Jump! Ultimate Stars

Now, you may have heard of Shounen Jump, a Japanese magazine which serializes several very well known titles, namely: Naruto, Bleach, Dragonball Z and One Piece. However, you may not have heard of this game. It is a platform fighter, and is called the "Super Smash Brothers of the DS". It is a very addicting game, which you will probably find yourself constantly returning to (or at least I have lol). The game is rather simple, there are 3 types of "koma": Battle, Support and Help. Battle koma (4-8 square) are the koma which one uses to fight with, you can have up to four of them in a single deck, supports (2-3 squares) are koma that come out and help you combo, and helps (1 square) are koma that give you passive effects to your battle character. You need all 3 to create a playable deck, meaning you need at least 1 battle, 1 support, and one help. As you play through the game, you gather several different types of gems, which is the currency in the game used to upgrade and evolve your komas, giving you a wide array of options for deck creation. To the right is a sample deck, and is one of the decks I use regularly when playing. Just an FYI I usually play supportless so I just throw in some random support koma...

So, you can play as your favorite characters, beat up ones that you just dispise, and perhaps gain a few new animes or mangas to watch, what could make this game even better? Thats right, it has wifi, and if you ask me, this is what makes the game. Gathering and upgrading koma is fun and interesting and all, but it gets very tedious after a few hours. Playing wifi always changes and is incredibly fun. My favorite place to go for games is the Gamefaqs forums there are a lot of cool people there that will help you out and if you're like me, you may find yourself just going there for fun. Here is a sample video, recorded by TrueNinjaTactics (RandomCitizen) of 2 visiters of the Gfaqs forums, for a little taste of the game.


There are also several other types of videos on youtube if you search, here is a combo video that I made a few months ago
It's not the greatest ever, but then again, I'm not exactly a pro at this game :(.


But this game isn't perfect, the AI in the game is just HORRIBLE, there is no exaggeration there. Computers literally kill themselves every once in a while. The story mode can become tedious and boring, it is fun at first, but as you go through the same style of missions for a large amount of worlds, you'll find yourself getting bored very quickly.

So to sum it up: Great game, if you have Wifi, if you don't have access to wifi, I would steer clear of this game, it's a nice game to play even with out wifi, but you'll find it's not worth the money speant, especially since you would have to pay more since it is an import game, and since it is an import game, most of it is in Japanese, however, Genroh kindly took the time to write up a very informative FAQ, which can be used to complete the missions.