One Punch Man: World invites players back to its world with Saitama and many of its iconic heroes and villains. It claims it is a top-tier multiplayer action game offered on both mobile devices and PC. The game definitely tries its best to rival major mobile games like Genshin ImpactorHonkai: Star Rail.
For a quick recap of the One Punch Man anime, Saitama was just a simple salaryman who nearly lost his life saving a civilian. Three years after the incident, and after intense training, he has become an invincible, strong man. Despite his bald head and simple appearance, he is a force to be reckoned with—a little too strong. He is burdened by the fact that he has now become too strong, so much so that any monster he faces can be defeated with a single blow. The story follows him as he takes on some of the most powerful monsters threatening humanity, and the struggles of killing an annoying buzzing fly in his apartment.
One Punch Man: World’s “main story” or campaign mode follows heroes from the first episode of the anime, Lightning Max and Smile Man. The player takes on these characters following the destruction and appearance of the villain Vaccine Man. They both realize that they need a team, so they end up teaming up but ultimately lack the chemistry. For the story’s and gameplay’s sake, every team a player takes on a fighting mission requires three team members. So, other heroes can be obtained through the game’s gatcha system of drawing new heroes or hero abilities.
“Players can obtain other heroes through the game’s gatcha system of drawing new heroes or hero abilities.”
Like most anime mobile games, whether it is Fate, One Piece, Diablo Immortal, many of them offer a draw system to get cool drops or unlockable upgrades to help players level up or improve their characters. One Punch Man: World does the same thing. Also like many similar game structures, it had multiple currencies—with one of them being able to purchase with real money.
The action-packed game combines its humour and punches with a combat system that has been seen in many previous games. Players will be able to practice and test new strategies for defending, attacking and counter-attacking combinations. And like many role-playing and fantasy games, players can unleash their hero’s ultimate power when he accumulates enough combo points.
While the initial experience with One Punch Man: World was nostalgic and exciting, with superbly animated cutscenes and an introduction to the game’s combat system, it grew a little stale with its repetitive action. However, the action is broken up by exploration beats, which offer some silly but monotonous tasks.
“One Punch Man: World provides a fairly enjoyable experience for fans, playing well on both PC and mobile.”
The combination of cutscenes and regular RPG dialogue between characters felt relatively balanced. Even though the characters are not conversing like a real show all the time, the written conversations are just as impactful. The PvP aspect was about as solid as most modern PC or console fighting games like Demon Slayer—Kimetsu no Yaiba—The Hinokami Chronicles or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Of course, figuring out the meta requires lots of trial and error—which I tried a bunch by mixing and matching heroes.
Probably the best aspect of One Punch Man: World is that it can be played on PC or mobile. This means that players can continue their progress anywhere they go. They could be playing from the comfort of their bed on their mobile devices or their computers; it could also mean playing while commuting on the bus/subway. It could even mean playing on one’s lunch break! The flexibility is a really nice touch, as more games have shifted to multi-platform capabilities.
The game takes a whopping 14.9GB of space to download on PC or mobile, so be wary that it is a pretty spacious game. However, most devices can easily hold that. But if you have multiple games like this, then it may be a good idea to uninstall some others.
One Punch Man: World provides a fairly enjoyable experience for One Punch Man fans. It plays well on both PC and mobile; I did not really prefer one over the other. Personally, I played more on mobile because it allowed me to lie down at times or play while commuting. The game is inclusive in its ability to recap the major plot points of the show so that non-anime viewers can still get the context. It also delivers on many fronts; don’t expect every battle to end with a punch!
