One Piece, the beloved Japanese pirate-themed adventure, is making a huge splash sometime this year in One Piece: World Seeker. The exciting release by Bandai Namco will feature our protagonist, Luffy, and his crew on their journey through a seamless open world and endless expansion.

With the arrival of World Seeker at our doorstep, it's worthwhile to take a trip down memory lane and refresh ourselves with some of the greatest One Piece releases to date. Even if you're completely new to One Piece, this list is guaranteed to get you on board.

5. One Piece: Unlimited Adventure

With an epic battle engine and humor that's bound to keep you interested for hours, Unlimited Adventure was a definite success, and Bandai Namco delivered exactly what fans had wanted in a game. You can access eight diverse characters from the start, and the skills of each are based on the continuous usage of their attacks as you progress through the vast open world and encounter enemies and adventure in every nook and cranny.

4. One Piece: Super Grand Battle! X 

With the 3DS being the best-selling handheld device of our times, there are unfortunately very few worthy games for it. However, One Piece managed to make its mark with Super Grand Battle! X, complete with memorable graphics upgraded from the traditional 2D structure of its predecessors and quality combat. Each character has secret skills, battles are packed with combination attacks, and you can play with up to four friends on the field.

3. One Piece: Burning Blood 

Burning Blood features around 44 characters at your fingertips, eye-candy technicolor graphics, and simplistic battles even a casual gamer can enjoy. Unfortunately, the game's concise storyline is a continuation of a (very lengthy) story arc, and players unfamiliar with the series would not catch on as fast. However, the exciting chases and unique attack combinations make for a fantastic runner-up.

2. One Piece: Unlimited World Red 

Focused more on combat than on adventure, Unlimited World Red offers everything a traditional One Piece game has to offer -- comedy, color, and a solid, self-contained story. This one strikes a great balance between a modern RPG and a fighting game. It also offers an entertaining Battle Coliseum, featuring repetitive boss battles, survival challenges, and cheesy mini-games to kill time.

1. One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3

Pirate Warriors 3 strikes as a favorite with most One Piece fans, as it's one of the most playable and enjoyable of the series and spanned across several platforms -- even more so than Pirate Warriors 1 and 2. What makes it a worthy addition to the series is that it's purely story-driven and gives you a rerun from the very beginning of the series, from when Luffy sets out of the Fuschia Village to achieve his aspiration of becoming a Pirateking.

What are some of your favorite One Piece games? Comment below and check out GameSkinny for more great content!

Anime has inspired numerous video game counterparts that allow fans the opportunity to play some of their favorite characters. Unfortunately, this does not always mean that the games do justice and provide fans with an enjoyable experience in their anime universe. While some games rise to the occasion by bringing a fun and memorable experience, some quickly turn into a headache for the player. Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of anime inspired video games.

The Good

Some games do an amazing job of merging what makes an anime great with video game functionality that provides an overall enjoyable experience for the player.

One franchise that has managed to achieve this is Naruto, which, in recent years, has developed a successful line through its Ninja Storm titles. As a fighting game series, the Naruto games allow players to become some of their favorite characters and live out some of the most iconic moments from the TV show. The series did not start out the best, but over time has developed a good balance of style and substance that make it a fresh and fun fighting game with the anime setting that fans love. The roster of characters is one of the largest ever seen in a video game which can feel overwhelming, but it does allow a player to use their favorite character even if they were not that important in the show.

Another franchise that blends game and anime well is Danganronpa. Now this is a video game series that inspired a successful anime but nonetheless it does a great job doing both. The game is a point and click mystery adventure that puts players in a the role of a grim detective trying to figure out who is the mastermind behind the evil plot. It is unique story that somehow fits very well in the game universe. The art style is fantastic and there are many parallels between it and the show which is a good fan service. The game seems simple but offers enough intrigue to feel rewarding to the most observant players.

The Bad

Now some games do not do as well of a job at crafting a video game with anime world, which can leave players with an unsatisfying gaming experience. Usually these games try so hard to make the anime world come to life, that they miss the mark for good gameplay.

One such example of this is Dragon Ball Xenoverse. Taking place in the Dragon Ball universe, Xenoverse is a fighting game that looked great. It was very flashy and offered a unique story but that was essentially all that it had to offer. The combat of the game felt very unfair which bogs down a fighting game, where fairness can determine the outcome of a match pretty quickly. Now the game is still a fun time and does enough to satisfy fans wanting to play a Dragon Ball game but this game does not stand out without its anime elements.

One Piece: Burning Blood faces similar issues. This game offered a lot as far as fun 3D combat is concerned, but does not do a lot outside of that. If you are not a longtime fan of the series, this game is not for you. The combat is fun and wacky, which is very much One Piece, but makes little sense to anyone that is not familiar with the series. The story is also an arc of the show but does little to make the player feel as though they are living the One Piece story and are instead just watching a different format of the anime.

The Ugly

These games got the mix of anime and game all wrong. They make an attempt to provide a video game experience to an anime world and end up delivering something very far from that.

A franchise with a history of this is Sword Art Online. Sword Art Online’s universe is literally a video game so it would make you think that there is a lot that can be done, but that has yet to be the case. Fans of the series have been left with games that are repetitive and do little to build off the universe. Most are repetitive and feature frustrating combat mechanics that leave many people doing the same moves over and over again. The games have not brought the anime to life and lack any real development for the overall story. There has yet to be a saving grace in the series and we do not know if we will see one to come.

Another franchise with similar hiccups is Attack on Titan. The first Attack on Titan game, Humanity in Chains, was a disaster. The visuals were muffled, the gameplay was lackluster, and overall the game was a disservice to the anime world many fans love. It is a frustrating experience to see a world you love get bombed with an ugly video game. On a lighter note, the franchise did improve itself by offering a new PS4 title which was a much better game though still not spectacular. In the newer game, the combat was much better and visuals were cleaner but it suffered from a generally unsatisfying plot.

Some anime games know what to do and some should just stay out of games. Let us know in the comments which anime games are favorites and your worst nightmares

The shonen manga One Piece is not necessarily the oldest or longest running franchise in Japan's animated history, but it certainly has gained quite a following in America over the past nine years. The developers at Spike Chunsoft, creators of other popular Japanese/US adaptations such as Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and the fighting game J-Stars Victory VS have recently released another fighter based on the One Piece series -- One Piece: Burning Blood.

The game has actually had a staggered release schedule, having been released on PlayStation 4 first, then followed by the Xbox One, and it should finally be seeing a release on PC sometime this month. This type of schedule isn't too shocking, considering the PlayStation 4 version has been available in Japan since last April. All other adjustments were merely variations to ensure system compatibility.

What is odd is the vague release for PC. The game's Steam page still has no official date, perhaps due to uncertainty in regards to the game's PC performance.

The game has thus far been met with mixed results in the US, but offers up a fun party game for the fans of the One Piece series. It also includes the largest roster of One Piece characters in a console fighting game, with 40 playable characters from the cast. The game also includes one of the largest tag team options I've ever seen in a fighting game, allowing up to 18 fighters in a single match.

The game continues to receive downloadable content in Japan in the form of costumes, and it is likely we will receive the same over here. Some of the updates are a bit...uh....salacious to say the least.

But hey, maybe that's exactly what the fans are looking for.

First off -- yes, we know. There's a big old "7" up there, so you're entering this review thinking that One Piece: Burning Blood is a mediocre game that is not worthy of your time and money. Well...that's not entirely true.

One Piece: Burning Blood is a solid, satisfying, and over-the-top fighting game that can be highly recommended for fans of the series, or fans of the more recent Naruto fighting games. For others...well, that recommendation comes with a few caveats.

Pirate Fighting 101

One Piece: Burning Blood is a 3D fighting game that shares many mechanics and stylistic elements with games like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, and oddly, with Pokken Tournament as well. 

Generally, all characters control more or less the same way, with buttons assigned to regular attacks, unique attacks, and guarding. The shoulder buttons can be held as well to activate special moves, or to use your character's special ability to augment your moves.

Layer this on top of a guard break mechanic that is absolutely necessary to master, and the game's complexities really start to show. There are tense moments of push and pull in this game, since most characters can combo into a guard break even if their attack was blocked, necessitating offensive action even from a player on the defensive. 

It's really unfortunate that these moments are few and far between. 

Most One Piece: Burning Blood matches devolve into strafe-fests, with players doing their best to avoid long range attacks and countering with long-range attacks of their own. Now, this isn't a problem in Pokken Tournament or in the Naruto games because of the movement options the game provides you with. But here, the sidestepping and dashing mechanic leaves characters completely vulnerable at the end of their animations, allowing for followup attacks. This, combined with the fact that none of these characters are particularly quick at closing distance, means that at any given moment, a tense fight can instantly turn into a frustrating game of cat and mouse.

Now, this isn't a competitive fighter. It's not made to be, so it shouldn't be judged as one, but it bears mentioning for anybody considering buying this game that balance wasn't really a concern when they compiled the game's cast of characters.

Fan Service

Now, for all the negatives the game's combat brings, the set dressing for the game is amazing. The visuals are just perfect, and the 3D cel-shaded models look great. Plus, the visual effects that appear when performing an ultimate attack when your opponent is at low health, or the fact that certain attacks will launch your opponent into faraway buildings when they are KOed... They're nice touches that contribute to the game's fun factor. Sure, there could be more substance, but the style here is undeniable.

Speaking of substance, though, the story mode itself is surprisingly deep and lengthy, following key stories and arcs from the anime and manga, as well as unlockable stages for skilled players that complete hidden objectives. Fans of the series will also appreciate the vast list of playable and support characters. Your favorite One Piece character is in there somewhere. We promise.

That said, the story mode isn't without its faults either. First-time players will likely be frustrated at the way the game chooses to teach its mechanics, as the tutorial is spread out through what essentially functions as a multi-hour prologue to the story mode proper. It's nonsensical, and gets in the way of enjoying what is, at heart, a solid game. The gameplay isn't too complicated. There's no reason the tutorial needs to be spread out piecemeal over multiple matches and hours.

Outside the story mode, there's a sort of online faction mode that promises to extend replayability further. The way it works is complex, but essentially, players join a faction and then engage in battles in different areas to claim them for their team. It works surprisingly well, and the developers deserve a lot of credit for fleshing out this idea as much as they have, since it's not generally something that has been seen before in games like this, at least not to this extent.

The Verdict

At the end of the day, yes, One Piece: Burning Blood is a flawed game. But the flaws don't hide the fact that the game is chock-full of style and character and is just generally a blast to play. Punching your opponent into a pirate ship never gets old. It just doesn't. And you know what? That's enough. If it's fun, it's worth at least some of your time and money. And if One Piece: Burning Blood is one thing, it's fun. 

Well, at least when you're not spending the whole match trying to dodge projectiles and close distance. It's fun when you're not doing that.

Disclosure: One Piece: Burning Blood was reviewed using a promotional review code obtained from the publisher.

Get ready, folks—One Piece has (finally) come to the Xbox One. One Piece: Burning Blood Deluxe Edition is available for $69.99 in a bundle format that includes the game, an exclusive costume for Luffy called the Platinum Luffy, and the One Piece Wanted Pack.

Players can assemble their crew in various ways to improve battle tactics, choosing from over 40 characters. The game also provides the option of playing the story arc through the differing perspectives of Ace, Luffy, Akainu, or Whitebeard. This will grant players a fresh new perspective on the story with each playthrough.

Burning Blood is the first of 38 One Piece games to be offered on a Microsoft console. Until now, One Piece games were primarily playable on PlayStation and various Nintendo consoles. The series contains mostly RPGs and fighting games. Burning Blood fits the latter category. The game is also available on PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and PC.