PlayStation 5 Critic Reviews

Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact knows its place in the fighting game food chain, and thrives within it. With a fun and crazy battle system, Nen Impact offers plenty of fun for fighting game fans looking for something fresh in the current market.

Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact might not be a looker and would be laughed out the door for more lore-focused anime games, but it manages to just about come around as soon as you sit down to play it. Eighting’s incredible fighting prowess is doing all of the heavy lifting here and, while it’s a shame the low-budget hampers Nen x Impact from being a top-tier game, it’s still a good time. Just don’t expect to learn anything about the series if you’re a newcomer.

Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact doesn't really value the rich material it adapts, resulting in limited narrative structures and mediocre visuals, but the traditional 2D gameplay and accessible controls, even without any creative innovation, make the experience fun enough to give it a try.

The animations are excellent, combat feels satisfying, and the offline modes offer solid content. But all of that is overshadowed by the lack of balance, a limited character roster, and—most notably—a problematic multiplayer experience (which, to be fair, is expected to improve over time). In the end, Nen x Impact is a decent adaptation, but one riddled with flaws, still far from capturing the depth of Togashi’s manga.

Hunter x Hunter Nen x Impact is a fast-paced and accessible 2.5D 3v3 fighting game that fans of the franchise in particular might want to check out. Well, as long as they're happy either playing with friends locally or digging into its single-player modes. When it comes to matchmaking, it can be hard to find matches, and when you do, there can be issues that spoil the fun.

Somewhere inside Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact there’s a fantastic game waiting to shine. Unfortunately, a sparse character roster, minimal single-player content, and a lackluster online experience so far keep it from truly standing out. I sincerely hope the post-launch content can polish things up a bit — even if it’s just for the few hardcore players who’ll stick around that long. As it stands, the game doesn’t offer enough single-player content to convert Hunter x Hunter fans into fighting game players, nor is it polished enough to satisfy those who already are.

Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact is an accessible and highly entertaining 2D fighting game, but as a product, it suffers from an alarming lack of content and passion for the license.

Each character has a unique move set, like Gon’s fishing rod and Razor’s volleyball spikes. There’s genuine variety to the roster too, from the quick and nimble Killua to the tricky Misoka (this author’s personal favourite). But with just 16 characters at launch, the three-on-three gameplay format feels seriously stretched, and you’ll be seeing a lot of repeated faces even during a simple arcade run...There’s not much to the game either. The story mode, which glosses over the events from the anime, basically acts as an extended tutorial, and will take you less than an hour or so to beat. Outside of that you’re left with Time Attack, Combo Trials, and the Heavens Arena, which is basically just a renamed survival mode.

Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact is the series' first globally released game and brings fun 3v3 gameplay with strong presentation and solid training tools. However, it's held back by questionable design choices like awkward offline modes, a lack of motion inputs, an 8-button control scheme not friendly to arcade stick/hitbox users, and no cross-play. It's completely out of step with modern fighting game standards, and while the game does have potential, it needs major updates to fully satisfy both casual fans and competitive players.

Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact is more jank than janken. Maybe a definitive edition with DLC characters will become a fun distraction for Hunter x Hunter fans that also play fighting games, but in its current state it’s hard to recommend to anyone.