Anime and video games go together like bread and butter. If you go to an anime convention, chances are that you will see video game cosplayers and merchandise and vice versa. Even if you’re not a major fan of both, you’ve probably at least dabbled in one if you love the other.
Maybe this is because Japan is the hub of anime and some of the most popular video games like Final Fantasy and Pokémon. Their game companies and manga artists have a passion for storytelling that reaches to the hearts of many across the seas. But what about anime video games?
Combining the two seems like it’s meant to be. The genres of anime are never-ending, which make possibilities for fighting, horror, romance, fantasy, sci-fi and more in the video game world. Image a video game where you get to fight titans like in Attack on Titan? Or a game where you get to play an epic card battle like in Yu-Gi-Oh!?
A lot of fans then discovered it’s not so easy to make a good anime video game. In fact, most of the anime games out there are really lame. Most of the fighting games are just button mashing with little thought involved and the stories seem non-canon to the show. Basically, there are a lot of lame anime games out there.
That doesn’t mean they are all trash though. Some games even inspired anime! Let’s take a look at the most lame and then greatest of anime video games.
30 Lame: One Piece: Romance Dawn
Back into One Piece, this game was made for the 3DS and was another disappointment to the show’s fans. It has the same problems as many of the other anime games such as a dull adaptation to a certain part of the series, tediousness, and repetitive gameplay.
Also, the 3DS features are basically ignored and the cutscenes are boring and long.
According to Game Revolution, “...It’s little more than an interactive manga with some battles tossed into some of the most boring environments....”
29 Lame: Digimon World: Data Squad
There was a time when Digimon and Pokémon were once in a sort of competition with each other due to their commonalities. What happened to that? Well, Pokémon won and it’s probably the games that made a huge difference. The PS2 game, Digimon World: Data Squad, is proof of that.
The game garnered negatives reviews from its boring gameplay. IGN wrote, “The only thing we can say in this game’s defense is that it’s not necessarily broken. As annoying as it may be, the game is still technically playable, and you can still understand the plot if you want to.”
28 Best: The .Hack Series
This series is what Sword Art Online tries to be. The franchise has numerous games and anime series. A lot goes on, but the basic plot is that players of a high-tech massive multiplayer universe are trying to solve a mystery that revolves around some players going into a coma.
These games are fun because they act like you are actually in an MMO world despite it being a single player story. There are many dungeons and you meet other players on your journey. The story and characters are very memorable as well.
27 Lame: Beyblade: Let It Rip!
Beyblade that was an anime known for its toy merchandise, probably because it was to promote the spinning top toys called “beyblades.” The toys were successful, but the video game, Beyblade: Let it Rip!, for the original PlayStation was a flop.
It contained no story mode or narrative.
All you really do is fight and get more parts to fight more. The game feels like there is little point since there aren’t many choices as to who to fight in the story-less game.
26 Lame: Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight
Made for the PS3, Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight, is a very clunky battle simulation. The game had no tutorial. Even if it did, the controls were unmanageable to the point where walking into a wall could happen instead of partaking in combat.
A very mad Game Informer article wrote, “I have nothing positive to say about this game. I even hate the menu screen. Perhaps the best thing I can come up with is that this miserable piece of trash is so awful that it’s destined to be the worst-selling game of the PS3 launch.”
25 Best: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3
This was a game of many firsts for the Ultimate Ninja series. It has a massive storyline of 55 missions, tons of combatants, and enough unlockable content for good replay value. The open world and many playable characters made this title definitely the best of the Naruto video games.
You even get a customization option for versus mode.
Gamespot wrote, “You may actually check the box to remind yourself that this isn't a PlayStation 3 game, because all of the super attacks you unleash are rendered in glistening HD quality, as are most of the backgrounds.”
24 Lame: Dragon Ball Z: For Kinect
The Dragon Ball franchise gave life to many video games, but not all of them are fondly remembered. At first, some fans had mixed feelings about Dragon Ball Z: For Kinect because it had a good look, anime style, and could unlock 50 characters. However, the controls were very spotty.
You fought in first-person, so you couldn’t even see your favorite characters in action.
The combat is repetitive too, which a rock-paper-scissors like circle of hitting, deflecting, and blocking. Also, the game only takes about three hours to beat.
23 Lame: Inuyasha: Secret Of The Divine Jewel
Running from 1996 to 2008, Inuyasha was a beloved anime. It especially enchanted western audiences with its Japanese culture and Shintoism. So what’s the harm of making a video game out of it?
Inuyasha: Secret Of The Divine Jewel came out for the Nintendo DS in 2007.
The writing felt like a self-insert fanfiction with a western girl in mind since you play a foreign exchange student, Janis. If the story itself wasn’t weak, the mechanics were a pain. There is a constant interruption of boring turn-by-turn battles as you try to move on the map.
22 Best: The Persona Series
These Playstation games are beloved for their perfect mix of what makes anime great: school life and adventure. The most recent game, Persona 5 is a trap of addiction from its interesting story and fun game mechanics.
You get to divide up your free time between hanging out with friends and doing various activities to boost your money or social traits.
All this is bundled with an adventure of secretly fighting monsters almost in a magical-girl like story. You definitely get what you paid for, as the game easily can take 90 hours to beat on your first try.
21 Lame: Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy
Fullmetal Alchemist has become an anime classic, especially when the Brotherhood version came out in 2009. However, this DS game came out before Brotherhood. In 2005, a lot of fans were met with disappointment with Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy.
Firstly, the game developers tried to crush this 51 episode show into only a four-hour game. This rush made what fans expected to be a deep story to be very hollow. The game’s combat also provides no challenge and is a bore.
20 Lame: One Piece: Burning Blood
This anime is so popular that it doesn’t know when to stop. With over 800 episodes, One Piece has probably once (and maybe still is) the most popular anime in Japan. It has more than one game, but this is about Burning Blood for the PS4.
Firstly, this is a bad game for anyone who doesn’t know the show.
Some anime games make sure you get enough information to follow if you haven’t seen the show, but not this one. The fights are known to be unbalanced and there is a lot of chasing instead of fighting in the arena.
19 Best: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
The third installment of Dragon Ball Z’s fighting game franchise was released for the PS2 and Wii in 2007. Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was loved for its huge character roster, featuring 98 characters in 161 forms. That’s possibly the biggest rosters ever in a fighting game.
Time of day was included in some stages so certain characters to get the ability to transform into a Great Ape. For the Wii, there was multiplayer mode where you could fight anyone around the globe online. Basically it was a fighting game that was hard to get bored with.
18 Lame: Attack On Titan: Humanity In Chains
Now into the more recent of anime, Attack on Titan is an anime that feels like it could make for a scary survival, horror, and action game. Instead, we got repetitiveness, a forgettable story mode, and not a drop of what makes the anime so shocking and subversive.
There are only three mission types, the same cutscene is repeated for different characters, and monotonous combat ensues. The titans also are not scary or even difficult to beat. There are abnormals, but even they don’t pose a real challenge.
17 Lame: Astro Boy: The Video Game
Astro Boy is one of the older classics of anime. He’s a superhero, and superhero stories make good games right? To get a good superhero game, you need good combat and that’s one of the biggest places Astro Boy: The Video Game fell short in providing.
The combat has no fluidity, making it so you have to stop punching if you want Astro Boy to move on to the next enemy.
Speaking of enemies, they are all recycled forms of each other with similar patterns.
16 Best: The Castlevania Series
The series on Netflix is arguably not anime since it wasn’t made in Japan, but it was definitely anime inspired by its art style to mature content. Calling it a cartoon feels silly when some of its content is too violent and dark for even some adults.
The game goes way back to the 1980s and has gotten constant remakes up to 2014.
It started as an adventure to stop Dracula on the NES and was loved back then for its combat, gothic aesthetic, and many hidden items. Later games added on better and better RPG and combat content.
15 Lame: Yu-Gi-Oh: The Sacred Cards
Yu-Gi-Oh feels like an anime that would be best suited for a video game. There are tons of video games that utilize card games. Yu-Gi-Oh: The Sacred Cards actually was the fourth Yu-Gi-Oh game released on the Gameboy Advance. According to reviews though, this game was a big step backward from what the past games accomplished.
A lot of the card game strategy and challenge that fans loved suffered from the games narrative and RPG elements. Also this game, unlike the others, only had AI opponents with no way to connect with other people.
14 Lame: Orphen: Scion Of Sorcery
To be fair, this game takes a little longer to get as repetitive as some of the others listed. You get four spells and learn some new techniques as you progress further. But eventually, you realize you are just memorizing the same pattern of skills and it gets boring quick.
What might be the most wretched aspect is the dubbing.
The voices lean heavily into the character personalities, which is very annoying. The dub also makes little effort to match the body language and lip movements.
13 Best: The Danganronpa Series
Some games were so good that anime is based off them. That was the case for Danganronpa. In fact, the anime was the lame part while this game series is beloved.
Danganronpa is like Ace Detective meets The Hunger Games.
It features high school students forced into a brutal game where attacks are rampant and solving the case is a life or death deal for the whole class. The gameplay is creative, making you have to strategize matching arguments and evidence. The story is also strong with a LOT of memorable twists and characters.
12 Lame: Sonic Adventure Ports
Sonic Adventure was good back when it was on the Dreamcast (and when it was re-released on GameCube). But when it was re-re-released for the PS3 and Xbox 360, fans were not happy. Basically, the game did not age well and the developers did little to update it to keep it playable and well designed.
With the updated world but the un-updated game, Sonic now actually appeared slow! Gameplanet wrote, “Only the most ardent Sonic fans need apply. For the rest of us, some good gaming memories should just remain that: memories.”
11 Lame: Berserk And The Band Of The Hawk
Berserk is an anime for those that love brutal action. With the manga being written slow as molasses, fans can be pretty desperate for anything with the Berserk name. As for this game, the fighting is just button mashing.
The maps, models, and missions are all just recycled forms of each other so that gets boring and repetitive fast.
For an anime known for its brutality, the game is also very easy. A worthy game to Berserk would have a more Dark Souls vibe wouldn’t it? We can dream.