JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R Reviews

Steam Deck is by far the best way to play JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R!

The best video game adaptation of the wildest manga property gets a better-than-average port. For Jojo's fans only, though.

There’s something about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure that just fascinates me. I never know if that anime is the single most ridiculous shonen ever made, intentionally or not. I never know if it’s meant to make fun of the ridiculousness of the genre, or if it’s just oblivious to how unsubtle it is. I am not the biggest shonen fan out there, yet I fell for this dumb series. You can thank Netflix and other streaming services for that, as well as word of mouth. Given the franchise’s resurge...

The options on offer here are pretty standard fare. Arcade, VS, Practice and “All Star Battle” is sort of your “Story” mode where you get to work your way through a bunch of scenarios. For example, fighting a character who replenishes their life periodically. It’s an interesting spin on a more traditional story mode but clearly takes some inspiration from Street Fighter Alpha 3’s World Tour mode. Which is never a bad thing.Overall JoJo is a pretty solid fighter and a pretty good upgraded port to boot. Some may find the price somewhat prohibitive given the semi-bare bones modes on offer combined with the fact that we are ultimately talking about a port of a niche near decade old fighter, but if you can look past that, there’s fun to be had. Jo Jo Manga/Anime fans should definitely be giving this a go.

Expanding the modes, adding new characters, more customization options, and improved netcode would do wonders for All-Star Battle R. As it stands, this game is still a love letter to JoJo and worth picking up for fans of the franchise or anyone with fighting game chops looking to branch out.

Having JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle-R as an updated remaster of a classic in 2022 is a good thing, with the refined combat and huge roster being huge pluses. Still, it could have been a much more satisfying product if the online components were given the same attention to detail. While it may not match up against the best of modern fighting games out there, fans will get much more out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle-R, and there's no arguing when you can have a good time.

As a vibrant and energetic revamp of a nine-year-old fighting game, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R succeeds in breathing new life into something quite niche, with meaningful tweaks to its fighting system, new features, and more, giving it a well deserved second chance.

Despite dropping the ball in one of the most important categories for a modern fighting game, this is a fighting game that stands out from the pack, plays great, and honors its source material more than it needed to, and that certainly counts for something.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R should please fans of the anime and manga series with its stylized graphics, huge roster, and outrageous fighting action.

Negatives aside, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is a wonderful remaster with great visuals and aesthetics, smooth gameplay, and tons of content that JoJo fans will especially appreciate. And while the game is mainly tailored toward series fans, I believe it still offers an experience most fighting game fans will enjoy as long as they don’t play online or expect any cohesive narrative or story mode based on the franchise.

Given the size of the fighting game's roster, players might not be too keen on limiting themselves to the predetermined matches of All-Star Battle Mode. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R did not stop at the major characters like Jotaro Kujo and Dio Brando; it's included much deeper cuts, including more bizarre inclusions like the Stand-wielding bird Pet Shop. Also present are multiple versions of characters; Part 2 protagonist Joseph Joestar is included, as is his older incarnation from Part 3. The roster size is very impressive, and each character feels distinct, even from their alternate selves where applicable. Each character's identity in the story informs their style in the game; Stand users are able to summon and dismiss their Stand at will, changing their movesets, while wielders of Hamon charge this ancient power and use it to fuel their most powerful moves.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is the Jojo game that the world needs right now. While the online offerings are slim, this is still a love-letter to the original series and is packed head-to-toe with references, callbacks, and unforgettable moments. It's easy to grab a friend and appreciate the additions to the roster and changes to gameplay offline. It's even easier, if you're a Jojo fan, to boot the game up and smile ear-to-ear seeing how much attention to detail has been put into the game. If you're a Jojo fan, you need this video game.

For JoJo fans, this remaster is likely to be very welcome indeed. It takes a solid fighting game that arrived towards the end of the PS3’s life and not only enhances it, but also expands upon it. The result is a game that looks a bit dated visually, but still has a hell of a lot to offer, especially for those happy to simply play against the CPU or another local player. Ultimately, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R may not quite have the pizzazz to compete with the modern fighting game elite, but it certainly puts on a good show.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle is a worthwhile experience for fighting game fans, JoJo fans, and fighting game JoJo fans. It’s not the deepest or most cohesive package around, but it doesn't need to be -- it was crafted with the fans in mind.

The game clearly holds a lot of reverence for its subject matter, and if you happen to be a Jojo's fan, the level of detail that's gone into each cel-shaded character model and attack animation will almost certainly get your nostalgia senses tingling. But if you approach All-Star Battle as a fighting game first and foremost, you'll discover a satisfyingly complex combat system with a few lacklustre modes. Not a 10, then, but this Jo is far from average.