One Piece: Pirates’ Carnival

Join Luffy and his crew for a crazy adventure on the high seas.

JP release: 23rd November 2005
NA release: 12th September 2006
EU release: N/A
Developer: h.a.n.d.
Publisher: Bandai (JP), Namco Bandai (NA)
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: None

What happens when you want to make a cheap cash-in for an anime franchise but there’s already plenty of fighting games? Well, the main option are either a kart racer or a Mario Party clone. While One Piece stayed away from karting, they couldn’t stay away form having their go at Mario Party, complete with chibi style versions of characters you’ll often find in Mario Party clones (even though Mario Party itself didn’t do it).

The “board” is a grid of tiles. You select one and it turns over, which triggers a minigame (where the winner will win the spot) or grant you an event card and you’ll automatically win the space while getting to perform another action, such as making someone lose money or challenging another player to take over their tile (although everyone still plays the minigame).

The minigames themselves are rather bland, and you’ll encounter multiple similar ones (like knocking your opponents out of the ring). There are some 3 v 1 style games, but even in these everyone is actually working on their own, as there can only be one winner. It’s just a very cheap, low budget effort.

Poor

One Piece: Pirates’ Carnival feels like another “phone-it-in” anime game. The mini-games are boring, the Captain events feel tired and generic, and there’s no replay value to be found. Avoid it and save your money.
Karl Castaneda, Nintendo World Report

Remake or remaster?

Only in a complete One Piece collection.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get One Piece: Pirates’ Carnival