REVIEW: ‘My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero,’ – A Fun, If Messy Ride, With Class 1-A (iOS)

My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero is a free-to-play action game from Sony Pictures Television Games and FUNimation. The students of Class 1-A have gotten their provisional licenses and are ready to help protect their community from villains. But to go PLUS ULTRA apparently takes a lot of resource management and unclear menu navigation.

At the heart of My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero is a fun third-person view action game that allows the players to take control of Deku and some of My Hero Academia‘s other iconic characters in bite-sized brawling missions that embrace the fun and positivity of the show. Each character comes with several different powers that feel true to the show’s depiction of them, while also making sure each feels unique from the others in terms of playstyle. Whether the player is using Iida’s Recipro to pummel enemies with a flurry of kicks or hovering overhead as Uraraka raining debris down on her foes, every hero plays in a unique and fun manner. Unfortunately, this fun is somewhat obfuscated by a layer of poorly explained menus and directives.

Initially, players are dropped into the city with control of the series hero Deku. Pro heroes are ready to give Deku missions to complete around the city. There is an auto navigate feature to direct you to where you need to go, and the game definitely seems to expect you to use it. Manuel control can be a chore as many areas that look like they should be passable are not. There are also other maps the player has to eventually travel to like UA High and the trashed beach from season one of the show. Since the mission point for these objectives isn’t in the city no waypoint presents itself. There isn’t even one showing where the travel point to go to the new map is. You must use the auto travel the first time you go to one of these locales or run around the map blindly till you stumble across it.

Also presenting an all too familiar hurdle is the overly cluttered menu My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero puts in front of players. With over a dozen tabs present that runs the gambit from screens for managing your heroes, to doing training missions, or managing a dorm room, to all the usual microtransaction offers, there is a lot put in front of the player, and much of it is either poorly explained or in some cases not touched on at all. I’m at level 21 in the game and I’m 99% sure they still haven’t explained the point of the dorm yet.

The good news is My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero lets you ignore most of it if you wish. You can let the computer guide you through the city to each mission, it will tell you when your heroes need leveling before entering a battle so you can be ready for each fight, rinse and repeat. Aside from accessing some consumables and recruiting new heroes the game will take the player through all the steps they have to do. But if you are someone that likes to get the most out of your game, there will be some rough spots for you as you puzzle out what you need to do and when.

On a brighter note, so far in my time with My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero I have felt no need to spend a dime on microtransactions. a steady flow of resources have kept me able to level my heroes and a generous amount of earned recruit opportunities have allowed me to expand my roster of characters. Of course, if you have your heart set on the harder-to-pull characters like All-Might, Bakugo, or Yaoyurozu you will probably need to open your wallet or be extremely patient.

The one element of the microtransactions I absolutely hate is how the game pushes it in your face even during gameplay.  No matter what is happening on screen you may occasionally see a small banner appear near the top at random times. This banner will inform you when another player has pulled a particularly rare item such as a 6-star character or other rare pull. While it never got in the way of my view of a battle the fact that they try to pressure you by letting you know someone else just pulled X character is more than a little off-putting.

The final aspect of My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero we need to talk about is the visuals. While the visuals do a great job leaning into the feeling and energy of the show, the quality could definitely be better. Other mobile offerings in the same vein as this game deliver a much more polished look to them. The visuals aren’t bad, but I’ve definitely seen better. And given what a huge brand My Hero Academia is I would’ve hoped for better.

The one exception to my above complaint is during training sequences. When in the training screens the chosen character model is replaced with an adorable chibi version of the character as they chow down on meals to build up their energy, followed by the exercises that allow them to level up. Seeing an adorable chibi Kirishima working the weights, or Asui chugging along on the treadmill is almost an award unto itself.

So at the end of the day My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero provides a fun if sometimes confusing romp through the world of the popular series. I’m overall enjoying my time with the game as the short burst mission structure lets me get a fix of some of my favorite heroes in training.

My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero is available on iOS and Android devices.