MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice Review — You Can Kill Mineta

Fighting game tie-ins have become something of a tradition for anime. While the trend of turning a popular anime into a fighting game was arguably popularized by the many Dragon Ball Z tie-ins, the tradition dates all the way back to 1994’s Asuka 120%, and the fighting-game treatment has even been given to non-shonen titles like Inuyasha. It should almost be expected, at this point, that if an anime is popular enough, has some action, and a cast of characters that can be converted to a fighting game’s roster, you’re likely to see such a game developed at some point.

It’s no surprise, then, that with MY HERO ACADEMIA, one of the “Big Three” of shonen anime, coming to an end recently, a tie-in fighting game would be made. While not the first of its kind, MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice is perhaps the most ambitious, serving as a three-vs-three 3D fighting title with a playable campaign and a roster full of almost every character in the anime.

If you’re a huge MHA fan who just finished the series and wants more from the world and characters, MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice will probably satisfy that desire. The game has an astonishing cast of characters, having essentially everyone from the series that you would want to play in a game like this. The story mode allows you to recreate iconic moments from the series, and the hub area allows you to interact with characters from the anime with some unique dialogue.

However, if you haven’t finished the series, don’t expect to pick up MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice and skip out on spoilers. The game is super spoiler-heavy, with the ending to the series shown before you can even play the game.

While there’s a lot here for fans of the anime to be drawn to, that is sort of the beginning and end of the substance in MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice. In truth, the game is a rather underwhelming fighting title with a nice MHA coat of paint.

Notably, the actual combat mechanics lack any combos or nuance you would expect from this sort of game. Each character essentially has three or four abilities; the Y and B buttons execute some sort of two-part combo, some characters can press Y and a directional button for a unique power, and the X button delivers your main attack, which automatically combos into a chain when you keep pressing the button. This chain attack also sometimes swaps in your teammate, which can be pretty annoying when they’re at low health or you just didn’t want to get off your current character yet.

Every character also has a sort of “transformation,” the complexity of which varies from character to character, and an ultimate move.

Some characters feel noticeably stronger than others, which is, of course, a truth present in the anime and manga, but for a fighting game, it just leaves things feeling unbalanced and wonky. Noticeably, certain bosses in the game’s campaign mode feel punishing to a fault, with very little the player can do to win the fight.

That summarizes the complexity of the game. While there are some nuances to how each character plays, the mechanics basically just come down to mashing X until you get an ultimate ability and using it to get a somewhat cool mini cutscene, and chaining it with your partner’s ultimates if you have enough gauge built up.

These ultimate moves are pretty cool, but they are also the apex of the game’s animation budget. Surprisingly, animation is something the game struggles with as well, which is something you should not say about a fighting game title. There’s just a strange stiffness to all of the game’s animations, making characters feel slow and under-animated, but not in an intentional way that conveys heaviness to their attacks. Rather, it seems the game was under-budgeted, and this was all we could get from the animation team, which leaves combat feeling super disappointing.

Not only is the fighting underwhelming, but the game shockingly lacks in playable locations. Most of the areas available to play in, I didn’t personally recognize, though, to be fair, I haven’t finished the series. Locations like the USJ, where All Might had his iconic fight against the first Nomu, seem like obvious additions to a game like this, sadly forgotten by the developers.

When you aren’t busy with the game’s underwhelming gameplay, you can challenge yourself to waste time collecting meaningless collectibles, such as PNG emotes, little voice lines, or static lines of text that play when you enter a multiplayer match. While I know some players enjoy these kinds of collectibles, their inclusion in this title specifically reads to me like busywork designed to artificially keep the player in the game when the sub-par gameplay isn’t enough to keep their attention.

If you’re a massive fan of MHA, then MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice will probably appeal to you. The game’s ability to allow you to re-experience the anime’s story will engage you, and the way it allows you to play as almost anyone in the game’s huge roster of characters will win you over as you imagine your own fantasy battles as your favorite character. However, for most players, given the game’s sub-par, overly simplified combat mechanics paired with awkward animations that even further degrade the already not-great experience, MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice will serve as nothing more than a disappointing and forgettable fighting game experience.

MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice was reviewed on the PC. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice is available on Steam.