By
Yuliya Geikhman
Published 32 minutes ago
Yuliya Geikhman has been writing professionally for over 17 years. She started out in the MMO scene with Pando Media Booster and now dives into everything gaming at Screen Rant. She's a lifelong gamer, a relentless industry sleuth, and a passionate follower of everything happening in the games industry.
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Sometimes, when a video game does very well, it receives an anime spinoff. The most famous example of this is the Pokémon franchise, which began as a video game before turning into a worldwide anime phenomenon. But other times, the opposite is true—an idea begins as a beloved anime and is turned into a video game, so fans can actually interact with it.
In most cases, these anime-to-video game adaptations miss the mark and lean too hard into fan service and not enough into gameplay. Occasionally, the games check all the right boxes and turn out to be pretty great, even for non-fans. Not all video games that started as anime are worth playing, but these 10 are.
Bleach: The Blade of Fate Had Online Multiplayer
The Highest Rated Of The Bleach Games
There have been half a dozen Bleach games, and they all bring something different to the table. Because of this, no one seems to agree on which is the "best." The Blade of Fate is the highest-rated on Metacritic with a score of 83, so it gets to headline this section. It was a 2006 title for the Nintendo DS that, unusually for the console, featured online multiplayer.
The Bleach games stay true to their subject matter, so fans of the anime tend to like the games even if they don't succeed critically. Other popular Bleach titles that fans love include The Dark Souls and Soul Resurrection (despite the abysmal ratings).
Spy × Anya: Operation Memories Is Absolutely Adorable
Anya Goes On An Ooting
Anya Bond Mr Penguin and Director Chimera in Spy x Anya Operation Memories minigame
Lots of video game adaptations of anime are exciting and action-packed, and that certainly would have made sense for Spy x Family. After all, there's plenty of action to be found in an anime about a spy, an assassin, and a telepath pretending to be a happy family. SpyxAnya went in the opposite direction and landed on a cute and heartwarming game for a cute and heartwarming show.
Follow Anya through her daily life, from school to home and on weekend outings, snapping pictures of memorable moments to create a photo diary. It's not a perfect game, with reviews criticizing repetitive minigames and an overall lack of freedom, but it's a rare change of pace for anime-based games.
Astro Boy: Omega Factor Takes Notes From Megaman
Homage To A Classic Done Right
Astro Boy is widely regarded as the first true anime. Created in 1963 by the "father of anime," Osamu Tezuka, the sci-fi series went on to shape the medium and define what it means to be an "anime." Making a video game that lives up to this legacy isn't easy, but developers Treasure and Hitmaker managed to do it with the 2003 Game Boy Advance game, Astro Boy: Omega Factor.
The game followed in the footsteps of another robotic boy, Mega Man. The side-scrolling beat-'em-up was a good home for the titular Astro Boy, and the title was highly praised for its combat and visuals when it was released.
Gundam Breaker 4 Lets Players Create Nearly Anything
Mecha Model Building For Gundam Fans
There are over 250 video games based on the Gundam franchise, and their quality is hit or miss. Most of the games are based on piloting the giant Gundam mechs within one of the series' timelines. The Gundam Breaker series breaks the mold, pun intended, and focuses instead on the model-building aspect of the franchise.
Gundam Breaker 4 is a game based on a model kit based on an anime—a concept which also has its own anime in the Gundam Build Fighters series. This is as meta as you can get!
The 2024 Gundam Breaker 4, developed by Crafts & Meister and published by Bandai Namco, is a particular win among fans. The game gives players an unprecedented amount of creative freedom to build a nearly unlimited number of Gundam model kit designs, then throw them into combat.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Is A Fun Fighting Romp
Play As Your Favorite Naruto Character
Naruto is one of the most popular and beloved anime series of all time, so it's no surprise that it has its share of video game adaptations. The nature of the anime makes fighting games an obvious choice, and the Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm series of games capitalized on this beautifully.
Ultimate Ninja Storm threw players into a battle arena as their favorite Naruto characters and let them experience the power of the Jutsu. The games were meant to appeal more to Naruto fans than fighting game fans, but this focus works well and keeps the games focused on being love letters to their source materials.
The last game was released in 2020 as Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 - Road to Boruto, a title that rivals some light novel names.
Attack on Titan 2 Is A Fun Romp Through The Anime And Manga
Interact With Familiar Characters Like Never Before
A video game based on Attack on Titan was first released in 2016, two years after the first anime episode aired. The anime's huge success made it the perfect contender for a cash grab, but developer Omega Force's game didn't feel like one. The game took all the elements that made the anime so good and adapted them into a hack-and-slash game perfect for fans.
The 2018 sequel, Attack on Titan 2, did this even better. Instead of playing as known characters from the series, A.O.T.2 has players create their own character, then go through the first 50 chapters of the manga.
You get to interact with and fight alongside familiar faces in a way that feels like you've entered the anime. The end result is, as Metacritic user Cragger puts it, "hands down the best anime game ever made in the history of mankind."
One Piece Odyssey Is Just A Beautiful Game
Explore The Land With The Straw Pirates
One Piece Odyssey was released in 2023 by developer ILCA and publisher Bandai Namco. The RPG has you lead the Straw Hat Crew as Luffy into a new adventure through a strange new land in the One Piece world. The game plays like a mix of Dragon Quest and the Yakuza series, with combat that's satisfying but often criticized as too simple.
Where the title really shines is in the visuals. The landscapes and characters all look absolutely stunning, making it a real treat to explore and interact with the world. This is a great example of a video game for fans who want to explore an anime world.
Digimon Story Time Stranger Is A Modern Hit
Digivolve Your Gaming Experience
The Digimon Story game series started in 2006 and ushered in a new age for Digimon games. Unlike previous Digimon titles, which focused on growing your Digimon, the Digimon Story games were more like a traditional RPG and told a story about the human-Digimon connection.
The 2025 title Digimon Story Time Stranger takes everything the previous games got right and brings it into the modern age. Like many anime video games, combat is on the simpler side, but the game more than makes up for it with gorgeous visuals and a fun story revolving around time travel. It's considered by many to be the best Digimon video game and one of the best anime video games, in general.
Dragon Ball FighterZ Is Still Going Strong
Support Continues After Almost A Decade
The Steam description for Dragon Ball FighterZ does a spectacular job of summing up why FighterZ remains one of the most beloved anime video games:
"DRAGON BALL FighterZ is born from what makes the DRAGON BALL series so loved and famous: endless spectacular fights with its all-powerful fighters."
And the game delivers on this promise, with awesome visuals that bring the anime to life in the form of a fighting game.
Even more impressively, Developer Arc System Works and publisher Bandai Namco are still supporting and updating the title many years after its 2018 release, making this a truly rare gem. At the time of this writing, FighterZ is still drawing an average of 500 - 1,500 daily players, which is very impressive for any nearly decade-old game, and especially for a game based on an anime.
Sailor Moon: Another Story Is How All Anime Games Should Be Done
It Received A Fan Localization Over 20 Years Later
Video game adaptations of anime aren't new, but adaptations that were actually good used to be harder to come by. The 1995 Super Famicom game Sailor Moon: Another Story was an exception to this rule. Over the years, the game has achieved cult classic status as one of the best anime games of all time.
The game followed the iconic team of magical girls on a new adventure in the form of a turn-based RPG. The game looked beautiful, and the writing matched the quality and style of the series, making it an instant hit.
You'll note that I said "Super Famicom" and not "SNES," because Another Story was never officially localized. English-speaking fans were still able to enjoy the game thanks to the (admittedly janky) 1999 fan translation. In 2023, a team of enthusiasts released a new, much more coherent translation and full localization in the form of a ROM update, as reported by Polygon.
Like Pokémon, the Sailor Moon name is known around the world. And now, Sailor Moon: Another Story can finally be enjoyed around the world as an outstanding anime-to-game adaptation.
Pokemon
Created by
Satoshi Taijiri, Ken Sugimori, Junichi Masuda
First Film
Pokemon: The First Movie
Latest Film
Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
First TV Show
Pokémon
First Episode Air Date
April 1, 1997
Current Series
Pokémon
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Pokemon
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