JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is the best JoJo’s game you can play on modern consoles. Like it or not, this is what peak anime performance looks like. It features 51 characters from across the series – respectable when compared to pretty much any other fighter – and is even getting at least four DLC characters added to the game in the future. Add rollback netcode into the mix for those fighting game purists, and you have what is the best JoJo game you can play on your powerful new console. And that’s a bit of a shame.
All-Star Battle originally released on the PS3 in 2013 – almost a decade ago – and at launch it got a mixed reception. The hardcore JoJo’s fans at Famitsu might’ve given the game a rare 40/40 score, but elsewhere it wasn’t quite so beloved. Anime and manga fans weren’t satisfied with the story mode that amounted to a text scroll between battles, and fighting game fans were struggling to love an unbalanced game with dodgy online play.
Despite that though, it found its fans. Developer CyberConnect2 imbued the game with the same raw action that defined Asura’s Wrath and made it a cult classic. The sketchy 3D art style is intact, and when you pull off a Heat Attack, each moment harkens back to an iconic moment from Hirohiko Araki’s original manga. Fans love the accurate references, but fighting game fans adore the superb action and animation. Enemies get hit with hamon, clapped by clackers, punched countless times, and yes, they even get a steamroller planted onto their bodies. These are iconic moments, flawlessly executed, yet hidden behind a PS3 exclusive released far too late.
All-Star Battle R is here to rectify the issues that plagued the original release. A complete rebalance of the cast makes ASBR a much more compelling fighting game, and rollback netcode ensures that online play remains smooth. Even older voice actors have been replaced with the actors that have since taken on those roles in the anime series, making it that little more authentic.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the biggest and longest-running manga and anime series in the world, with multiple anime series, video games, and even a live-action movie. Right now, JoJo’s is more popular than ever, to the point that Netflix opted to sign a deal to develop Part 6 of the anime and make it exclusive to the platform. It’s dramatic, exciting, complicated, and incredibly camp, which has made it perfect meme material over the years, and if you haven’t fully embraced the wave yet, now is the time.
Get the Shonen Jump app, read the manga, strap in for some anime on Netflix, and if you’re not afraid of potential spoilers, start playing All-Star Battle R. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is bigger than it ever has been, and there are more ways to enjoy this world and absurd cast of flamboyant boys and girls than ever before. This is peak anime.
Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.
