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. 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?

[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. 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?

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