Anyone who hangs out in the otaku environment will never have heard of One Punch Man. The work, which began as a real "strip" on the official blog of its creator, a cartoonist known under the pseudonym of "One", has achieved a success as rapid as it was sensational, such as to attract the attention of the designer Yusuke murata. The collaboration between Murata and One gave life to a manga, and almost immediately transposed into anime; it is now the turn of its videogame version, entitled One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows.
This small premise was necessary to make us realize the type of product we are facing: a licensed video game. As we all know, the category just mentioned is the riskiest one: the franchise used is one of the best known in the world, with a large, affectionate, but demanding fanbase.
Bandai Namco, now the leading publisher of video games based on the most famous manga / anime ever, has taken advantage of the work of Spike Chunsoft, a developer already working on titles such as Jump Force e One Piece: Burning Blood. The title in question, therefore, is a fighting game, but with a few touches of originality.
In the following lines, we will try to get to the bottom of what is the first landing of Saitama and companions on our home consoles, trying to figure out if their charm has remained intact.
Heroes on the launch pad
We ask you a question: how many times, on social networks and / or in real life, have you come across the question “Who would win in a fight between Saitama and [insert the name of any superhero]“? Well, since we know very well that our bald superhero can take down any opponent with a single punch, what charm would a videogame ever have with him as the protagonist?
Precisely for this reason, in One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows, we will impersonate a "aspiring hero“, Which we will create and shape ourselves, both in the initial editor (actually not very rich) and in the course of our adventure (in a much richer and more fun way).
We will take our first steps assisted by Tutorial Man, a weird executioner who will have the task of acting as a hen and explaining the game mechanics, and how demanding the superhero path.
All fans of the work of One and Murata will have no difficulty in recognizing the city in which we will move our steps (which will be a sort of HUB of the game), as well as the many vigilantes with whom we are going to interact. From Genos to Sonic the Supersonic, passing through Tornado del Terrore and Silver Fang: there is definitely no one missing.
One mission after another, we will rise in class at theHeroes Association, confronting ourselves with increasingly difficult enterprises and, it goes without saying, in increasingly difficult and demanding fights.
Go up in class, one fight at a time
As mentioned at the beginning, Spike Chunsoft's work in the “control room” immediately gives us an idea of the type of game we are facing. One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is, basically a fighting, with some adventure elements and some small role-playing components, such as level advancement and the choice to enhance this or that statistic.
The reference models are Jump Force, One Piece: Burning Blood (both developed by the Japanese developer) and above all the series Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm.
If the vast arenas in which we will be called to fight are a feature common to all three games, the adventure component is clearly inspired by the saga created by CyberConnect2, the depth of which, however, is not found in the game we are talking about.
Anyone who has played any title in the Naruto / Naruto Shippuden series will remember very well the varied missions that interspersed the main narrative arcs. In the case of One Punch Man, however, almost everything revolves around fighting, and what little remains in the mouth leaves a bitter aftertaste of banality and superficiality (like the very possibility of furnishing one's home).
We will not find collectibles, there will be no major "variations on the theme", and we cannot tell you how good all this is, especially if the consequence is a considerable underlying repetition.
Spectacular and exhilarating fights
From a purely aesthetic point of view, Spike Chunsoft has been able to reproduce the strong irony of which One Punch Man is full. They will not fail eccentric superheroes, villain with the most unlikely backgrounds, bombastic and hilarious dialogues and, of course, highly spectacular fights.
The control system is quite simple: two keys to hit (light and heavy attack), one to parry and another to jump, while with the backbones of the game pad it will be possible to access special techniques (unlockable by leveling up) or "ask for change"To one of our allies.
In the course of the battles, they will intervene atmospheric events (such as meteor showers or lightning) that will affect the match, as well as drones that will carry power ups capable of attributing bonuses or penalties to those who collect them. What has been said adds that pinch of panache and unpredictability to the various matches we will face.
Despite the foregoing, the game controls are as simple as they are woody and imprecise, making the gameplay heavier and slowing down the gameplay. The sensation you get is that of being faced with a rough game, almost belonging to previous genes, where a dancing camera is often the real balance between a successful combo and an empty one.
The same characters, despite having very different fighting styles and techniques, are not perfectly balanced, and some clever ones could exploit all this to their advantage, especially in online multiplayer.
A graphic sector between lights and shadows
Let's face it clearly: One Punch Man, from a technical point of view, leaves something to be desired, and the just 6GB in game size they were a pretty clear signal to that effect. Character customization reaches satisfactory levels only after several hours of play.
Le texture and shadows they stand at levels that do not always live up to expectations, without considering the frequent ones drops of framerate and NPC pop ins. Hope is that one corrective patch can at least put a patch on at least part of what we found.
Facial animations are almost nonexistent, and the size of the map is quite small, as are the environmental interactions. The Spike Chunsoft fan service is undoubtedly appreciable, but made on a smaller scale, much too small.
Frequent loading times, the duration of which is however considerable, they contribute to slowing down an action that exists, but it never really takes off completely.
Final judgement
We want to be very clear: One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is, after all, a pleasant game, at times even funny, but that leaves a bad taste in the mouth of anyone, even those who are fans of the manga, or the anime. . The fights are the beating heart of the gaming experience, but they are burdened by commands that are not much to define as cumbersome and inaccurate. The technical sector does not do justice to one of the most beloved franchises of the land of the Rising Sun of recent years, and it leaves a lot of bitterness in the mouth. Give it a chance only if you are a die-hard fan of Saitama and Co., otherwise move on, albeit reluctantly.
