Trying to explain the appeal of the One Piece anime to a new viewer is practically an art in itself, complete with exaggerated semaphore-like arm waving and plenty of wacky grinning. Trying to explain the hilarious new PS2 and Gamecube title, One Piece Grand Adventure, to a new player manages to be a bit easier, particularly if you've got a second controller handy. After one or two battles, your friend will be sitting next to you slack jawed at the pure insanity on display and may walk out of your place with a grin that won't go away for a few days as he or she goes to pick up his or her own copy of the game. Grand Adventure improves upon the fun formula found in last year's One Piece Grand Battle by adding new characters, features and a few minor RPG elements to the fast-paced fighting mix, making for a treasure chest's worth of good times.

Of course, the great Grand Battle mode is back, but with some new additions to extend the lifespan. You get 24 playable and 51 support characters here, all-new interactive stages and tons of items to collect and use as weapons or support items during fights. The action and controls are simple and brilliant, making for a pretty outrageous time in single player and versus modes. There are some outrageous looking special moves, Accel-Heat, Support or Super Attacks to unload on your enemies and you even get Secret Attacks that use a variation on the rock/paper/scissors game for explosive results, win or lose. The super thing about Grand Adventure is that you needn't be a fighting game master with taped thumbs in order to get the hang of things, a blessing for those younger players or the less proficient adults who purchase this game for their kids.

You also get Arena mode, which allows you to duke it out with 100 ranked CPU fighters in one on one bouts. Here you try to survive as long as possible, as you rise up in the ranks, earning collectable cards for taking out particularly difficult pirates. Given that the cards are from the official One Piece card battle game, it would have been really cool to see some sort of playable bonus game added to the package - but this is less a complaint and more of an idea for an addition to some future One Piece game. There's also a Grand Tourney mode that allows up to eight players to go at it in one on one or vs. CPU battles, but it's too bad there's no way to get eight players fighting simultaneously, given the non-stop action doled out. Of course, there's a Training mode for new players and anyone who wants to get plenty of practice in before hopping into the main game's craziness.

Where Grand Battle is a hopped up homage to Capcom's excellent Power Stone games, Grand Adventure adds a great quest mode that has you playing as Monkey D. Luffy as he sets sail around the globe, hoping to become the Battle King of the Pirates. You travel around a world map, hitting the shores and battling it out with foes in a couple of types of button-bashing brawls, or play mini-games that earn you experience points and gold galore. Monkey is the first playable character, but as you clear the game you unlock additional captains to play as. You can blaze through Grand Adventure mode in a few short hours and it's such a blast that going through it again as one of Luffy's mates or enemies is pretty much a no-brainer, particularly if you're a fan of the show. As you play through both modes there are over 100 treasures to unlock, as well as the 250 cards mentioned above, which can be saved and viewed at your leisure.

Playing through multiple times in order to collect and everything is pretty much a given, so it's a good thing that Grand Adventure looks so amazing. Developer Ganbarion has done a spectacular job with the stylized cel-shaded visuals and wonderful animation routines for everyone here. The game is packed with rich colors, wild effects and the gloriously over the top character designs that make One Piece so much fun to watch. Everyone has their trademark moves and quirks, from Luffy's stretchy body parts to Tashigi's perfect sword fighting style. The fifteen different environments are huge and full of interactive or animated elements that can help of hinder your combat efforts. It's pretty funny to battle it out in a grassy stage where cows attack if you or an enemy bash into them, or another map where you can throw snow to temporarily freeze foes before beating the stuffing out of them.

While music and sound effects are used to good effect, there could have been a bit more voice acting - you hear a smattering of quotes from the characters, but there's a lot of reading as the game progresses. Actually, having the lack of a full voiceover is not too terrible an omission given that you're way too busy enjoying yourself with the fighting to want to sit through any long-winded exposition. Of course, Bandai have done their usual stellar job with a full-color game manual pack, complete with great illustrations of the lively cast of characters. Even if you're not enamored of the company's anime-based games, it's hard to knock the hard work that they put into each and every new title, something that the fans definitely appreciate.

The main problem is some annoying slowdown when things get really hectic, so it's too bad we won't see this on a system where this is less of an issue. Still, One Piece: Grand Adventure manages to outstrip the occasional chug in favor of all-out wild brawling action that's guaranteed to get even the crankiest face grinning; this is one Grand Adventure that you don't want to miss if you're a One Piece fanatic, and even if you're not, there's certainly more than enough pick up and playability to warrant a rental or purchase. Namco Bandai has at least one more game coming out featuring these characters, the party game One Piece: Pirates' Carnival. We'll keep our fingers and toes crossed that this is just as good or even better than what's on offer here. For now, if you're looking to set sail for Grand Adventure, be sure to dock at your favorite game emporium and leave with this one in your cargo hold.

Reviewed by Greg Wilcox for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).