EDITOR'S NOTE: At the time of writing, this US game has not yet been released in Europe.

One Piece originally appeared in Manga form as a part of Shonen Jump magazine in 1997 and quickly gained popularity in Japan. Soon after this increase, it was made into a series of anime episodes, which were eventually dubbed into English and made their debut on Fox's Saturday morning lineup in September of 2004. As with any popular anime geared towards a younger crowd, Bandai partnered with Ganbarion to bring this series to a more interactive medium with One Piece: Grand Battle.

For those unfamiliar with One Piece, the series details the adventures of a boy named Monkey D. Luffy on his quest to become king of the pirates. Long ago, before he was hung from the gallows, the previous pirate king, Gold Roger, announced that he left everything he owned in one piece and it was free for the taking for whoever found it first. Luffy had always dreamt of becoming a pirate and after eating the cursed Gum Gum fruit (effectively turning his body into rubber) he and his crew set sail on this amazing adventure.

Simply put, One Piece: Grand Battle can be best described as a cross between Namco's Soul Calibur and Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers Melee. Like SSB, the battles can be very hectic with various weapons and power-ups dropping at random intervals, yet the fighting and use of a 3D area allows you to take advantage of the battlefield and avoid enemy attacks, much like in SC. For anyone that was fortunate enough to play either of the two Power Stone games released on the Dreamcast, players should have no problems picking up One Piece's play mechanics, as the two titles are quite similar.

One Piece has many different game types that players may take advantage of. At the forefront is the game's story mode, which allows players to choose one of the available characters and play through a series of five battles, each with its own unique pre and post game dialogue, which varies between characters. Actually, this interaction between the characters is a feature I found very entertaining. Depending on which two characters are fighting and their relationship to each other, the in-match dialogue and picture displayed in the character window may change. For example, usually Sanji is cool and collective, however when pitted against Nami his demeanor changes, causing his eyes to become giant hearts and also yelling such phrases as, "I can't stop myself!" or "I can't control my legs!" when he attacks, instead of his usual calling out of the move names.

By completing the story mode multiple times with each of the available characters, you also begin unlocking additional ones to play in the story mode and brand new characters to play in both story and non-story battle modes. In total, One Piece has 16 playable characters and although 10 are available for non-story combat when starting a new game, only Luffy and his four crewmates are available in story mode. This means that players have plenty of unlocking to do. My only complaint with One Piece's story mode is that it only consists of five levels and sometimes proves to be a little too short, depending on your chosen character.

In addition to the story mode, you may also choose Grand Battle (basically a single fight against a friend or a computer opponent), or Grand Tournament mode, which allows players to setup a tournament comprised of 4 to 16 computer or human opponents. Players may also choose to enter the game's training mode in order to get more familiar with a character's move set, or refine their overall game. As opposed to other fighting titles' training mode, One Piece's actually has an end goal to successfully land each of the character's moves on the practice opponent. Accomplishing this task for a character unlocks various extras.

Finally there is Mini-Game mode, where players take on Usopp and his pirates in three mini-games. This mode offers a great deviation from the fighting, allowing players to participate in something called Battle Bowl, among other games. Battle Bowl can actually be thought of as a small standalone title, where both players have to score as many points as possible in a certain time period by throwing a small man (or even your opponent) into the opponent's goal. In addition there are some mini-games that involve fighting, however there's always a twist or other stipulation put on the match, such as knocking off all of your opponent's armour, or defeating Usopp twice in a row with no way to regain your health. By defeating the computer, you unlock Pirate Treasure items, consisting of artwork, movie clips and more.

The actual gameplay in One Piece: Grand Battle is very entertaining, to say the least. For each battle you play in one of the game's seven areas, each taken from different settings found within the series. For example, one of the selectable areas is Arlong Park, which fans of the series will remember is where the Luffy's crew battled the evil Arlong and his team of sharkmen pirates. This level transfers over into the 3D realm almost flawlessly, complete with Arlong's lackeys lounging around ready to attack any player brave (or clumsy) enough to get too close.

Each area is highly interactive, with traps or harmful non-player characters (such as a cow that rampages if hit by one of the combatants!) that must be avoided in addition to your enemy's attacks, or used against your opponent. Most areas also have bystanders who watch the ensuing battle and throw items into the fray. The biggest downside to the areas however is their size; many times I felt as if I couldn't get far enough away from my opponent in order to regroup or devise another strategy. Although this keeps the action intense, it also makes it challenging to avoid the environmental hazards as well as your opponent.

During each match, item boxes fall within the fighting area and these may be broken open to reveal various weapons and power ups. These boxes may have any number of weapons that players may use such as bombs, beehives or poison mushrooms. There are also four different power ups that the item boxes may contain, each of these either increases speed, attack, defence or allows the player to use a super move without draining their food meter.

This brings us to one of the more interesting features of One Piece; the special attacks. Each character has a set of special moves that cause devastating amounts of damage when compared to a normal attack. Depending on the move's ferocity, it may drain one or two bars of your food meter. This can be replenished by collecting the food also located within item boxes, or by stealing it from your opponent by jumping on his or her head. When these attacks are used in combination with your character's one or two moves that cause your opponent to become momentarily dizzy, you truly become a force to be reckoned with.

Controlling your character is fairly simple. The control stick moves you about the playing field while a different button is used for forward and upward attacks, throwing opponents/picking up and throwing item boxes, jumping and guarding. By pausing the game you can also view each character's command list. Also, you won't have to worry about memorising a long list of combo attacks unique to each character, due to each having the same button combinations assigned to them. Therefore, although each character may have different moves, players can easily whip out combos with any character quickly. The simplicity of the controls and the combo system allows you to easily switch between characters, which you'll definitely be doing a lot if you wish to unlock everything this title has to offer.

Keeping with its anime roots, One Piece: Grand Battle is completely cel-shaded. Ganbarion did an excellent job of turning the 2-D source material into 3-D interactive entities. For some reason, the game's characters are a bit smaller than their cartoon counterparts, almost a little childish in a way; however this doesn't take away from the experience and actually adds to the title's overall amusing atmosphere. Also, all of the character movements are very smooth and fluid and the camera also does an excellent job of keeping up with the action when things get hectic.

As part of bringing this title into the West, Bandai was able to recruit the entire cast that recorded the English dub of One Piece to lend their voices to the game. In addition, the accompanying score is very light and upbeat, keeping in style with the gameplay. The series itself is full of this style of music though, so while some of it is original, other tracks are recognisable to fans of the series. Both of these, factored in with the regular run-of-the-mill fighting sound effects, help to make each fight seem more like you are interacting with the anime rather than simply playing a game using the anime's source material as a base.

What really makes this game attractive is the amount of replay value it contains. There is so much content that you can unlock, you could spend weeks just trying to collect every screenshot, character or other treasure item. The development team also went about unlocking content in an interesting way, because it's not all accomplished by completing the game's story mode over and over. Different content is unlocked when you win different mini-games, win a tournament, or even just by executing all of a character's moves in the training mode. This allows you to play the game long after completing the story mode for the first time without any worry of the gameplay getting dull.

One Piece: Grand Battle is a title perfect for gamers of any age. It's safe for kids as there's only animated violence and it sports a simplified control scheme, yet it has enough content and challenge to keep experienced adult gamers entertained for quite some time. The amount of unlockable content is outstanding and allows you to experience every small aspect of the game, all the while getting rewarded for doing so. Bandai and Ganbarion have hit the nail on the head, making this title mimic the One Piece anime yet placing it into a genre that allows them to add their own flavour to the series. You owe it to yourself to check this game out - when it comes to no-holds-barred frantic fighting fun, it's a hard one to beat!

Reviewed by Zach Lark for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).