As a huge fan of the “One Punch Man” anime series, I was so excited to hear that a fighting game based on the series is in development, and even more so that I got to play in the closed beta, and sure enough, I felt like I am a part of the show.
For those who don’t know the show, it takes place in a world with super-powered heroes and villains. The Hero Association is in charge of registering new heroes, and ranking them from “C” class all the way to “S” class.
The series follows a guy named Saitama who wants to be a hero for fun. So after three years of doing 100 push-ups; 100 sit-ups and running 10K for every day, he became the strongest man in the world, able to defeat all of his enemies with just one punch.
Time to be a HERO
Right of the bat, I was able to make my hero, even though in the beta there is no customization, I was still able to pick one of two fighting styles. The first is more balanced in both offence and defence. I picked the second one, who is more focused towards in offence. From there I arrived at the Hero Association’s HQ.
The HQ serves as a hub for all the players to hang out, though at the beta we didn’t get to see a lot of the HQ. As you can see from the picture, I was able to see the ranking of my fellow heroes. Although we weren’t able to customize our characters in the beta, and have no idea what’s waiting for us, I’m sure we will see tons of awesome heroes with cool outfits.
As I entered the character selection I saw a wide variety of characters, from heroes and villain’s alike. From super-powered villain like Deep Sea King, all the way to the C class hero – Mumen Rider. Every character I was hoping to play as was here. Not only that, during the fight itself, each character has a specific animation that defines them, in Mumen Rider’s case, every time I boosted towards the enemy, he had to park his bike to make sure no one will steal it.
The battle system is a 3V3 tip, that at the beginning of each fight, the rival teams are having a small dialogue that really connects to the lore of the show.
You are able to move freely in the arena, sprint around or sprint straight towards your enemy, jump, block and avoid. You have a light attack and heavy attack that you make different create combos with. The more combo attacks you hit, the more your energy bar will raise. when you have enough energy, you can use up to three special powerful attacks that are designed for each character specifically. If you’ll manage to raise your energy bar to 6, you’ll get to use your ultimate special attack that really shows how powerful your character is, and I really enjoyed that.
During the fight, you will see a notification of incoming threat’s. It can be as small as an attack from an NPC character that will come for three seconds, or as big as a couple of Meteors crashing into the arena. Other than that, during the fight, the Hero Association will drop items that can increase your strength or defence for a few seconds. I found all of those features very fun and a basic strategic necessity.
As I was fighting to my last breath in an online fight, the second I picked up the attack increase item, the tables have been turned for me. That really showed me how powerful and helpful these power-ups hare.
As I said, this is a 3V3 fight, and like you, my first thought was “In order to win this, all I need is Saitama “. Like you and I, the game knows this, and if you do pick Saitama, it will take him some time to arrive at the fight (as every cool hero arrives late to the scene). In order to make his way shorter and make Saitama arrive faster, you will need to make as many combo moves, dodges and special moves as you can. This element fits so well with the game, that I actually laughed so hard when I used him the first time because noting hurts him at all.
Even with an internet download speed of 15 Mbps and upload speed of 4 Mbps, the online battles were a bit laggy so just keep that in mind when you’re looking to challenge a friend online.
All I can say now is this, this game really made me feel like I’m apart of the world of One Punch Man, with the animation, the humour of the characters and their over-the-top move sets. I recommend anyone who loves this show to play this awesome fighting game.
One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows will arrive on Feb 28th 2020 for PC, Xbox One and PS4 for 60$.