My Hero One's Justice smashes into stores today
Not as quirky as it could be
Fans of teen angst, capes, tights and punches that can level city blocks (not a diss - I'm one of you) have reason to be cheerful today - My Hero One's Justice is out now and doesn't look half bad despite its rubbish, nonsensical title. Developed by Byking and based on the wildly popular east-meets-west superhero anime My Hero Academia, it's a tag-team 3D fighting game allowing free movement, even running up the sides of buildings. More Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm than Marvel Vs Capcom, check out the powerfully punchy launch trailer below.
My Hero One's Justice launches with twenty playable characters (plus two more as DLC, one free), including most of the anime's early heroes and villains. In the name of balance and making a halfway playable game, they've equalised their power a bit here, so everyone can dash around in the air, wall-run and trade punches with the All Might without exploding. On top of the usual arcade, online and local modes, there are separate hero and villain-side story modes abridging much of the first two and a half seasons of the anime, minus the hero-school admission arcs.
While I've not had the chance to play My Hero One's Justice myself, word from my super-biff and fighting game fan friends is that it's a decent enough 'seven out of ten' sort of game. Unfortunately it just happened to launch in the middle of a fighting game renaissance, with Spider-Man wowing people on the superhero side of the equation, which may dull its impact. Still, it's nice to see more timely TV tie-ins that don't make fans of the series feel ashamed. Oh, and if you're any kind of superhero fan and haven't seen My Hero Academia? Go fix that - it's great.
My Hero One's Justice is out now on Steam and Humble for £50/€60/$60, plus a handful of little DLC bits, including a pair of extra story missions and two more characters. It's published by Bandai Namco.