The cast of One Piece comes together to participate in a treasure hunt. With decent anime cut-scenes, speech, and cel-shading in the game, From TV Animation: One Piece Treasure Battle creates an excellent feeling of being immersed in the One Piece universe. Or at least, is an entertaining game to fans of the series.

From TV Animation: One Piece Treasure Battle is divided into several game modes, along with plenty of extra bonus material. Like a traditional party game such as Super Smash Brothers Melee, you can unlock new characters and stages through frequent play sessions. If a player wins a game round, you get a card (based from the One Piece trading card game), and collecting/matching these cards are the key to unlocking secrets in the game.

The main scenario mode is the Treasure Battle, which plays similarly to Capture the Flag. There is a treasure chest in the center at the start, and you have to grab it and bring it over to your opponent’s goal, where it must stay for a certain number of seconds for you to win. You have a partner, and battles are always 2 vs 2. There is a variety of fighting moves that each character has, in addition to varying stats (Monkey D. Luffy for instance has A grade attack and jump). In the scenario mode, you witness an introductory anime cut-scene that is done in a very crude manner (Bandai must have been too cheap to get a real anime FMV sequence done). Once this is done, you choose your difficulty level by choosing a certain set team. Then you witness an additional dialogue sequence with speech in between each match, so that each mode has a different story. The story mode can be played with up to 2 players.

The Party mode gives you access to the game’s many mini-games, all of which can be played with 1-4 players. The games are as follows:

• Treasure Battle – same as the game in the scenario mode. Essentially Capture the Flag.

• Battle Royale – A duke it out free for all, but still 2 vs 2. The team that racks up the most kills wins. The experience is similar to Smash Brothers, except in 3D and with practically no options.

• Kung fu Survival – A strange game in which the objective is to knock out the most turtle creature things into the sea. Again, a 2 vs 2 game.

• Teamwork Rally – In this game, you must survive a set of obstacles while carrying a treasure chest and relying on your party. The obstacles are set in a way in which you must pass the chest over to your friend after he/she passes through them, and that is what makes this game a bit difficult.

• Cross Country – A race across a map in which you must reach checkpoints and the winners are the team with the most points at the end. The race gets more difficult as you progress because of obstacles and jumping required.

• Pirate Soccer – My personal favorite. A simple game of 2 on 2 soccer in which you can still beat each other up.

• Treasure Hunt – On a map are various treasure chests scattered throughout, some in sight and some hidden. You have a map that you can access at any time that shows the locations of the treasures, it’s just a matter of whether you can reach those treasures before the enemy team does. Can be a bit unfair sometimes if the other team just happens to get more treasure situated near them.

The mini-games are fun and of varying quality, and will provide the most amount of gameplay since winning mini-games nets you cards.

The next mode is Match Up, which basically is a 5 game tournament, in which the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd matches are treasure battle, and the 2nd and 4th are games that you choose from the mini-games in Party mode. Whichever team racks up the most points (accumulated over the various games) wins at the end.

Finally, there is a Training mode, which allows you to learn the basic and advanced fighting moves in the game with a default character of your choice. There is also a Card Game Collection menu where you can view the various cards you’ve collected. A final mode allows you to gamble extra cards you have in order to win new cards.

From TV Animation: One Piece is essentially a party game aimed at fans of the series, and the individual mini games are entertaining on their own, but there are still better party games out there (most notably Super Smash Brothers Melee or Mario Party). Only the most diehard fans of One Piece will continue to play this game for hours everyday, while most casual gamers will play for a while until they have experienced everything the game has to offer. In that sense, the lastability of the title is lacking.

Also, a lack of difficulty modes vs CPU makes playing the mini-games by yourself far too easy. There are not enough rewards besides the cards, which are easy to get. But again, if you love One Piece, you will ignore these flaws and be absolutely enthralled by this game.

One Piece is an entertaining party game, and with its plentiful anime sequences, I would recommend a person to import this title purely to show it off, rather than as something that would provide hours of entertainment. When compared to other party games, One Piece is lacking, but when valued on its own, the game is a bit entertaining. For a while.