Jump Ultimate Stars Review

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95%

Those who grew up with Anime (Japanese animation) will probably remember themselves trying to imitate a certain character from a series - maybe a superhero from say “Dragonball.” You would probably have thought to yourself once, “It would be cool if these characters could work together!” or, “I wonder who would win if…” Well, with Jump Super Stars for the DS you could do just that and have all your favourite Anime characters from the Jump Manga magazine fighting together. Now the game has evolved into the sequel “Jump Ultimate Stars” with 300 characters from 41 different titles, improvements, features and most importantly of all, Wi-Fi mode. The fictional J World is once again in danger.

J World’s been blown up and scattered across the J Galaxy.

For those of you who have never played the prequel JSS, this beat-em-up game is basically similar to Groove Adventure Rave on the GBA. Up to four characters can battle together at once in an environment full of platforms, power ups and other malicious items. The difference is before each battle, you must create your own Manga deck of “Komas” (comic panels) which allows you to switch between characters, summon support and gain stat boosts. You then go about clearing the conditions set out in each stage of the game. There are even three elements that characters can belong to, each with their own strength and weaknesses such as how “Comedy” is strong against “Strength” and “Strength” is strong against “Knowledge”.

Gameplay in this sequel pretty much remains the same as JSS but there are so many tweaks that make the overall quality much better. There appears to be a few new goals in some stages such as grabbing an item off the enemy then running away with it for 15 seconds or more. There are still stages where all you have to do is avoid being hit for so long too but this new run away objective adds more depth to the goal. Another goal I liked was trying to collect the seven Dragon Balls before any of the other familiar enemy characters got them. However at the same time, you’ll find that objectives are repeated much more often than before such as how every new planet starts off with a gain as many points as you can by knocking out your opponents.

New objectives like this, collecting the Dragon Balls are rare.

For each deck you create, you now have to set a leading character for the team. The leader gains twice as many points for knocking out other characters than other members in your team so he or she does have an advantage allowing for some greater strategy during fights. You’ll also find that you can no longer speed through the game with your best deck of Manga Komas because for every little planet you visit in the Jump Galaxy, you’ll find yourself forced to use preset decks related to a certain series.

It seems a lot of improvements have been made to the game. While in the past you had to guess who your Help Komas were supporting, this time there are arrows to help you out which is a good improvement over the prequel. Furthermore, you can now hotkey the L and R buttons to your most important Komas so that you don’t need “three hands” to play the game as much. Very handy![break]

You can now use hotkeys and appoint a leader in your deck.

Other improvements you’ll notice during the fights. If you happen to fall off an edge, your character will cling him or herself onto a ledge and if you happen to have enough time, you can hold the Select button to restore tiny bits of your health. And while in JSS, you could find yourself falling into holes because you pulled off a combo to close to them, your characters know how to stop when at the edge this time. One last thing I noticed was that while it was hard to gauge how well you were fulfilling conditions, this time characters have rating markers attached to them to help you out with one star being the lowest rating and a crown being the top.

Although you can still unlock new Komas by clearing stages and satisfying certain conditions, you can’t obtain as many as before using this method. There is now a new “J Power” system that allows you to evolve existing Komas by spending six different types of points. These points can be earned by clearing conditions set out in each stage and collecting coloured gems that other characters drop. You can then unlock lots of new Komas that branch out from one another.

You now unlock most of your Komas via the J Power system.

Apart from the main game where you must save Jump Land once again, you can enter the “J Arena” mode which allows you to compete against the CPU to earn a ranking in the charts, replay stages, have a 1 v 1 battle with the CPU or just practice with your decks. And last but not least, you can of course play against friends via wireless link or, play against strangers on Wi-Fi which can try to seek up to 3 other players if it can. You can set the rules before finding opponents and if any players draw, you’ll be given a “Sudden Death” round to quickly settle the score. What’s more, you can save their deck onto your DS so that you can try them out yourself! Now you don’t have to scratch your head as much to come up with a “perfect” deck.

Wi-Fi fights are great fun! You can record your opponent’s decks too.

Set in the J Galaxy as mentioned earlier, there are many solar systems that you can enter. Each of these systems is further split into three planets, each representing a certain series that runs in the Jump Manga Magazine. Things feel much more organised this way compared to the giant map the original game had. While the planets themselves are still 2D, you do get to zoom in and out of each one. Every planet does a very good job of presenting a series such as the Roman buildings for Saint Seiya or the symbolic One Piece ship.

Battle environments look great too with plenty of detail and texture in everything. They seem to be much more hazardous than the prequel with obstacles such as canons shooting at you, crumbling platforms and earthquakes. This is probably what’s causing the few seconds of loading time now that wasn’t in the prequel. Sprite animation also remains smooth and unique just like JUS with every single character feeling very lively. You’ll still see those quick flashes of Manga whenever you visit a new planet including the newly added Captain Tsubasa, Bleach, Houshin Engi, and Fist of the North Star.[break]

Planet Naruto, cool eh?

Music has a grand space exploration feeling to it when you’re on the map and during battles, it’s always upbeat which works well with the multi-character battle mayhem. Just like the graphics themselves, every planet has their own BGM theme to match the series. Sound effect wise, you’ll hear plenty of punches being dealt and twinkling sounds as power ups are picked up.

If you enjoyed JUS then needless to say, you’ll really like this and with the added bonus of Wi-Fi mode, it’s even better! For those who haven’t played the prequel but like a fast paced, chaotic 2D fighter with a twist for their DS then this would be a good game to try.

Import Friendly?

It’s going to take quite a lot of effort to play this due to all the rules that are laid out in each stage. Usually it just means beating up all the characters though so once you figure out what the rules of making a deck and what the 3 types of Komas are – Battle (red), Support (blue), Help (green), you should be able to enjoy this.

Pros

• New characters and titles that double the number the prequel had.
• Same multi-character battle mayhem
• Still have lots of hidden conditions to fulfil.
• Lots of improvements over the prequel.
• A “J Arena” added that increases replayability.
• Unlockable Jump Manga encyclopaedia.
• “J Power” system adds more fun in unlocking new Komas.
• Wi-Fi allows battle with friends and strangers.

Cons

• Laggy Wi-Fi play just like in Bleach DS if your opponent is far away.