My Hero One’s Justice is the first My Hero Academia game to arrive on Western soil. Based on the hit anime and manga, My Hero One’s Justice is for both new and old fans alike and is designed in a way that won’t isolate fans who have an interest in 3D arena fighting games.

My Hero Academia

Before I start talking about the game, I’ll give a very brief overview of the world of My Hero Academia. Created by Kohei Horikoshi, it’s been published in Shonen Jump since July 2014 and has gained quite the following.

The series itself centres on a world where 80% of the population is born with special powers: Quirks. Due to the nature of these powers, there has been a growth in professional heroes who are there to keep the peace from villains. At this point, the Number One hero is a man known to the world as All Might. It’s thanks to a chance meeting with All Might that our protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, a Quirkless boy, is able to earn a chance to become a Hero by inheriting All Might’s powers. The game begins after Izuku has had his powers for a while, and All Might himself is slowly starting to step down due to his health.

The game itself follows the students of UA Academy, the top Hero school in Japan, which Izuku attends with All Might as a teacher. It is in this area that a number of diverse characters are introduced.

The Characters

There are currently 24 characters to play as. These characters are all a mixture of Pro Heroes, Villains, and Students.

Students:

• Izuku Midoriya
• Katsuki Bakugo
• Tenya Iida
• Ochaco Uraraka
• Shoto Todoroki
• Tsuyu Asui
• Momo Yaoyorozu
• Denki Kaminari
• Eijiro Kirishima
• Fumikage Tokoyami
• Kyoka Jiro

Pro Heroes:

• All Might
• Shota Aizawa
• Gran Torino
• Endeavor – Available as a pre-order bonus or as DLC.

Villains:

• Tomura Shigaraki
• Stain
• Dabi
• Himiko Toga
• Muscular
• All for One – Unlocked after the completion of Story Mode.

Story Mode

So, story mode takes place whilst Izuku is training with Gran Torino, and it goes on from there. It’s done in a way like you’re choosing sections from a comic book – in some aspects it goes through the main story, and in others you can explore what-if scenarios that give you a chance to play as some of the supporting cast. I feel like my only complaint about the story mode is that you can play as the Heroes from the beginning, but you need to complete the Hero stories to play the Villains. Of course, I understand why this is so. But when there are times that you’re stuck on one fight, you can’t really go much further than that. You can only go back to other fights or change modes, which is fine when you’re into that but other times? Not so much.

Missions

Mission mode allows you to go through different maps with various types of unlockable conditions. There are seven different maps.

• Tutorial
• Origin
• Hero
• Villain
• Stain
• Encounter
• Score Attack

Score Attack is different from the other maps where you start the map at level 1, and to do this map you need to be connected to the internet. This is mostly different from the other maps in the way that all characters are reset when completing this map, whilst previous sections allow you to get more experience for your Heroes and Villains.

Local Match

In the local match section, you can either play as 1P vs CPU, or 1P vs 2P where a second controller is needed. This one is perfect for when you want to play against friends and if you don’t want to connect to the network to do battle. You can choose whether you want sidekicks included or how many rounds to play through. If you’re fighting against a CPU, you can even change the difficulty setting for them by adjusting the CPU strength from 1 to 5.

Training

Now, training mode is a must-have in all fighting games, and I find My Hero’s training mode to be a lot more useful when you’re stuck on a fight and you just want to train without screaming at the TV. You can either change the CPU to a dummy to test out your combos, or you can try to set it to a similar state to how you would fight a certain character in story mode.

Online Mode

Online mode allows you to take place in ranked or unranked matches that will allow you to compete with other players around the world. You can even create rooms and search for players with certain criteria, that way you won’t have to fight someone with much more experience than you if you don’t feel ready for it.

Arcade Mode

In the Arcade Mode, you choose a character to play as to fight a select number of rounds without pause. Depending on events in either online ranked matches or in the Arcade Mode, you should play as the Hero, Villain, or Student category to gain special rewards. I find that one thing I particularly enjoy about the Arcade Mode is that as you fight, your character will interact with the other characters through their own specialised dialogue. I know it’s not much, but honestly, if you’re a fan of the series, you can find some interesting dialogue.

Character and Profile Customization

Personally, one of my favourite aspects of the game is the character customization. In this mode, you can change up the characters’ colour-schemes and outfits. Several of these aspects can be gained by unlocking them under certain circumstances in story and mission mode. You can also buy them, and then you can pretty much go nuts in making some ridiculous designs.

Overall

Generally, I do think that My Hero One’s Justice is an excellent introductory fighting game. Although I complain about some of the difficulties, I appreciate how it is made in a manner that means you need to analyse your opponents. The mechanics aren’t overly difficult, and the combos are easy to remember. It also doesn’t isolate fans of the series, I just feel that the story mode could have its own set difficulty if you’re beginning to struggle as you progress. Other modes aren’t exceptionally difficult, and the characters have an interesting range of abilities that make it difficult to pick a favourite to play as.

Developer: Byking

Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC

Release Date: 26th October 2018