My Hero Academia All's Justice (PS5)

My Hero Academia is another Shonen show I missed on the first run, but I knew it was firing on all cylinders when people started pushing me to watch it, as well as being sent character figures to review and the series was being credited as a superior slice of super hero action, drawing comparisons to the rather excellent Young Justice cartoon from DC. 

Now, All's Justice follows two other games in the series, One's Justice 1 & 2, both of which were solid arena brawlers. All's Justice feels very much like a celebration, with an incredible amount of content on offer, amazing graphical fidelity (it's sooooo smooth!) and a great use of the various powers from all the series regulars.

There are four modes within the game, the most natural being Story Mode of course, which covers the Final War arc (and you'll be lost f you didn't watch the series as it makes no allowances for newcomers in terms of narrative). This is split into manageable bite-size chunks which can be returned to in order to allow you to enjoy your favourites multiple times. Each features a battle with a major villain and I have to say I found the combat very entertaining - but more on that later.

There's an open world offering with Team Up Mission Mode. This takes place in a virtual city and is used for training - here you'll play as series lead Izuki Midoriya, taking on missions and side-quests that have multiple objectives and plenty of rewards that cover costumes, themes and other items that enhance the  game and allow you to personalise the game. Not all the missions are combat-based and you'll be able to traverse the city and hone your skills at your leisure. I found it most enjoyable to just wander around and enjoy the atmosphere, and if the city isn't busy enough for you, there are options to increase the crowd numbers and make it more bustling. It's in this space where All Might will take you through the tutorials, which showcase all the controls and combat options through mini-missions, encouraged all the while by the city's most popular hero. Again, presentation throughout is absolutely stellar and fully voiced - it's as close to "playing an anime" as I've seen to date.

The missions will also unlock content from the Hero's Diary, which is a meaty collection of experiences from across the show's run - you'' experience character moments from all 20 members of Class 1-A and Archives Battle lets you relive the greatest fights from the series. It's a wonderful inclusion that really celebrates the series finest moments - and it has many of those to offer.

Popping the menus into the phone is a wonderful GUI touch

But if you just want to scrap, you can enter Free Battle Mode where you can select from 50 characters and take on a mate locally or fight the CPU, making the most of the game's fighting mechanics. So let's get back to that.

My Hero Academia is all about the Quirks, the unique abilities each character possesses that they can use for good or evil. Whether it's creating explosions, manipulating gravity or just being... well, a frog girl like Tsuyu Asui (aka Froppy, my personal favourite) there's a ton of variety here to get to grips with. You have standard attacks, the ability to block and dodge, plus two gauges that enhance your abilities - Rising, which powers you up, and Plus Ultra, which activates a super special. You have a team of three a-la Marvel vs Capcom and a bout isn't over until all three are knocked out. You're able to attack in pairs too, though that comes with a cooldown period so must be used sparingly. You can also switch out characters at any time, allowing you to react to the character you're fighting against and switch up styles on the fly. With 50 characters to choose from (and more via DLC), that's a lot of combinations to work through to find the best team for you.

I also have to give another nod to the game's presentation, it's simply stellar. Even the menus are accessed via your mobile phone, everything just feels so flawlessly integrated and slick, walking you through the game's mechanics via character interactions backed with the original voice cast in both English and Japanese. It feels welcoming, colourful and dynamic and hands down one of the best in-game GUI's I've ever used.

It's not completely flawless - some of the Team Missions are repetitive (rescue this, collect that...) but you are amply rewarded for taking part, so that mitigates it somewhat. It isn't friendly to newcomers, but honestly at this stage the anime is available to watch and we're three games in, so if the worst thing I can say is that you have to watch a great anime show to catch up, that's hardly a massive issue. 

It's big, bold and beautiful, I had a total blast playing it and Bandai Namco has made a great game for fans that enables them to live their own adventure while reliving those of the past. It's a must for fans, and good enough to lure in new ones (once they've watched the anime, of course!)