Grand Battle! 3 - Reviews

The Dude - 10/10

The Dude - 10/10

Graphics: 10/10
Music: 9/10
Control: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Replay Value: 8/10
Overall: 10/10

(*Note: This is a review of the Gamecube Version)

GB3 is the third installment of the Grand Battle series of games, and like the others, it doesn't disappoint.

The gameplay is way different from the previous two, which were 2-d Fighters. This one is a 3-d Fighter, like Powerstone. Which basically means you can move your character in any which way. The game takes place during the Skypeia Arc, although can unlock characters from the Alabasta Arc. There are 16 characters total, which is okay but is not as many as GB2.

The modes included in this game are as follows: Event Battle, Grand Battle, Grand Tours, Training, Treasures, and Options. Event Battle Mode is your typical story mode. You must fight 5 opponents to successfully beat the game. The opponents vary for each character, and neat little 3-d cutscenes appear for some characters before facing the final opponent. Depending on which character you play as, and at what difficulty, you unlock characters to use in Event Battle (and in some cases, Grand Battle Mode). Also, you choose the difficulty of the game when you select your character: Easy, Medium, and Hard (and "Saiykyo"[the strongest], which you must unlock). Next is Grand Battle Mode, which is the versus mode of the game. You start out with a handful of characters (more than Event Battle) and you play Event Battle to unlock the rest. The Grand Battle mode offers many options for playing against a Human or CPU. Not to mention different costumes, which must be unlocked. Grand Tours mode makes its debut in this game. Basically, it's a tournament mode. Then there's Training Mode. You can practice your skills here with a dummy (you can change dummy settings so it can fight with you). Also, if you complete a character's move list, something good will happen! Treasures mode is all the cool things you can unlock for each character such as trading cards, videos, voice tests, 3D models of characters' possessions, and more. Options mode allows you to add the rumble feature, and download a demo of the GBA One Piece baseball game [onto your Gameboy Advance] to play. You can also select 45 different announcers here (they must be unlocked).

The graphics are incredible! The screenshots of the game don't do it justice. Just think Super Smash Bros. (N64) VS. Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN). That's the difference. You can see through some walls, but that was done on purpose for two reasons: 1) The camera circles, so you need to see your guys fight, 2) Pandaman can be found inside the walls sometimes!

The music in this game has improved drastically! It's not the BGM from the show, but sounds similar. A lot of the music sounds like it's from Sonic the Hedgehog (which in my opinion, had great game music). The opening song is the standard version of "We Are~".

Since this was for Gamecube and it's a fighting game, I was very skeptical about the controls. But the GCN controller suits the game PERFECTLY! It's a 3D fighter, so you don't need to use the directional pad (which was essential in the first two games). The controls are like Smash Bros. as well. The direction + attack button/special attack button can do different things. You can do almost every single one of Luffy's attacks. That's how much attack variety there is.

Super moves make a triumphant return in this game. Each player has 1-2 regular specials, and one super special. If you finish off an opponent with a super special, you get a cool battle end with your character saying something ("i.e. Chopper standing on the Hilruk flag, saying, "I am a pirate!").

The replay value of this game is great, but not Grand Battle 2 great. My beef with this game is the lack of characters. 16 are a good number, but they are missing Buggy (although he does show up in a few videos) and a few of the older villains. There is a bunch of other stuff to unlock, but I've had the game a few days and I've almost gotten everything (well, that's probably because I've been playing it non-stop!). But if you play it at a good pace, you could probably unlock everything within a month.

Overall, this game gets a 10. Sure there is some beef with characters and such, but the reason I give this game a 10 is this: It was made for the fans. There are so many intricate details to this game. Crocodile's hook can turn into the poison hook, or the concealed knife. Not only that, but when he's low on health his hair gets crappy (just like the battle with Luffy). Zoro/Luffy's headgear can be taken on and off, and the Chopper can do his little dance. The backgrounds are interactive also. You can throw Wapol around in the Drum level. And Bellamy goes bouncing-medieval in the Mock Town stage.

This game is fairly new, and you can order it on most sites. The price range is about $60-70. And it's well worth it.

Enjoy!