My Hero Ultra Rumble may be a latecomer to the Battle Royale scene, but that doesn’t mean the franchise can’t bring something new to the genre. From Bandai Namco Entertainment, My Hero Ultra Rumble takes the characters fans of My Hero Academia know and love and puts them into 24-player team-based battles that are sure to thrill fans and newcomers alike.
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The gameplay for My Hero Ultra Rumble is relatively straightforward, with eight teams of three players each competing to be the last team standing. Players can choose to play as either heroes or villains, and each character has their own unique quirks to use in battle as well as special actions to help their team. You can also have heroes and villains on the same team, which allows players to create their ultimate My Hero Academia dream team. Each character also has a specific role, which are labeled Assault, Strike, Technical, Support, or Rapid roles. The specific roles serve different offensive and defensive purposes, so team composition is really important if you want to be best equipped to win.
The quirks that each character has are the real powerhouse when it comes to combat. Every character has three quirk skills that do different types of damage depending on the character. Those skills can be leveled up throughout the game too, by picking up items across the map that are then used to make a specific quirk skill more powerful. I found this concept really interesting, and there was a noticeable difference in attack power when leveling up different skills. Players can also pick up items as well as abilities dropped by opponents to help make their character even more powerful and increase the chances of winning.
While the idea of special skills and items is not inherently unique, it is the introduction of civilians in each game that really makes My Hero Ultra Rumble stand out. Every time players load into a game, they are going to find a decent amount of civilians scattered throughout the map. Hero characters have the option to rescue these civilians, while villains can choose to intimidate them. Interacting with civilians can go a long way toward helping your team, but also leaves you completely vulnerable to attack. The high-risk high-reward mechanic adds an extra layer to the game that has a distinct My Hero Academia flair to it, which I greatly appreciated.
There is a lot to enjoy from what I’ve been able to play of My Hero Ultra Rumble so far, but not everything is great. Unfortunately, the game includes gacha mechanics that are typically prevalent in Japanese games. For now, these mechanics only provide cosmetic items, but players should be wary that pay-to-win items could potentially be introduced when the full game is released. It’s not a deal breaker, and it’s not even a new thing for Battle Royale games, but players who want to avoid any type of loot boxes in games should be aware going in that it is quite prevalent.
My Hero Ultra Rumble feels quite fun to play, and outside of my reservations about the gacha component of the game I really enjoyed my time with the closed beta. I am interested to see what new characters and maps will be added to the full game when it releases. Unique characters and new mechanics have plenty of potential to help refresh the Battle Royale genre a bit, and I can’t wait to see what the full game looks like.
My Hero Ultra Rumble will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC but there is currently no announced release date.
