One Piece: Unlimited World Red

 Wii U
Metascore
66

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
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  1. Cubed3
    Jul 16, 2014
    80
    The repetition of said features, plus the lack of the Wii U's strengths being put to use is unfortunate, but dedicated One Piece fans and patient newcomers will find a lot to love.
  2. GamingTrend
    Aug 1, 2014
    75
    It’s more than a step in the right direction, it’s a big jump forward and can be engaging and fun for the right people, but it’s still not the well-polished and considerate creation the franchise needs to really make an impression on the videogame market.
  3. Worth Playing
    Sep 17, 2014
    70
    One Piece: Unlimited World Red is good. Although the combat is quite messy when facing waves of normal enemies, the excitement of the boss fights more than makes up for it.
  5. FNintendo
    Jul 20, 2014
    70
    Fan service always manages to strike a core audience but ends up sacrificing other segments of the public. In the case of One Piece: Unlimited World Red, the fans will get a proper serving character and plot-wise, but a repetitive formula and low difficulty level will not give the rest of the audience a significant challenge unless they are already fans of the series.
  6. Destructoid
    Jul 17, 2014
    70
    A very standard action game that won't excite masters of the genre, but it has more than enough charm to make up for its simplicity. It also certainly helps that it's an original story, so hardcore fans of the manga or show will want to get in on Red even at a discount just to experience more Straw Hat action.
  7. Nintendo Life
    Jul 11, 2014
    70
    Some may be a little disappointed that Unlimited World Red makes little effort to explain the setting or the characters to the uninitiated, but perhaps that’s besides the point – the target audience for this game is already familiar with the series’ lore, and it’s those that will take the most from this game.
  8. Gamestyle
    Jul 2, 2014
    70
    A decent action adventure that fans of the series will enjoy.
  9. Official Nintendo Magazine UK
    Aug 8, 2014
    65
    A robust package that oozes colour and charm, but lacks the variety necessary to maintain excitement and appeal beyond its dedicated fan base. [Sept 2014, p.88]
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  10. DarkZero
    Jul 28, 2014
    60
    One Piece: Unlimited World Red isn’t the best One Piece game, nor is it as good of an experience as last year’s One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2. However, I do feel that fans of the show will get a kick out of the game if they have the tolerance to forgive the standard combat mechanics and unexciting level design.
  11. Hardcore Gamer
    Jul 9, 2014
    50
    Combat feels stiff, unresponsive, and overwrought, though it captures the visual excitement of the anime nicely. If that were all there is to the game, it would be pretty average, but everything else just gets in the way.
  12. The Digital Fix
    Jul 9, 2014
    50
    Overall, One Piece: Unlimited World Red feels like a game made for fans of the series, and ultimately, they’re the only people we can consider recommending this game to.

Awards & Rankings

33
#33 Best Wii U Game of 2014
35
#35 Most Discussed Wii U Game of 2014
16
#16 Most Shared Wii U Game of 2014

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 48 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 48
  3. Negative: 8 out of 48
  1. Geonosian
    Jul 9, 2014
    10
    This game is a perfect sequel to the unlimited games on the wii. I loved those games and spent almost 200 hours on them!!!!

    Story: The    This game is a perfect sequel to the unlimited games on the wii. I loved those games and spent almost 200 hours on them!!!!

    Story: The story is much more interesting than the past games as we get Patrick Redfield and Pato, two characters developed by Oda himself. The story is really engaging while not being forced leaving path to the gameplay.

    Presentation: The visuals for this game are gorgeous to look at and the soundtrack even if it doesn't use any original tracks is still amazing. The islands and their ambientation and relating to the series is also gorgeous.

    Gameplay: The gameplay is exactly the same as the past games but slightly better. The character moves have been fantastically upgraded, each with their new moves from the new world post-timeskip and even new ways to play like when Usopp can enter first person mode or franky can build a cannon to hop into. For example if an enemy fires a cannonball Luffy will delfect it with his fussen, Zoro will cut it and Sanji will kick it. Most of the characters have also special abilities, like nami can steal, usopp can call some bugs to catch, chopper can dig and so on. The combat has been upgraded, where now you dodge in a quick time event making the battle more strategical and you now charge XP by fighting enemies. Even if more due to nostalgia I prefered the Thousand Sunny, Trans Town is a completely new experience. You feel more free and opened as you can move through town with luffy like you were spiderman and you can expand the town to build all the shops like in the past game (and new places too!). There are also there special minigames you can play and quite some upgrading to do to swap from the usual island exploring and fighting. There is also the new colosseum mode where you have to defeat bosses or hordes of enemy with several characters apart the straw hats. It would be repetitive but it is saved by the use of different characters and modes, as they are needed to unlock even more characters to play as!

    However i had only 2 problems with this game:
    #1 Is that there is no more the Versus mode from the past games. And that was so much fun!!! I played it for hours upon hours with my friends. Now there is only a co-op mode in colosseum and also in story. While it still is fun I would have also loved a VS mode.
    #2 Is the limit of characters. You can only play with a certain number of characters and the other ones can only be enemies. Why can you play as Buggy but not with Caesar Clown or Hody Jones??? I died to play with them but in the end I couldn't. If you think of it, without counting the ones that were in UC2SP the new characters you can play as are only Law and Fujitora (wich are still both awesome).

    Apart this the gameplay is similar to the past games but much newer and improved making it feel fresh and new.

    Replay value: As the past game this game will give you tons of hours to play. I already played 30 hours and I still keep playing. The story mode includes special quests where you have to collect an item or kill a boss in a preset way. For example you have to fight against Law while he switches your hearts or you have to go with chopper to find some apples in the forest, or capture Alabasta by defeating Luffy with Crocodile and Robin as Miss Allsunday... the list goes on! Colosseum mode will also take you a lot of time

    CONCLUSION: This game is a perfect sequel to it's old games. It has a perfect story mode and a really interesting colosseum mode, gorgeous graphics, engaging story and a ton of replayability and fun!!! This game should be enjoyed even by people who are not fans of the series. The only things that bug me are the characters and VS mode but apart that this game is perfect and it deserves a really high score anyway.

    ++ Engaging Story
    ++ Gorgeous Presentation
    +++ Perfectly updated moveset for everyone
    +++ Feels fresh and new
    ++ Engaging Colosseum Mode
    ++ Great Replayability
    - Limited Character Roster
    - No VS mode

    Final score: 9.8 (Adjusted to 10 for Metacritic)    … Full Review »
  2. ricklongo
    Sep 9, 2014
    7
    The One Piece series is one of the most popular manga and anime franchises of all time, and Unlimited World Red capitalizes on that with anThe One Piece series is one of the most popular manga and anime franchises of all time, and Unlimited World Red capitalizes on that with an eclectic mixture of exploration, brawling, city-building and storytelling easter eggs.

    An island city serves as the main gameplay hub. Here you get to walk around, talk to citizens and (most importantly) help develop the town. As you collect materials on the various missions, you get to build new stores to expand the services available in the city, which in turn provide you with new materials and gameplay advantages. It's a fun little time sink that will entertain you and give you an incentive to revisit missions, but it is hampered a bit by the inexcusable lack of a map display on the gamepad (meaning you'll be pausing the game a lot to even know where everything is located).

    The missions themselves vary in size and fun factor, but they're always brawling-heavy action segments based on previous One Piece storylines, with famous enemies as stage-end bosses. It's a shame that they're not seamlessly connected to the main hub, instead taking the form of self-contained stages. Before each of them, you choose three characters out of the Straw Hat crew; the existence of character-specific spots on each stage adds a bit of backtrack value. There's a lot of button-mashing involved, but also an interesting combo system where you get stronger if you're able to hit enemies with specific combinations.

    The overarching plot should be understandable for the uninitiated (or to the barely initiated, like myself), but it's pretty clear that fans of the series are the ones who will take the most out of the experience. Overall, it's nothing to write home about, but the general writing does feature quite a few humorous remarks. The graphics aren't the crispest ever, but still offer a pleasant cel-shaded aesthetic.

    The game does suffer from some poor design choices, resulting on an overabundance of forgettable content. For example: there are loads of mini-games, specific gameplay mechanics and side missions, but half of them are a drag to see through. For completionists who like to see everything a game has to offer, be aware that this will severely clog your gameplay time with boring sections; I'd definitely advise you to stick with city exploration and ingredient hunts to scratch that side-content itch.

    Unlimited World Red is a competent game. It's likely it won't wow many people (except for die-hard fans of the series, maybe), but it offers a pleasant way to get your brawling adventure fix.

    Rating: 7.0    … Full Review »
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