Jump Ultimate Stars

Jump Ultimate Stars
Developer(s) Ganbarion
Publisher(s) Nintendo, Tommo Inc.
Platform(s) Nintendo DS
Release date(s)
  • JP November 23, 2006
Genre(s) 2D versus fighting
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer

Jump Ultimate Stars (ジャンプアルティメットスターズ Janpu Arutimetto Sutāzu) is a fighting video game developed by Ganbarion and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS.[1] It is the sequel to Jump Super Stars, also released for the DS. The game was released in Japan on November 23, 2006. There are no plans for the game to be released outside Japan. This is largely due to international licensing issues for the plethora of series represented.

The game keeps many features from its predecessor, and adds many more. The game boasts 305 characters (56 of which are fully playable) from 41 different Shōnen manga series compared to 160 characters (34 fully playable) from 27 different manga in the original. However, the characters from Hikaru no Go and Mr. Fullswing do not return in this sequel (Steel Ball Run is unaccounted for because it has been revised into a story arc within JoJo's Bizarre Adventure between the releases of both games).

Gameplay

The bulk of the gameplay is based around using manga panels that represent characters to create decks on a four by five grid. Panels come in various shapes and sizes, taking up one to eight blocks. There are three kinds of panels that can be initialized in battle: Battle, Support, and Help panels, with decks needing at least one of each type and an assigned leader before being playable. Battle panels are four to eight block panels that represent playable characters. They are based on various manga panels and are used to represent what kind of special attacks the characters have. Support panels are two or three block panels that represent non-playable characters that can perform actions such as attacks, healing or status effects. Help panels are one block panels that can give different boosts to characters they are placed next to. Each battle panel comes with a certain nature. These natures (Knowledge, Strength, and Laughter) act in a Rock, Paper, Scissors relationship with Strength beating Knowledge, Knowledge beating Laughter, and Laughter beating Strength. The stronger type will deal more damage to the weaker type. New panels can be unlocked by clearing challenges in Story mode, or evolving existing panels using gems collected in Story Mode to unlock new paths and panels, such as stronger variations of Battle pannels.

Battle

Battles commence in arenas made to look like the page of a manga. Each arena has a unique background and obstacles based on the different manga series. They also contain a variety of different platforms. Many are static while others will move, break, or disappear and reappear randomly. Certain walls and floors are also destructible. During battles, players use their Battle komas to attack opponents, defeating them once they have taken enough damage or have knocked them off the stage.

New Features

Jump Ultimate Stars has been changed slightly from the gameplay of Jump Super Stars. Jump Ultimate Stars gives battle characters the ability to dash and to do a new attack while guarding, which, instead of breaking the guard of the opponent, forces them to change characters, and can be identified by a green glow coming out of the characters which executes it. Also, certain seven and eight panel koma (along with certain five and six panel koma) obtain a visual difference during battle as opposed to the appearance of the one to six koma of the very same character; some of these variations also bring a totally different set of attacks to the character (e.g. Luffy becomes Luffy (Gear 2nd) for his Level 7 & 8 koma, Naruto becomes Kyubii Naruto for his Level 7 & 8 koma, and Ichigo becomes Bankai Ichigo for his Level 7 & 8 level koma). Battle characters now have a new ability known as Ultimate Actions (UA). These UA are different for each character, as some recover health, other recover SP, while others can be used to dodge enemy attacks. Another new feature added is the Evolution Chart. This area allows players to upgrade their characters by spending gems (currency earned for KO'ing opponents) to buy a new koma. Each character has a chart, starting from the one block help koma and branching off into the two and three block Support and the four to eight block Battle koma. Some characters have alternate block paths which unlock a different type for that character (e.g. Goku as a Laughter type instead of a Power type), while others can be used to unlock koma for characters from the same series, quizzes for the series, and new worlds in the Story Mode.

Represented series

This is a list of represented series in Jump Ultimate Stars. Most of the main characters from each series appear as characters within the game. Note that almost all of the Battle characters are also Support and Help characters. This is also true for Support characters being Help characters. However, the exception is Sasuke Uchiha, Raoh, Frieza, Kid Buu, and Heihachi Edajima; these characters do not have a Support character koma, but they do have their Help koma alternative. The asterisk marks newly included series. There are 24 returning series with the addition of 17 new ones, concluding 41 in total.

Reception

Metacritic gave it 89/100 based on 5 critic reviews.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Tor Thorsen, "Jump! Ultimate Stars details dished", GameSpot, September 28, 2006, http://uk.gamespot.com/news/jump-ultimate-stars-details-dished-6158968
  2. ↑ "Jump Ultimate Stars (ds) reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 2 March 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2014.

External links

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