One Punch Man fans have known the series in and out to be something almost begging for a video game. That’s why when One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows was announced by Bandai Namco Games, fans—like us here at Honey’s Anime—jumped for joy! We were lucky enough to be able to participate in the Closed Beta for One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows and we took our heroic skills to both the offline and online element available in the beta. Was our earlier joy too premature and does One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows fail to be as explosive as the anime series? Our job is to find out in our review of One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows (Closed Beta) for the Xbox One!

One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is a fighting game using concepts/themes from the anime/manga series. Players choose between a large cast of heroes/villains from the franchise and go at it in either two man teams or three man teams. The one big mechanic to One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is the fact that Saitama—the main man himself—can be utilized in a team of three as the third member who arrives in a specific time frame. When Saitama joins the fight…he’s going to win and it will be in one hit! Your goal is to beat down the enemy before Saitama appears and or find yourself on the wrong end of his mighty blows! Who will be your ultimate team in One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows? That you’ll have to find out for yourself!

At the moment the story of One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is unknown. We do believe it will follow the story of the series with possible untold tales thanks to your ability to create your own hero! In our full review of One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows we will have more details about the story so look forward to that when the game releases in 2020!

We’ve seen many anime become fighting games at one point or another. Recently, Kill la Kill: IF released and we loved how much detail went into the actual gameplay and story. One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows has big shoes to fill when you compare it to such titles as Kill la Kill: IF but luckily, this closed beta shows this fighting adaptation has some cool moves going for it! Time to throw down in One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows Closed Beta!

The closed beta for One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows ran for several days and we were lucky enough to enter into this highly anticipated fighting title. Online and offline modes were available and we played both for our review. Hands down—for a closed beta—One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows ran extremely well with minimal lag and frame rate issues, a common problem with beta versions of any fighting game. Will this strong latency hold up when One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows launches in its full version? Our thoughts are it most likely will and we’re happy about that, we want to play One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows online as we loved every second we played!

While most fighting games based off anime series tend to be simple titles—throw in characters from the series and make combat super easy— One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows throws in some surprises that blew us away. The main concept of One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows is that you choose three heroes—or villains—and make a team that can take down an opposing force. Where One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows throws in a wrench in the system is that it allows for a team of two to utilize Saitama as the third character. Now if you know the source material, you know Saitama is able to beat any opponent in literally one punch. In One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows this idea stays the same as Saitama—when he appears—can’t be hurt and only needs to land a single blow to reduce an opponent’s HP bar to zero. You almost would think this would break the entire game right? Well folks, One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows was smart and made Saitama a character you can’t just use from the gate.

When you enter a battle, you’ll notice the usual combat system of most 3D brawlers is here. You have simple combos, more advanced ones and all of your super attacks are faced to using the trigger and then hitting one of four buttons. This set up makes One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows accessible to most gamers—which might annoy die-hard fighting game vets—but the addition of Saitama is where the whole title changes. If you decide to forgo a third character in lieu of our bald hero, then you will notice Saitama running in the corner of the screen with a timer on his image. The timer is when Saitama will appear to fight and will also mean when you’ll lose if he arrives. If you land hits on an opponent and unleash combos successfully, the counter reduces with each blow making battles feel almost tactical. You need to move around the field to avoid being hit unnecessarily and perfect the dodge system—which is silky smooth—to avoid taking a hit and unleash some nice counters in the process. One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows can be played without Saitama but we guarantee most will take a third member loss for his strength as he can’t be defeated.

The closed beta for One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows didn’t offer anything else outside of several characters to play as and a few pre-set avatars—apparently you’ll be able to make your own hero in the full version—but that was enough to get us to appreciate how awesome this game is going to be! Not only are the visuals almost perfected—though we didn’t like the overly dark shades thrown in at times—the pre-battle dialogues between characters nail the comedy of One Punch Man to the letter! Now let’s hope for a solid story mode and maybe some different ways to battle others online or off.

Our time with One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows wasn’t long enough in our opinions. What we thought would be a simple anime based fighting game turned out to be a deeper title than we thought! While combat is made to be accessible to all gamers—as evident by the simple combo system—the addition of perfect dodges and Saitama’s arrival adds a nice concept we didn’t think this game could pull off. Often, you’re racing against the clock to outwit your opponent and defeat them before Saitama appears—if they do use him in the team—and there’s an equal amount of risk to having only two warriors versus a full three man squad. We played offline and noticed no issues with latency in One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows and even online there was silky smooth fights to be found and minimal issues present. For a closed beta, this is a nice sign of the final product being quite solid! Now our excitement for One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows has been deepened and you can bet we’ll have a full game review when we get our hands on it soon!

One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows shows some serious promise in this closed beta. We loved the several characters we got to use and equally loved how close to the anime this title felt in both aesthetic and gameplay. Will One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows be the best fighting game from an anime ever released? We aren’t sure yet but from our initial impression, it could very well be! Did you guys/girls get to participate in the closed beta for One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows? What were your thoughts about it? Comment below to let us know! For our full game review of One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows in 2020 be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime!