good anime themed video games released in the US

[swlovinist]

I was just wondering, what have been some good anime themed video games that have been released in the US? For the sake of this being in the classic section, I guess I am thinking of video games that were released atari to dremacast era. Thanks, John

[Snapple]

Well, quality anime games are definitely in the minority, because most of them suck. I think they suffer from the same problem as movie based games, in that they don't always try to make a killer game because it's going to be sold based on the license anyway.

There is a Sailor Moon RPG for the SNES that's pretty good. That's the only thing coming to mind right now, but I know there are more than that.

[Fuyukaze]

On the cart based systems, there was a few but none were that great. Fist of the North Star was ok on the NES but damned near unplayable on the Genesis. The GB one was a weak fighter but as the PW was easy to manipulate to get charcters levels up, it wasnt that bad. Ranma came out for the SNES but it was more a game to avoid unless you were an avid fan of the series. Ghost in the Shell for the PS1 was one of the first to be fairly decent. The level mix up wasnt the same for each mission. While you were always stuck inside the tank, it played well and the controls were good. Plus the extra animation didnt hurt either. The two Robotech games on the PS2 and X-Box were marginal at best. In the graphics, they were acceptable but some of the missions were super easy and either followed or were followed by an incredably difficult one. I eventualy stoped playing the first after being unable to sneak behind the pods. The Inu-Yasha games are acceptable. Atleast the first one on the PS1 was. It wasnt the greatest as far as fighters, but it didnt glitch up. It just could have used more moves for each charcter.

There's been alot more anime based games released as of late. One Piece, Bleach, Yu Yu, Full Metal, and some that escape me at the moment but I've yet to play any other then the first DS FMA and it was only decent if you paid less then 20 for it new.

It's a shame they never released the Akira games during the NES/SNES/Genesis/GB/GG days or the continual macross games they planed for the SNES/N64/PS1. After getting to play the demo for Macross VFX thanks to OPSM, I was sorely disapointed to learn it was cancled shortly after they released the playable demo.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[Cryomancer]

Are you asking about things directly liscensed from a show or just games with the "artstyle"? Lots of the Turbo library is very much Japanese artisticly.

[JSoup]

Good
Anime
Video Game

Pick two of the above.

[InsaneDavid]

Good
Anime
Video Game

Pick two.

Pretty Soldier Sailormoon S (3DO)
Macross Scrambled Valkyrie (Super Famicom)

[James8BitStar]

I actually liked Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle for the SNES

then again, I actually liked Keith Courage in Alpha Zones (yes this was an anime tie-in... it was called like something something Watasu in Japan and was based on an anime series by Sunrise). EDIT: Actually this could be the basis of a much larger subject... games that were originally anime-based, but were released in America with all their references removed. I know Street Combat was originally a Ranma 1/2 game that suffered this fate, I wonder if there are any others...

The DBZ Super Butoden (SFC) and Battle Retsuden (Mega Drive) games were decent. I'd honestly call them better than the Budokai series, if for no other reason than because you can have chi collisions and flying wasn't done in an ass-stupid way. Hyper Dimension though sucked, and I never played the various RPGs or whatever.

Oh yeah, and let's not forget Strider (though that was based on a manga rather than an anime).

[GnawRadar]

Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken for the PS2 is awesome.

[DragonmasterAlex]

I can think of a few good anime-based games...:
Black Belt - Sega Master System - I think this game was originally released as Hokuto no Ken, but received another name in the US.
Record of Lodoss War - Dreamcast - it's a Diablo-like hack/slash game. Awesome.
Magic Knight Rayearth - Saturn - A great rpg, one of my favorites, and the front cover (both US ans J) is great :)

[kentuckyfried]

Pocky and Rocky for the SNES count?

[staxx]

Macross 2036 PC Engine SCD
Dragon BallZ PC Engine SCD
Advanced VG PC Engine SCD
Dragon Knight Games PC Engine CD
Yu Yu Hakusho (All 3 Super Famicom Games, 3DO)
Dragon Ballz Hyper Fighter Super Famicom
Ranma 1/2 (1st Super Famicom version)
Gundam Wing Endless Duel (Fighting Game on Super Famicom)
Hajime no Ippo (Fighting Spirit) (All PS2 Games and GBA)
Initial D (Arcade version, PS2 and PSP version)
Area 88 Super Famicom

Edit: Ooops I should have read released in the US.

UN Squadron SNES (though the Anime came later)
Mazinger Saga Genesis

[DragonmasterAlex]

Yeah, Yu Yu Hakusho on the 3DO. I've bough this game two weeks ago and played for a while, but I got bored very quickly...
The game didn't aged well... but I loved it when I first played it many years ago.

[Dire 51]

EDIT: Actually this could be the basis of a much larger subject... games that were originally anime-based, but were released in America with all their references removed. I know Street Combat was originally a Ranma 1/2 game that suffered this fate, I wonder if there are any others...
A couple off the top of my head:

Spellcaster (SMS) was originally a Kujaku Ou game, and Mystic Defender (Genesis) was the sequel. Read all about it here (http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/opcfg/kujakuo.html). Last Battle (Genesis) was originally a Hokuto no Ken game as well.


Oh yeah, and let's not forget Strider (though that was based on a manga rather than an anime).
The NES game was, yes. But the arcade game may have been a totally different story. Have you ever heard of The Falcon (http://lscmainframe.net/falcon.html)?

[Daria]

A couple off the top of my head:

Spellcaster (SMS) was originally a Kujaku Ou game, and Mystic Defender (Genesis) was the sequel. Read all about it here (http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/opcfg/kujakuo.html). Last Battle (Genesis) was originally a Hokuto no Ken game as well.


The NES game was, yes. But the arcade game may have been a totally different story. Have you ever heard of The Falcon (http://lscmainframe.net/falcon.html)?

Dragon Power for NES was originally a Famicom Dragon Ball Z game.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

Does Snatcher count or is that just cartoony? <3 Snatcher.

I obviously love Snatcher, but it defnitely doesn't fall into this category. It COULD fall into the "inspired-by" a movie category though ;)

Back on topic, even though it wasn't released in the US, the Urusei Yatsura game for the Mega CD was pretty damn good...

[snes_collector]

I actually liked Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle for the SNES


So did I. Never watched a second or read a page of Ranma ever either. Street Combat on the other hand....

[Coldguy]

GunNac for the NES

[XYXZYZ]

UN Squadron SNES (though the Anime came later)


You must mean the 2004 TV series, the original Area 88 OAVs were animated in 1985. The comics were made in 1979.

[mercarian]

I consider Pokemon to be animeish, so pretty much all those games are good. A couple of the DBZ fighting games can prove fun in short bursts. O_o

[Tep]

-Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen (Clash of Ninja)
-JoJo's Venture and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
-Pokemon (anime came after)
-Those DBZ fighting games are fun
-F-Zero: GP Legend/F-Zero Climax, thought technically they're just more F-Zero games

[Overbite]

The old games based on anime were pretty bad except for probably Golgo 13, but even that wasn't so hot.

The best I've played are Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for PS2 and Record of Lodoss War for Dreamcast. Both are really fun. Neither are classic.

edit: forgot Magic Knight Rayearth for Saturn. That one is fun too.

[cyberfluxor]

What about the Wild Arms series? Although it's all over the place today it began as a game and had anime scenes. Does it have to be a game based off a pre-existing anime movie/series? Or, can it just be a game that has anime styles or themes?

[Sudo]

Naruto, Rise of a Ninja for 360 is pretty good. I played it recently and while it was rather short, it did the best job of capturing the feel of the anime out of any anime-based game I've played.

[kainemaxwell]

there's also the Sailor moon and Rayearth rpgs for the SNES/Super Famicom.

[Haoie]

Actually there's a Wild Arms anime, too. Unsurprisingly.

So no mention of Lunar and its variants? I always favoured it.

If Lunar was an anime, it'd be 1 of the best dubbed, that's for sure.

[Steven]

Well, if you're willing to look on the SFC side, there were a few decent to good anime-turn-video games. Was Go Go Ackman an anime, or just a manga? Anyway, we got 3 pretty decent Ackman games. Ghost Sweeper Mikami was another solid one. The last Ranma fighter was the best in the lineup, and to those who mentioned Hard Battle, I too liked that one as a kid. However, I recently played it and was shocked by how much it is lacking in terms of sound gameplay. I guess as a kid I just thought the bizarre characters were way too cool.

There are some other good ones on Super Famicom. My site has some reviews of the more obscure titles, some of which were based off an anime or manga. Lupin III on SFC was also not bad. Hyper Iria sucked, though.

[Sothy]

I have always wanted to try the Japanese Cowboy Bebop games.

Crayon shin chan also.

Ghost in the shell was an abortion unfortunately.

[walrusmonger]

Astro Boy on the GBA was a great game. GREAT game!

[Steven]

Astro Boy on the GBA was a great game. GREAT game!

Oh yeah that reminds me. Astro Boy on SFC (Tetsuwan Atom) wasn't too bad, either.

[TEND]

Not mentioned yet but "Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage" on the DC was a fun hack and slash for me at least. I suppose it helps that I'm a huge fan of the anime.

[smork]

Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer for the Neo Geo (US and JP version). There is a Gowcaizer OVA released, on DVD in the US, no less.

I wouldn't call the game "good", though -- just "cheap" and "utterly impossible". Anybody know anybody who's actually beaten it?

[InsaneDavid]

Astro Boy on the GBA was a great game. GREAT game!

Indeed. Also one of the most beautiful 2D games ever created in my opinion - the level of detail and color was intense.

[exit]

The Tenchi Muyo game for SNES was pretty decent.

[sisko]

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet, but Gundam Side Stories for the Dreamcast was a great game. In my opinion, one of the best US DC games out there.

[diskoboy]

Cliff Hanger. (the laserdisc arcade game based on Lupin III)

[CaptainFalcon13]

I wouldn't count out victorious boxers: revolution for wii. It is based of the fighting spirit anime. there are also a few other games based off fighting spirit, but I forget what they are called.

[Viraneth]

The Jio-Jio games.

[Osaka]

There's a bunch of great Gundam games out there (and also some really crappy ones too)

Encounters in Space (PS2) and Federation vs Zeon (PS2) are some of my favorites

[VACRMH]

I wouldn't count out victorious boxers: revolution for wii. It is based of the fighting spirit anime. there are also a few other games based off fighting spirit, but I forget what they are called.

Same name.

Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road To Glory
Victorious Boxers 2: Fighting Spirit.

Both very good games, and I'm not even a boxing fan.

[TEND]

Same name.

Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road To Glory
Victorious Boxers 2: Fighting Spirit.

Both very good games, and I'm not even a boxing fan.

VB 2 is especially good with an extremely deep and complicated career sort of mode.

[FrakAttack]

There's always Robotech...





...no, wait, you wanted good games.

[The 1 2 P]

I didn't take the time to read all the other post, but Dragon Ball Z Legends on the import PS1 or import Sega Saturn is a great fighting game. It's graphics are greatly outdated today, but the awesom 3 on 3 battles are fantastic. And it also follows the entire story line of Dragon Ball Z.

[josekortez]

The Naruto games on PS2 are pretty good, with Ultimate Ninja being the better series in my opinion.

I don't hate the Zatchbell, Naruto and One Piece fighting games on PS2 and GameCube but they all play basically the same and they are dumbed down for the masses.