As the One Piece anime series continues to get bigger and bigger in the US, Namco Bandai is dead set on releasing the old One Piece Japanese games. Now don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing that these One Piece games are finally coming to the US, and it's perfectly understandable why it's taken so long to bring the One Piece titles over here, but playing a game that's several years old can cause problems.

D3 Publishing has already run into issues with its Naruto titles, releasing games that are several years old and already have much superior versions available in Japan. However, Namco Bandai has been relatively lucky, only releasing One Piece: Grand Battle thus far. While that series is already up to its third installment in Japan (or fourth depending on how you want to look at it), Grand Battle is just a fun party game instead of a serious fighter like the D3 Naruto titles.

Namco Bandai dodges another aging bullet by announcing the spring release of One Piece: Pirates' Carnival for the PlayStation 2. The game hit Japan back in November, and will be coming to the US in April. That's typically faster than it takes most games to be translated and shipped to the US market. But even if Pirates' Carnival had been an older game, the gameplay would still remain intact.

The best way to describe Pirates' Carnival is with a direct comparison to Mario Party. This is Mario Party with the One Piece crew of pirates instead of Mario and his gang. Pirates' Carnival features over 30 mini-games to participate in with up to four player action if you own a PS2 multi-tap. In Japan, the game was sold with the multi-tap in addition to a solo version for people who already owned a multi-tap, but it seems unlikely that the same thing will happen in the US. So if you don't already own a multi-tap and you're looking for some four player action, you may want to start searching for one.

When you first kick off Pirates' Carnival you'll have to unlock most of the mini-games. This is done by playing through multiple game boards. Just like Mario Party you'll need to travel around the game board, playing the various mini-games to unlock them. Some of the game boards can take several hours to clear, but you can save your progress after any turn. Once you've unlocked a mini-game, it can be played by itself without having to go through the board game interface to get to it.

If you're looking for a One Piece title that mimics the graphic style of the anime, you'd better start asking Namco Bandai to bring Fighting for One Piece to the US. Every other One Piece console game features super deformed character models, and Pirates' Carnival is no different. Still, even with the super deformed characters, the game maintains the feel of the anime, with each mini-game taking a bit from the anime. Everything should feel very familiar to fans of the show.

Namco Bandai has been quick to bring One Piece: Grand Battle and Pirates' Carnival to the US, so we can only hope to see Grand Battle 3 and possibly Fighting for One Piece by the end of the year. With the Electronic Entertainment Expo coming up, anything can happen. In the meantime, One Piece: Pirates' Carnival should keep fans of the series happy until more titles are released. However, if you're not a fan of Mario Party, you may have to just stick with Grand Battle for now. We'll have a full review of Pirates' Carnival next month.