My Hero Ultra Rumble isn’t a complex game despite the initial first few minutes spent in the tutorial. Players take control of famous My Hero Academia characters like Deku, Bakugo, Dabi, and of course, All Might—just to name a few—and unleash their Quirks on other players. 8 teams of 3 players each—24 in total—strive to be the last team/player remaining and in the typical sense of most battle royale games, there are obvious gameplay elements that make this no easy feat. Players can enhance their various skills via skill cards that can be equipped or used and they can also find various consumable items for health, shields, and damage/defense buffs.

To top that off, similar to games like Apex Legends or Fortnite, My Hero Ultra Rumble has a shrinking map that pushes players together to ensure the last few minutes become a truly heated affair! The themes in My Hero Ultra Rumble aren’t exactly original—which worries us for the end product—but we can’t deny there was some fun in trying to survive in chaotic fights that make us fans swoon and wish we’d make a fanfic of some of these battles!

One element we really loved about My Hero Ultra Rumble is the customization system, which again, is simple but quite intuitive. Like gacha games—but minus the use of real currency at the moment—you unlock coins/tickets to roll for various items to make your character your own. You can nab various outfits for your character and in-game voice lines. Again, none of this is that innovative but we liked the cool outfits and the numerous voice lines.

A major concern we have for My Hero Ultra Rumble is its longevity. As this was a beta, we figured we wouldn’t see everything My Hero Ultra Rumble has to offer but it does show what could go wrong equally. The one map available had multiple biomes—such as a rainy collapsed city, a watery area, and a round open fountain to name a few but if we had only this map to enjoy…we’d grow quickly bored. No area really offered a change in combat. We’d still be launching our projectile attacks underwater and dealing damage, despite being Dabi, or had any special events occur in the dilapidated city. We would have loved some special events to occur during gameplay based on the area we fought in but overall, the map felt pretty bland and left much to be desired.

You’re going to notice that a lot of our screenshots—taken by our in-game experiences—are of Dabi and that isn’t just because we love the sewn-faced fiery villain. Honestly, of all the available heroes/villains to play as, we noticed many were extremely unbalanced. Dabi was one of the easiest to manipulate as his attacks hit hard in both range and defensive capabilities, and could be used in rather tactful ways. Deku was right behind Dabi with some all-around attacks but this made us quickly realize My Hero Ultra Rumble has some balancing issues that NEED to be ironed out.

All Might, despite being a powerhouse, felt weaker than most of the other heroes. Cementoss felt like a gimmicky wall character—as he literally makes walls—and Ochaco, a.k.a. Uravity, felt extremely damage heavy and had some moves that made her almost one-hit kill players. As a beta, this is the best time to see the in-game issues and fix them but we believe balancing will be a relevant problem even in the final build of My Hero Ultra Rumble. It is nice to see Froppy being able to down Deku though, despite her clearly underwhelming Quirk.