E3 06: One Piece Hands-On

By Brad Shoemaker, GameSpotPosted May 11, 2006 12:36 am PT

The popular anime series is coming to Nintendo's unique new console in an action adventure with some motion-specific controls involved.

LOS ANGELES--Namco Bandai is offering a Wii game based on One Piece, the popular anime series, and we got to try our hand at it inside Nintendo's fairly posh E3 booth today. The game puts you in control of Luffy and starts out by sending you through a small mountainside tutorial where you're schooled in the finer points of controlling One Piece with the Wii controller. So far, it looks like One Piece: Unlimited Adventure will be a fairly standard action adventure with a few Wii elements added in, but we'll have to make that determination after we see more of it.

During the tutorial, Luffy gains a few basic items that you'll use to interact with the environment in various ways, and you'll equip all of them by hitting the corresponding direction on the Wii remote's D pad (proving that it will in fact be used for something besides menu navigation). The first of these was a pickaxe, which you'll use to break up bits of the ground or some boulders that are marked with an X. Of course, you do this by equipping the axe and then swinging the remote in an arc. Next up was a time gem, which we could use at key points in the map to "evolve" the surrounding area, which would generally clear some sort of obstacle out of the way. A bug-catching net and a fishing rod were two other items that we obtained and could use by equipping and making similar motions with the controller.

Aside from these special items, the other functions in the game, like jumping and melee attacks, were performed with standard button presses, so One Piece felt to us more like a regular game that was retrofitted with some Wii-specific control than one designed directly for the unique new system. But then, fans of the series will probably find plenty to like here, and there may be a lot more to this unlimited adventure than we've seen yet. We'll bring you more on that as soon as we can.

12 Comments

  • greater_bird

    Posted Nov 23, 2007 9:07 am PT

    Come on, you *know* they'll do the EU release with American dubs. If you're lucky, they might leave in the Japanese as a switchable option.

    I'll just be glad to see it in any PAL form. I've reached the point where I can actually listen to the dubs without cringing (well, almost). Dubbing wouldn't stop me playing the game if it was any good.

  • Cloud_MCM

    Posted Nov 22, 2007 3:09 pm PT

    waaah suugeeeh! I really hope they don't ruin the game with American dubs. There's only one real way to watch this anime and it's in jap, so don't do some stupid EU release with crap american dubs. please. hara heta naa~

  • greater_bird

    Posted Oct 24, 2007 1:47 pm PT

    Hmm, I'm not too impressed with the 3D models in the stills, but I'm probably just used to the 2D versions of the manga and anime. Hopefully they'll look good in motion. If this comes to a PAL market, it'll be a near definite for me - I'm an enormous One PIece fan.

    I'm pleased there seems to be more to do than just bashing oponents senseless. Sure the series is very fighting-based, but it has a lot of story and characterization elements too - I'd love to see them introduce more of that to the games with some RPG elements.

  • welderman

    Posted Oct 21, 2007 8:01 am PT

    Is it gonna come to PS 2 too?

  • cosmcnair

    Posted Jun 9, 2007 12:05 pm PT

    Now that's what I'm talking about! Looks like this one might actually be pretty good, as opposed to the previous games. As a fan of the One Piece graphic novels and anime (which are excellent), it would nice to have a good game to round it all off. Well, I guess Graphic Novels to TV to Games would be more of an isosceles triangle, what with three sides and all.

  • MiasmaRising

    Posted Mar 20, 2007 6:07 pm PT

    I hope this turns out good, if it doesn't, then...well...it's just another example of why you should not buy anime videogames.

  • raquor

    Posted Dec 20, 2006 10:22 pm PT

    I sure hope this is more RPGish than the fighting games that have been standard manga to game fare so far...

  • Doctor_Wario

    Posted Nov 22, 2006 11:48 am PT

    Woot! Finally, a One Piece adventure game that isn't just a mindless brawl! (No, Pirates Carnival doesn't count.)

    I'm really impressed by this (partly because it sounds cool, and partly because I'm a huge One Piece fan. XD), it kinda sounds like a spin-off of a Legend of Zelda game. Then again, I'm sure many do not agree with this statement.

  • hyrulian_elite

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 8:40 am PT

    sounds pretty good

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Aug 25, 2006 7:40 pm PT

    really impressive

  • pixiedust35147

    Posted Jul 16, 2006 12:16 pm PT

    Doesnt sound that bad

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one piece   wii   anime   e3   e3 2006   hands-on   nintendo   e3 06   namco   namco bandai
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