In 1997, One Piece was born by the author Eiichiro Oda, and it grew from its home Shonen Jump, a manga book. The story is set in a giant world filled with pirates, who run rampant in the "Age of Piracy" – all revolving around a young pirate named Monkey D. Luffy, whose body was turned into rubber after eating the cursed Devil Fruit. The fruit turns his body into rubber, which makes it difficult to harm him, but the downside to this transformation is that he can no longer swim. Now being in a world of the pirates that meant he was always on the water, and always concerned about falling in to the sea.

Eventually the story was picked up, and turned into a cartoon/anime. Of course this cartoon was much more bloody back in their native land, and lost most of its punch when it migrated to North America. This was rather upsetting as a fan of the series like myself. From this migration to the West, and interest from the show from Americans, this game was born.

When I first caught wind of this game, I had the notion that it was going to be pretty good. It sounded like it was going to be like Power Stone, a game that I held in high regard back in the Dreamcast days. When it comes to games based upon movies -- or television shows -- they generally end up being horrible, so I was a bit concerned that this game might not live up to the material its based on.

The artistic style ends up being somewhat cell-shaded, which helps the game retain its childish style and mimics the look of the cartoon. I liked this look, as the environments you would fight in looked splendid. All the items, characters, and levels suit each other, and immerse you in their world, as if they were all puzzle pieces that fit together. It was a compliment that the characters looked the way they did in the cartoon, and even the manga.

The environments are somewhat interactive. On some levels, the ground may end up blowing up, which drops you into the water (on obvious bane to our hero). On another level if you are set on fire and run around it will burn down grass nearby. In a snow level the more you walk around and attack the more the snow melts away. This is certainly a nice touch as the environment is interacting with you and vice-versa.

Something that I really dislike about the game is the voice acting. It does not match the character's expressions. They could be showing a furious picture of a character, and they are talking calmly. The voices do not even match their characters. I shook my fist at the screen and yelled their lines like they are supposed to be, in a dire fit of frustration. I wanted emotion that would improve the storyline, but that did not happen in this game.

When it comes to the multiplayer, you can only have one player against you. It will always be a one-on-one battle. You can summon a partner character -- controlled by the computer -- that will attack your opponent for a brief period of time quite like summoning Pokemon in Super Smash Brothers.

In the game you can unlock a few other characters that you have either read about in the manga, or watched on the television show. It does give you something to strive towards, but they are easily unlockable. Another thing that can be unlocked are brief clips from the television show.

Above all, only two things really let me down. First off was the combat system. The dated concept puts two players against each other while lacking the fun multiplayer options most of the other games have. The battle options are shallow, and simply mashing the controls can allow you to perform your most powerful attacks with relative ease. You have to run around and gather food like a squirrel before you have the ability to pull off your powerful moves. How could you explain to your friends that you would have defeated the Pirate... if you had just eaten some grapes?

The controls are pick up and play, but it will be awhile before you figure out the best ways to attack your opponent. The moves are also quite cartoony, but that adds to the whole theme of the game. To find out the moves you can read from the menu screen, or go to the training room. What annoyed me about the training section is that it did not teach you how to play the game. It started off with another character in front of you that just stood there. Of course you can set it up to attack you back, but I expected a step-by-step tutorial. In the end the controls did feel like they were lacking..