are really proud and happy to have a never-before-seen scenario for this game.”

Watch this space for more info.

One Piece is one of the most beloved and successful mangas of all time, and is arguably the best manga that is still being drawn – sorry, Bleach fans. Since the first ever One Piece game release in 200 for the WonderSwan, the series as spawned an epic list of over 40 games based on its plot and characters.

Most of these games have remaied in Japan, with only some seeing a worldwide release, but still. They are generating at an incredible rate.

Earlier Namco Bandai released a new trailer for the latest entry in the One Piece video game series, One Piece: Unlimited World RED. The trailer is entirely in Japanese, but the visuals are incredibly crisp, and the villains and heroes look just like their manga counterparts. As things stand it looks as though the game will only release in Japan. We are unsure as to whether or not there are plans to expand to other regions.