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  • Afro Samurai had a video game adaptation. It's definitely not going to win Game Of The Year, but it's also definitely a solid, fun Beat 'em Up. Sadly, its sequel was such a huge aversion that it was removed from sale and cancelled after release.

  • UN Squadron was one of the first top notch third-party games on the SNES. What most people don't know was that this was based on an arcade game, which in turn was based on a manga titled Area 88. The title was lost in translation to the US.

  • Treasure also had a hand in Astro Boy: Omega Factor for the GBA, which is universally considered superior to its Sonic Team-developed PlayStation 2 counterpart. It even shows up on more than a few GBA "Best Of" lists.
    • To quote a video that was slamming Final Fantasy VII as well, Omega Factor, "despite its cartoony look and, at times, ball-breakingly hard gameplay, offers a deep and memorable storyline, and this is coming from a guy who doesn't give two shits about the anime that it's based on."

  • As mentioned below, there have been numerous good games based on One Piece, Naruto and Dragon Ball...so what happens when you roll them all into one? Why, you get Battle Stadium D.O.N., a simple Shonen Jump-endorsed Mascot Fighter that's a lot of fun to bust out with a few friends...but only in Japan!
    • Don't mention the game in front of Jump Ultimate Stars players, though.

  • Made by the team behind the Dynasty Warriors series, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk for the PlayStation 4 is a pretty damn good Hack and Slash title that fans of either the license or the genre will enjoy, with a solid combo system, fluid controls, a beautiful art style, and a plot that covers enough of the original manga for newcomers to get into the story.

  • The Bleach Fighting Games for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PSP and Wii got decent-to-positive reviews, especially the DS fighters, which were developed by Treasure, which are legitimately regarded as some of the best DS fighting games and a solid Spiritual Successor to the company's own YuYu Hakusho fighting game on the Mega Drive.

  • Blue Submarine No. 6 got a decent adaptation in Sega Dreamcast's Time and Tide, a semi-Wide-Open Sandbox sumbarine simulator / adventure game with a new story animated by the staff of the show.

  • Tecmo's Captain Tsubasa (Tecmo Cup Soccer Game) has great scores on GameFAQs and are really enjoyable for mixing soccer and RPG style gameplay together. The sequels, Captain Tsubasa 2-5, are even better as Tecmo developed orginal plots and opponent teams. Other Captain Tsubasa games created by Konami or Bandai can't match Tecmo's greatness unless they use the simillar system Tecmo used. But of course, Konami and Bandai's versions are still criticized because they tend to follow the anime and manga adaptions without coming up with original plots and characters.
    • Bandai's Captain Tsubasa J: Get to Tomorrow plays like a normal soccer games with an addition of super moves feature. It's decent.

  • Case Closed and The Kindaichi Case Files got a crossover Adventure Game for the Nintendo DS, which is one of the few attempts at crossing the two Detective Drama shows, which are incredibly popular in their homeland. It's also the only legitimately well-recieved game that came out of the ill-fated crossover between Weekly Shōnen Sunday and Weekly Shōnen Magazine, as seen on Sunday VS Magazine: Shuuketsu! Choujou Daikessen and Sunday X Magazine: Nettou! Dream Nine.

  • Code Geass's various video game adaptations are not quite this, as they add in a few discontinuities. For the most part, the Lost Colours game has various endings all divided into two variants for each route: Bad (canonical) and Good (The SAZ succeeds and Euphemia doesn't die.). The first DS game starts off completely canonical. Then, on the next replay, messes with the plot so that Suzaku and Euphemia join as pilots, despite Euphemia never engaging in battle. After three playthroughs, the only people who ever set foot in a Knightmare and are not playable are mechanics, and a couple of extremely minor characters.
    • The second DS game is apparently about R2, but ignores the end of R1 and adds a few R2 characters in a decidedly non-canonical game.

  • Death Note got three video games for the Nintendo DS: the first two, Kira Game and Successors to L are average clones of famous Tabletop Games Werewolf (1997) and Scotland Yard. The third, L the proLogue to DEATH NOTE, is a better game by virtue of being a Bomb Disposal Room Escape Game with investigation sections and the constant help of the detective L.

  • The PSP adaptation of Digimon Adventure faithfully recreates the plot of the first Digimon series and uses events from every episode, with all eight Digidestined/Chosen Children as playable characters, the adaptation of Our War Game and an original plot featuring all the protagonists of every Digimon season to date as postgame content, along with the fact that you can gain mega level Digievolutions for all of the Chosen Children's Digimon before the final battle with Apoclymon if you play your cards right, makes this game worth playing for Digimon fans. It's a shame Creator/Bandai Namco Entertainment has no plans to release this outside of Japan.

  • Although it's based on the mostly-forgotten nineties adaptation, the Doctor Slump game for the PlayStation is a good adventure / platformer game featuring most of the iconic characters.

  • Doraemon has a lot of video games, but some of them have got a decent following in Japan. Some of them are the first Nintendo game, which is regarded as one of the few Fair for Its Day licensed games of their era, Nintendo's Giga Zombie no Gyakushū which is Dragon Quest with Doraemon characters and tools, Super Nintendo's platforming game Doraemon 3: Nobita to Toki no Hogyoku, and Nintendo 64's Doraemon 3: Nobita no Machi SOS! where the player can walk around Nobita's town in full detail.

  • Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, despite accusations of being a haven for Button Mashing, is considered by many to be genuinely good. This lies in stark contrast to many of the Dragon Ball Fighting Games that appeared before and after then, which were almost universally mediocre.
    • The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series almost accurately recreated the fighting in the series, with some pretty interesting character choices, and a pretty solid fighting system.
    • It may not have a large roster when compared to, say Budokai Tenkaichi 3, but Super Dragon Ball Z makes up for it with characters that feel unique, gameplay that had the influence of developers from Street Fighter II, and a customization system that adds a ton of replay value.
    • There are actually many non-fighter Dragon Ball games that are good. Platform/RPG/Zelda-like games The Legacy of Goku II (the same can't be said about its prequel unfortunately), Buu's Fury and Dragon Ball Origins, while all pretty easy, are also quite fun. Attack of the Saiyans, an RPG for the DS, can also qualify if you can forgive its Surprise Difficulty.
    • Dragon Ball Online was an MMORPG and a canon Distant Finale, and despite not being released officially outside Korea and Taiwan, it still enjoyed a wide Western audience thanks to its customization, mechanics, and extensive PVP system. It was shut down in 2013, but received a fanmade Updated Re-release called Dragon Ball Online: Revelations in 2015, fixing any flaws it had and making it even better. In addition, Dragon Ball Xenoverse incorporated story elements from Online, along with character customization.
    • Dragon Ball FighterZ is a stellar fighting game made by Arc System Works, the same studio behind BlazBlue and Guilty Gear. Particular highlights about the game include intense "three vs. three" gameplay (ala Marvel vs. Capcom), cel-shaded graphics that near-perfectly recreate the look of the manga, and a love of the franchise that oozes from every frame, including special moves, unique dialogue at the start of certain matches, and scenes from the manga that are recreated if you intentionally try to match the results (such as Super Saiyan Goku finishing a match on destroyed Namek by defeating Frieza).

  • After a long streak of legendary bad games in Japan, Fist of the North Star finally got a decent adaptation in PlayStation's Hokuto no Ken: Seikimatsu Kyūseishu Densetsu. While the gameplay is average at best, the story faithfully integrates most of the series' most famous arcs.

  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy for the DS isn't anything mindblowing and fairly easy, but it's also a pretty fun Beat 'em Up following the story of Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), with the DS touch screen throwing in some moments for minigames and drawing alchemic circles to add a bit of variety as well.

  • Future GPX Cyber Formula had lots of licensed and doujin games throughout its run. While the first installments are somewhat mediocre, the later games, especially the four PlayStation 2 games, the GameCube installment, and the doujin PC games (especially SIN Drei Plus), are highly faithful to the anime and are incredibly fun to play too. Too bad they weren't released overseas.

  • The Pretty Cure series also has some stand-out gems. The Game Boy Advance had Futari wa Pretty Cure: Arienaai! Yume no Kuni wa Daimeikyuu, a solid and enjoyable puzzle platformer, and the Nintendo DS had Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart: Danzen! DS de Precure Chikara o Awasete Dai Battle, a beat-em-up.

  • The Garouden manga (an adaptation of an eponymous novel done by Keisuke Itagaki, of Baki the Grappler fame) got two excellent PlayStation 2 Fighting Game adaptations, which are a Cult Classic among some fighting game fans for its extremely innovative gameplay (on top of being a faithful adaptation — so much that it even adapts some of the original novel's spin-offs). Some of its original features are fights won by a tug-of-war bar that substitutes the usual Life Meter, special attacks that only can be activated once as a Comeback Mechanic, a Super Armor that wears down in the style of full contact karate matches, stamina and limb damage gauges that can influence the tug-of-war bar, push-pull grapples in the style of Tobal or sucker punches during the intro. Baki the Grappler fans can also enjoy Yujiro Hanma's cameo appearance, who is as Purposely Overpowered as expected.

  • GeGeGe no Kitarō's platforming games range to the mediocre to the very good, but none of them could be really called bad — not even the Nintendo one, which is pretty good for the era. The stand-outs are Konami's PlayStation and Game Boy Advance outings, the former a retro-styled platformer and the latter a great Metroidvania. It also has a surprisingly good (though now offline) tower defense adaptation, which was partially developed by the company behind The Battle Cats and plays similarly to that game.

  • 1997's Ghost in the Shell game for PS1 was a solid (if not tad too easy) third-person shooter with good graphics, interesting wall-climbing mechanics and superb soundtrack and voice acting (the voice cast being the same as in the 1995 movie, despite of the game not sharing continuity with it). It was in fact listed by Game Informer some fifteen years after it's release as one of the best manga and anime-based games.
    • Another solid third-person shooter game was released in 2004 for PS2, based on the Stand Alone Complex series. The game allows you to play both as Kusanagi and Batou, and again uses the same voice actors as the anime. The game follows an original story, set between the first series and 2nd Gig.

  • The Gregory Horror Show game for the PS2 is a great and fun stealth/puzzle game. Sadly, it wasn't released in North America.

  • The Gundam franchise has a remarkable amount of bad licensed games, but some of them held out well enough. Probably the most famous games are the Gundam Vs Series, a Spiritual Successor to the Virtual-ON series developed by Capcom until 2010's Extreme Vs.
  • Hajime no Ippo's PlayStation 2/PlayStation Portable games are generally regarded as solid boxing video games. In fact, for some boxing fans, they are better than EA's popular Fight Night series for some features like deeper footwork or a simulation-like career mode where the player has to carefully manage the Player Character's abilities through a strict diet and training.
  • Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! for the Game Boy Color is a cute, colorful game for small children, with a relaxed atmosphere, Virtual Paper Dolls, and a "dance creator" mini-game... And one of the most awesome Adventure Games released on a handheld system ever. With clever puzzles, huge worlds to explore, an expansive "Ham-Chat" dictionary to compile for 100% Completion, and a heck of a lot of Extended Gameplay — including said "Ham-Jam" dance game, which is mightily addictive in its own way — it's exactly the sort of game that hardcore gamers would hail as a classic even today. You know, if it weren't for the Hamtaro license.

  • Hunter × Hunter's Game Boy Color game, Kindan no Hihou, is a solid Castlevania clone made by the same developers — in fact, it's better than many of Konami's own Castlevania Game Boy games.

  • Initial D Arcade Stage is one of the most popular arcade racing games to come from Sega since Daytona USA. The first three games reinvented arcade racing games, though the fourth game, Initial D Arcade Stage 4 gets very mixed reviews. Some hail it as a fresh reboot of the series, while others dislike it for having questionable physics and techniques such as the "penalty cancel".

  • The game Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask while not very spectacular, is a pretty fun RPG.
    • If for nothing else, it's worth a playthrough at least once for the interesting Dating-Sim like mechanic that lets you form a relationship with one of the main characters: a close friendship with a character of the same gender or a potential romantic relationship with one of the opposite.
    • Similarly, InuYasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale is a pretty good fighter, only a better soundtrack and more characters away from being exceptional.

  • Jump Ultimate Stars is a decent Platform Fighter, based on Shonen Jump's many franchises (especially from late '90s to mid-00s) that garnered a sizable fanbase to the point that it was one of the most played games on Nintendo WFC while it was active.

  • In its 25 year and counting run, it makes sense that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure would have a few games, and most are pretty good, starting with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, the fighting game everyone remembers that started the ZA WARUDO! meme. The game itself was a fast, frenetic Capcom fighter in the vein of Darkstalkers with tight controls, interesting fighting styles based around Stands and amazing music. In the 2000's, Capcom also released a beat-em-up based on Part 5, (Golden Wind), a straight up Boss Game that took you to each fight in the Part and lets you play as just about everyone. The fighting is fun and every level is filled with little references to the manga, and yes, amazing music.
    • And in 2013, CyberConnect2 (Naruto Shippuden below, Asura's Wrath) released a new fighting game that spans the entire story, with characters from every part. Filled with thousands of nuances towards the manga (every animation is a reference to the manga) and amazing music. And it is the absolute best of all of them. How good? The game managed to score a perfect 40/40 in Famitsu - the first licensed game EVER to do so, and one of only 21 games in the magazine's history to manage so.
      • However, its inclusion of Microtransactions in its online mode for extra lives (the mode itself was used to unlock alternate colors, costumes, and battle quotations; although payment was not necessary, the early restoration rate was at 1 out of 10 per 20 minutes) killed it in Japan, with first editions of its limited edition pack, which included a gold etching, selling for less than the standard edition at release.
      • Thankfully, the microtransaction section of the game was made much more forgiving. Still, the fact that they exist is a common criticism amongst Western reviewers, on top of the fact that when compared to other fighters like BlazBlue and Street Fighter, it's not as deep.

  • Namco makes good Keroro games: The first Keroro game for the Nintendo DS, which is based on the fourth movie, is essentially a quite good Klonoa clone with more characters. Namco later made Keroro RPG, which is a cartoony Tales of Hearts with a lacking story but a solid, enjoyable battle system improved upon its predecessor, even fixing its camera problems. You would think they would cut corners for this game, but far from it, it has everything expected in a Tales game: skits, costumes, bonus bosses, lots of cameos from other Namco games, Hi-Ougis, Hard and Unknown difficulty... Both games have gorgeously animated sprites.

  • Starting with the first PlayStation, the Leijiverse got a bunch of high-quality video games. Space Battleship Yamato got two different video game trilogies — the first is an original adaptation of the first two seasons / films plus a side story for the original PlayStationnote  done as a genre mashup (Real-Time with Pause close ship combat, Turn-Based Strategy space movement / combat, and optional Turn-Based Tactics / action away team sections), and the second is an Alternate Continuity retelling of the third and fourth movies note  done as a Real-Time Strategy fleet simulator with some Third-Person Shooter sections.

  • Lupin III: Treasure of the Sorcerer King was the only Lupin game to reach America. It's also a decent Metal Gear Solid wannabe. Sure the controls were wonky and enemy AI was crappy. But fans liked the use of the Geneon cast, the kickass music, the ability to play as Jigen & Goemon and the writing was good, too. The game itself got two slightly better sequels with Columbus no Isan wa Akenisomaru and Lupin ni wa Shi o, Zenigata ni wa Koi o, the latter only exported to Italy.

  • The Macross series itself has seen a number of passable to good Japanese releases. Scrambled Valkyrie for the Super Famicom comes to mind.

  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable The Battle of Aces won't win any Game of the Year awards, but it's a fun 3D fighter nevertheless. Pity about the lack of playable Arf or Yuuno...
    • Then The Gears of Destiny proved to be an Even Better Sequel, having a character roster that is almost as twice as big as the previous one (including those two said characters), and there are a lot of improvements that make the first game look rather bad in comparison.

  • Magical Taruruuto-kun's NES games are decent Super Mario Bros. 3 clones, especially the first one.

  • Magic Knight Rayearth had an RPG adaptation on the Saturn, which is a fairly good example of the genre.

  • The Miracle Girls game is often regarded as a pretty decent time-waster platformer with nice colorful graphics, solid puzzles, very upbeat and catchy music, with the short length (it's only five stages long) and general easiness being minor issues.

  • The Famicom Platform Game based on Mitsume ga Tooru, with highly colorful graphics resembling Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu.

  • Shinji Mizushima, the creator of enormously popular Baseball manga like Yakyū-kyō no Uta, Dokaben or Abu-san, got two solid Massive Multiplayer Crossover video games: The first one is the Capcom-developed Mizushima Shinji no Daikoushien for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the baseball equivalent of Tecmo's highly popular Captain Tsubasa video games (see above). The second one is the multi-platform Gekitō Pro Yakyū, developed by Sega AM1/Wow Entertainment, which mixes a realistic sports simulator engine with players from the 2003 Pro Yakyū season and 35 cel-shaded characters from Mizushima's various manga, all of them with their trademark fantastic pitches and hits.

  • The Naruto: Ultimate Ninja (PlayStation 2) and Naruto: Clash of Ninja Fighting Games (GameCube/Wii) are also surprisingly good. (Ninja Council, on the other hand...)
    • Not to mention Rise of a Ninja on the 360, which is considered the best Naruto game yet, as well as a genuinely good game on its own merits.
    • Its sequel The Broken Bond has been even more accepted.
      • Rather notably, the above two games were made by Ubisoft, which is a pretty strong precedent for a western game developer to take an anime license and really make it shine.
    • The Ultimate Ninja Storm games by CyberConnect2 (Who also made the regular Ultimate Ninja games) are considered to be even better, especially the second one which has some of the highest ratings of any Anime licensed game out there.
      • Later Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm games have been considered by some to be a better manga adaptation than the anime, as they've been outpacing the anime and having a cinematic quality to their story modes while the anime has been bogged down by filler and plagued with low-budget animation.
      • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is considered by some to improve on the manga itself, due to some well-received Adaptation Expansion. One thing that gets particular praise is Naruto and Sasuke actually getting to complete their battle with Madara prior to him getting backstabbed by Black Zetsu and replaced by Kaguya.
    • The Shippuden game has been renowned even by people who aren't interested in Naruto at all, particularly for the tag-out fighting style and surprising amount of Scenery Porn and well-utilized Cel Shading.
    • While the first Naruto: Ninja Council game wasn't very well-received, Ninja Council 2 & 3 were rather well-received by many critics, and are considered improvements over the first game.
    • While Naruto: Ninja Destiny was not very well received due to the lack of content outside of story, single player, arcade and multiplayer modes, a small roster, very short story mode, very little replay value, muddy graphics and poor gameplay mechanics, the sequel, Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Destiny 2 fixed all the problems the first game had, by having over 30 playable characters (including all the characters from the first game), more replay value, a longer story (complete with an exploration element, RPG style encounters and even side quests where you can unlock characters), better graphics, improved gameplay mechanics and tons of extra modes, like a dungeon crawler mode and even an endless survival mode. Due to all of the improved changes, the game was rather well-received by many, and has a 4.8 out of 5 rating on Google, and a 7.5 out of 10 rating on IGN.
      • The third game in the series improved even more on the first and second games, by improving the combat even more, adding a lot more playable characters (including the first 4 Hokages), adding a fun tailed beast battle mode and having more stages to play on. Sadly it was never released outside of Japan.

  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • The N64 game isn't without flaws (excessive button mashing among them), but overall it's still a pretty amazing game; the soundtrack consists of 20-odd tracks from the anime all of which are done very well; several of the Angel battles from the show were adapted in a way that works very well for each individual mission, its visuals are of consistently good quality, and while it doesn't seem to have a consistent measure of difficulty between missions even on the same setting, it overall is very fun to play, and definitely comes recommended. Shame it wasn't released anywhere except Japan.
    • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Battle Orchestra is a Platform Fighter in a similar vein to Super Smash Bros.. It's very rough around the edges, but is quite fun.
    • The Ayanami Raising Project games, especially the Updated Re-release versions for DS and PS2 with an unlockable Asuka mode. The player takes on the role of a 2nd Lieutenant at NERV and is assigned as Rei's (or Asuka's) guardian, which means interacting with the girl and managing her weekly schedule (periodically interrupted by the Angel battles from the anime). The games are adorable and highly immersive, and have lots of replay value thanks to the multiple endings, personalities and outfits that Rei and Asuka can take on. It helps that every line of dialogue is fully voiced by the seiyuu from the anime.

  • A few One Piece games, such as Grand Battle as well as Grand Adventure. The fighting is addictively fun.
    • And those aren't the only ones. While most One Piece games haven't seen a release overseas, they're genuinely fun to play regardless, ranging from role-playing games, mini-game mashups, and even a dungeon crawler with Tony Tony Chopper as the main character is on the WonderSwan Color.
    • Additionally, Unlimited Adventure was a pretty good Survival RPG/Beat 'em Up, with its own unique level up and item creation systems. Sadly, possibly due to how behind the US release is, it's also the only game dubbed with the Funimation cast.
    • And Unlimited Cruise (1 and 2) isn't just a good licensed game, it's a good game overall, with ratings ranging from 7 to 10.

  • Patlabor had a decent PlayStation video game adaptation that captures the franchise's combat well enough. The story is also a follow-up to the movie/TV version.

  • Konami released two games in Japan based on the fifth chapter of Osamu Tezuka's manga Phoenix. While the Famicom game, subtitled Gaou no Bouken, was a mediocre platformer, the MSX2 game was a Vertical Scrolling Shooter which intriguingly defied the linearity typical of the genre.

  • This may not fully count, but Pokémon Yellow was heavily influenced by the anime adaption of the original video games. It took the original gameplay, but started you out with Pikachu, made all 3 starter Pokémon available in-game, had several appearances by Jessie and James as mini-bosses, and there was even a secret surfing minigame based off of the episode "The Pi-Kahuna" (though you needed a Pikachu that knew Surf, only obtainable from Nintendo events or Pokémon Stadium. The Virtual Console version has the minigame fully playable, without Pikachu needing to know Surf). To top it all off, every Pokémon received new sprites that resembled their anime appearances as well as being leaps and bounds better-looking than the originals. In addition, there are several moves and other elements that were also inspired by the anime, such as Pokémon learning or being able to learn new moves. This included Charizard being able to learn Fly.

  • The Prince of Tennis's Smash Hit series for the PlayStation 2 are regarded as excellent arcade tennis video games with RPG Elements and unusual mechanics accurate to the manga as knocking out the opponents. The third entry, Saikyou Team o Kessei Seyo!, expands the matches from singles to doubles.

  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable is not only a fun part Visual Novel, part rogue-like with RPG elements videogame, it also works as the original anime's manual! Granted, the series's writer and artist were involved in its making, so much that what's in it is taken as canon by fans.

  • Queen's Blade: Spiral Chaos. Add in the unique features and you have a game that looks great, and is pretty well conceived.

  • Ring ni Kakero for the Super Nintendo is a decent adaptation of the boxing manga's most famous arcs, done as a sim-like cinematic video game in the vein of the Captain Tsubasa and Yu Yu Hakusho games also mentioned on this page. The over-the-top action is ripped off of the original source's most iconic scenes: the characters vibrantly show their special punches, the damaged fly through the arena and through the crowds (and if particularly unlucky, to the floor's spotlights, or out of the venue) to later valiantly rise from the mat or run to it, the missed punches are strong enough to tear through clothing, flesh, mat or even walls, the crowds cheer passionately for their idols to power them up (at least until they're collateral damage), and the Flashbacks, thoughts and keepsakes amplify the character's fighting spirit — also, the story mode faithfully reproduces important scenes between / during fights that can't be portrayed with the gameplay. Interestingly enough, it was the only adaptation of the manga in any medium until the anime came out roughly seven years later, which would adapt the exact same arcs that the game did. The biggest problems of the game are the lack of balance among the less-important characters, and its relatively late release on the console's cycle.

  • Robotech: The Macross Saga for the Game Boy Advance is an OK shmup. You can switch between Jet, Guardian, and Battloid modes, each of which has its own individual advantages (The jet is fast, but fires slowly, Guardian mode is slower, but fires faster and can touch the ground, and Battloid mode moves very slow, but can fire quickly in all directions.)
    • Robotech: Battlecry got generally favorable reviews, if I recall. While far from perfect, it is a decent and fun game.

  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms' manga adaptation Tenchi o Kurau had all their games done by Capcom: pretty much every one of them, even in different genres, are great on their own.

  • Rurouni Kenshin's PlayStation game, Juuyuushi Inbou Hen, is regarded as the best game based on the series, since the rest are an average Hack and Slash and poor fighting games. It's an RPG with an original story where the cast of the show fights against the Sanada Ten Braves, and the combat system is based on Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors swordfights where the player character can have an advantage after successfully reading ahead the enemies'actions.

  • Most of the Sailor Moon video games are either fun-but-mediocre or downright bad. Sailor Moon: Another Story for the SNES, however, is a genuinely engaging RPG that manages to seamlessly meld the continuities of the anime and manga. It's horrendously easy, but there's such great attention to detail in terms of characters and settings that you can't help but not care.
    • The arcade beat 'em up is also great; the sprites are amazing and executing a special attack yields an animation plus voice acting of a Senshi performing said attack.
    • The RPG also had voice acting for every one of the Senshi's special attacks that appeared in the anime to that point in the series and a few that were from the manga. Considering it was a SNES game it was rather decent.

  • The Japan only Samurai Pizza Cats game was a well-designed platformer involving switching between different characters and using their abilities to progress.

  • While pretty much every single Shaman King game ranged from "awful" to "passable", Shaman King: Master of Spirits for the GBA is a fun, addictive Metroidvania-style game with great gameplay, great graphics and a fun little original plot; the producers were obviously careful when making the game, as they inserted both manga-only characters/spirits and anime-only characters/spirits. The game is great for long-time fans and newcomers alike, complete recommendation. The sequel, Master of Spirits 2, was not as loved due to reusing almost every single boss from the first game with the exception of the final boss, swapping Magister with Hao, but had more spirits and new stages, and is also worth checking. Ironically, they are one of the few examples of Japanese-developed games based on an anime that didn't make in their own home country.

  • Space Adventure Cobra got a great Light Gun Game adaptation for arcades, which is basically a Spiritual Successor to Time Crisis made by the same developers, but with even wilder stages thanks to the manga's sci-fi setting. The only true problem was that it was rather expensive when it was released, and the game's bonus features required a purchasable memory card.

  • The Spider Riders card-and-dice-battle browser game was extremely well-regarded, with petitions still popping up now and then for the game to be relaunched. It was actually far more well-received than the anime itself was.

  • Strider (Arcade), the Capcom-made side-scroller with the futuristic ninja, is very loosely based on a manga which Capcom co-produced with the intention of adapting it into a game. Don't feel bad if you didn't know...you're not alone on that. The character Strider Hiryu is jointly owned by Capcom and the Moto Kikaku manga studio, which is why he has no problems appearing in the company's crossover titles.

  • Most games by Banpresto, most prominently Super Robot Wars, Another Century's Episode (produced in collaboration with From Software), and the Gundam Vs Series (the latter done with Capcom). It helps that BP is a subsidiary of Bandai, the studio that actually makes Gundam and several other of the shows featured in these series—and all this before Bandai merged with Namco, too. Now, not every series is done especially well all the time, but if they mess up with one, expect that another series will be done magnificently well in the same game.
    • Super Robot Wars is so good that they arguably made at least one anime plot better. The SRW version of Gundam SEED Destiny has both sides manipulated into thinking the other side has been corrupted, due to footage of them either taking money from the Earth Alliance or killing civilians.

  • Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment is a surprisingly enjoyable action-RPG based on the anime series, featuring deep mechanics (it's a remake of the rather bland and rushed Infinity Moment) and an interesting What If? story that provides the basis of a series of Alternate Continuity games, the Vita version's "Blind Idiot" Translation and PS4 port's performance issues notwithstanding.
    • It was followed by several sequels following through the alternate continuity, culminating with the very well received Fatal Bullet (the adaptation of GGO story arc) and Integral Factor (the remake of the first story arc) during its fifth anniversary of the video game version of SAO.

  • Tatsunoko vs. Capcom was so well-received that Capcom defied No Export for You and released it internationally despite the tricky licenses, something which other anime crossover games rarely dare to do.

  • Tensai Bakabon's Sega Mark III/Master System game is well-regarded among fans for its decent platforming gameplay and a chaotic story that fits the series' tone. It also got a Nintendo Hard Mario-like game for the NES, Heisei Tensai Bakabon, which is remarkable for trying to do a platforming game with an out-of-shape 40-year old protagonist that plays exactly like he should - running in a realistic (and sloppy) way, getting damaged if he runs too fast to a wall, struggling to climb, getting Falling Damage, etc.

  • The PlayStation 2 Tetsujin 28 video game reuses the same engine as Remote Control Dandy and Robot Alchemic Drive with a few modifications, such as flight and grappling. While the story mode is rather shallow, the game engine is an extremely fun first person AND third person giant robot fighting game, as the "remote control" gameplay of the developer's previous games was probably inspired by Tetsujin to start with.

  • The Time Bokan meta-series got two fun and colorful Crossover Shoot 'Em Up games for the PlayStation/Saturn starring Yatterman's iconic Terrible Trio driving the franchise villains' vehicles (and their own tandem bike) while facing each hero's cornucopia of cartoony robots.

  • Tokyo Mew Mew's PlayStation game is very loved by the fandom, and with good reason. An accessible and competent RPG with solid gameplay, gorgeous 2D sprites and animations, a nice original plot (featuring a God-Created Canon Foreigner who went on to become a fandom darling), plus Relationship Values (of the non-romantic variety... mostly) to make the experience feel like a legitimate episode of the show. It was sadly never released stateside (as the PS1 was long dead by the time Mew Mew left Japan) and no fan translations exist as of the time of this writing, but is an absolute must play for any fan who can get around the language barrier.

  • The Ultimate Muscle Nintendo GameCube fighter (and to a lesser extent the PS2 version) is generally considered above average and came out of left field for some reviewers considering how obscure the license was compared to anime licenses like Dragon Ball and Naruto.
    • That's largely because it was developed by wrestling game masters AKI, creators of the legendary N64 WCW and WWE games.
    • Though only available in Japan, the Kinnikuman Muscle Grand Prix games are very good fighters also developed by AKI.

  • Urusei Yatsura: Dear My Friends, a point-and-click Adventure Game for the Sega CD by Game Arts, greatly impressed anime fans, at least those with passing knowledge of spoken and written Japanese.

  • The Violinist of Hameln has a Super Famicom release (yes, it's Japan-exclusive), and it's actually quite good. One notable mechanic is Flute's ability to don costumes in order to help her and Hamel cross obstacles like Spikes of Doom. You can also throw Flute at your enemies if you don't want to kill them with musical notes instead.

  • Wangan Midnight is another successful licensed racing game; lately it's gotten more attention than Initial D (Initial D requires more expertise, plus it costs more to obtain and 'tune' a car in Initial D); Then again, most fans don't even know it's based off a long-running manga series. Some fans even think that the anime and manga are based off the games and not the other way around.

  • While most of the YuYu Hakusho games are fairly derivative fighting games, Yu Yu Hakusho / Special for the Super Nintendo are Genre-Busting cinematic fighting games with solid gameplay. Likewise, Treasure's Yu Yu Hakusho Makyō Tōitsusen had a very innovative fighting game engine with the possibility of simultaneous four-way matches.

  • Zillion, a fairly good Metroid-like game for the Sega Master System, was loosely based on an anime. It only barely counts as a licensed game, since the anime was co-produced by Sega and was made to promote a Sega toy (which not coincidentally resembles the Light Phaser).

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