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»Jump Ultimate Stars
"Who will be the last manga standing?"
There's a strong chance that gamers who play Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and Puyo Puyo are also fans of anime and manga as well. For this reason, the DS has become the portable system of choice among those who love their Japanese animation. Attend any anime convention and you're sure to find people using their DS to talk on PictoChat or having a quick race on Mario Kart DS in between anime showings. Anime fans, however, have mostly come away empty handed when looking for decent games based on their favorite series to play on their DS. This drought of anime games ended when Jump Super Stars was released in Japan. Its sequel, Jump Ultimate Stars, was released just last year and improved on virtually everything in Super Stars, making it a must have game for anime fans. Additionally, those looking for a good Smash Bros.-like experience for their DS that they can take online will find something here as well.
The Jump series features a plethora of characters and settings from the various series that make the most popular manga anthology in the world, Weekly Shonen Jump. Mainstream titles like Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Yu-Gi-Oh! are all present, but so are otaku favorites One Piece and Rurouni Kenshin, and even older 1980's titles that even the dedicated Jump fan may not recognize make an appearance. The game provides a way for people to enact the once rhetorical battle of Naruto versus Luffy, or an opportunity for Dragon Ball-haters to whip the pants off of Goku with their favorite Shonen character. In all, Ultimate Stars features 160 different characters from 27 different series, meaning that many different fans can find a character to choose they like to use in battle, and even more fun is granted to those who like multiple titles.
The game takes these popular characters and plops them into an arena where they'll duke it out Smash Bros.-style. Fans of the Super Smash Bros. series will notice at first glance that Jump took a big inspiration from Nintendo's brawler in how battles play out. Fighting is only half the fun of the game, however. The other half comes from the unique Deck Maker mode, and once players start to tinker around in it, they'll realize that Jump takes a completely new, and fresh, approach to fighting games.
Part of this innovation stems from the way it seeks to emulate the manga its characters and stages are based on. In order to fight a battle in any one of the game's modes, you'll need to make a "deck," a 4x5 grid, and fill it with "koma" or panels. Koma take up from as low as one space to as many as eight, and feature a character from one of the many manga series mentioned above. Koma are divided into three different categories: Help, Support, and Battle. Help koma are strictly one space, and when linked to a Battle koma, boost or strengthen that Battle koma. Help koma range from preventing certain status effects (for example, poison, blindness, shock, etc.) or increasing a Battle koma's health or special meter.
Support koma range from two to three spaces, and, when activated, summon the character featured on it who, based on which character and koma it is, does a multitude of actions, from simply attacking your opponent to powering up or healing your Battle character. Finally, Battle koma feature the characters you actually control and attack with and range from four to eight spaces, with the larger amount of spaces making the character stronger. While Help koma feature simply a character's face, Support and Battle koma feature a scene taken straight from the manga its character is from; fans who've read the manga will undoubtedly be able to recognize where and when in the series the scene took place, and this only adds to the manga atmosphere of the game. To summon your Support character or switch to another Battle character in your deck, you simply need to touch the koma on the bottom screen of the DS during battle, or press L or R if you've assigned that button to the koma in Deck Maker mode. You only need one of each type of koma to make a deck, but you'll probably want to fill your deck up if you want to stand a fighting chance. By the time you're finished, your deck will look like a page ripped out a manga.
The joy of the deck/koma system is the unbelievable amount of customization that comes with it. The player will have to make decisions on how they want to make their deck: will you have just one, eight space Battle character with many Help characters powering it up? Or will you opt to have many small spaced Battle characters with few Help and Support characters? Will you make a deck based solely on the characters you like, or use characters you've never seen before because you like their combos and special moves? Players will also have to decide which Battle koma for a character they'll want to use, since characters have multiple komas of different sizes. Each character's Battle koma have the same basic move set, but varies in strength and what their special moves are. Koma also come in different shapes, so you'll need to move them around on your deck to fit every one you want. There is literally an endless amount of different decks that can be produced.
The main modes of the game are standard in the fighting game repertoire. The main "J Universe" single player mode has you visiting different planets each based on a different series, much like Kingdom Hearts. Each planet has a set of missions and objectives that range from "KO an opponent with a special move" to "Never block." By completing these objectives, you'll unlock Help koma from that planet's series, and gain colored gems which you spend in "J Power" mode to evolve these Help koma into Support and Battle koma. J Power is also where you'll unlock stages, manga information, and a few other extras that can be viewed in your Database.
Once you've made a deck you think is good, you can test its strength in an online battle, one of the new features added to Ultimate Stars. You can either choose to fight in a free for all with three other random players, or play against your friends who you've added to your friend list using the DS Friend Code system. Finding people to play random battles against in Jump isn't as easy as finding people for Mario Kart, and, chances are, when you do get into a match, there'll be at least one Japanese player, which means there can be a considerable amount of lag. Even in friend battles, the lag can be considerably harsh, making it very frustrating to play. Online mode is really only playable when you don't have multiple computers on the same network taking up bandwidth. Playing lag-free, however, is one of the greatest joys of the game, and is what gives it a high replay value.
The game's presentation isn't eye popping; you won't find any CGI cut scenes, or intricately detailed 3D models and settings. Like its source material, however, Jump is colorful and vibrant. The cartoony graphics will instantly appeal to anime fans. The game's sound isn't anything special either. Though there are some catchy tunes that are easy on the ears, there's nothing here that would make you want to get the game's soundtrack.
Jump Ultimate Stars will never be released in America, due to licensing difficulties, so you'll have to import it, which can be very expensive. In addition, the game is also fairly text heavy, so if you can't read at least katakana, you're going to have to constantly rely on a FAQ to translate mission requirements and koma functions. The good news is, since the game's been out for almost a half month, FAQs are readily available, and there's already a large community centered on the game to help you out.
If you're a fan of any of the manga featured in the game, however, and own a DS, it's definitely worth it to import. Ultimate Stars is hands down the best anime-based game to come out since its predecessor, and there really isn't anything else that offers this shear amount of Japanese comic goodness available in America. Not only will you be able to enjoy playing as your favorite characters, but Jump has the unique ability to get even the one-manga pony interested in other Jump titles. Even Smash Bros. players can enjoy the game, with the koma system adding on that extra layer that they may feel is missing from their Nintendo fighters. With an endless amount of deck possibilities and online brawling, players will be duking it out happily for a long time to come...or at least until the next Jump game comes out.
Article by: Ultima Shadowfax
Posted on: May. 20th, 2007 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| The best game based on anime/manga ever. Each playable character is unique and has its own stringable combos. The deck making system is a great innovation and will keep players busy.
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Graphics |
| Nothing too flashy, but sharp and colorful. Manga scenes and character renditions are beautiful to look at. |
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Sound |
| Nothing special, but there are a few tracks that are enjoyable. |
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Replay Value |
| Jump is a game that fans will play until the next iteration in the series comes out. It will take a while unlock all the koma, stages and other secrets. Online mode ensures players will keep coming back for more, and use the infinitely customizable deck maker to try to be the best in the world. |
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Comments |
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September 29, 2007 |
Loser |
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Can anyone help me buy this game all my friends have this game accept for me and they all call me a loser and they wont talk to me until i get the game plz someone help me get the game i'll do anything for it even give my action replay for it plz
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January 27, 2008 |
Darkrai |
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Just buy an R4 or some kind of Supercard for ds and download it. You can get loads of other games too. The YOU can laugh at your friends! HA HA HA!
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