Customer Reviews

Jump Ultimate Stars for Nintendo DS (Japanese Language Import)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm not going to get in to the nitty gritty of how the game plays and such since it's essentially the same as the original. I do have a full review of the original game if you feel like learning the ins and outs of the game, I encourage you to read that review and others for a more in depth look at the game.

PROS:
+ There's more characters and series featured in this game. On the plus side there seems to be more of a diversification of usable characters. In the previous game it seemed as if there was more of a focus on the popular series (Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball...) featured in the game were as this one seems to have some more obscure things taking a front seat.

+ Koma Evolution vs. Koma Completion. I'm not going to lie, in the original game having to fill in the blanks was down right annoying without having a fluent understanding of Japanese. I have a decent grasp on Japanese and it still grated my nerves considerably. In this game you simply earn the one square koma via certain objectives and from there you can purchase the larger versions of the given koma by spending points which you earn from fighting. They also use this system to unlock new levels, new evolutions for other koma, questions for the quiz mode, info about various series, unlocking new worlds, and a couple of others I'm probably forgetting. This is probably the best addition in my opinion.

+ More intuitive menus. This is probably arguable, but I like the ways the menus are layed out and the way you can sort and access your deck building options much more in this one. The filters for deck building are better organized and use more English which makes for a much more pleasant deck building experience.

+ The comboing works out a lot better in this game in my opinion. Only certain characters were particularly good melee fighters in the original but here it seems that just about every character has at least one respectably useful combo now.

CONS:
- While some may like the decreased difficulty, and that really doesn't take away from the game, it does as a side effect make for a shorter game. Fully clearing the orignal was quite a task and in this itteration it's far more feasible.

- It seems to me, and I'm pretty sure on this but can't entirely prove it or back it up, but special moves in general have been nerfed. Just about anything can knock you out of a special move now which generally I wouldn't care about but the AI as always spams support characters which at the very least will require you to basically relearn or evaluate how and when to use specials.

- The levels are far more annoying in this game. This is probably my major gripe with this game. There's tons of new environmental hazards and a large number of the level layouts are just stupid and lack good brawling areas. In some instances the level is a greater opponent than the character you're actually fighting.

- The AI seems to either be incredibly intelligent or obtusely stupid. Characters seem to have a bad habit in this game of avoiding fighting you the player, but don't hesitate for a second to brawl amongst themselves. This is particularly annoying because the AI seems to "kill steal" you far more than was the case in the original. This could just be my perception of things due to the general down grading of special skills so maybe I'm just used to whomping the computer a bit harder.

GIVE OR TAKES:
+/- The way you travel around is now series to series in a planet to planet kind of way. Personally I don't like this method quite as much but I can't really call it a knock against the game since some people will probably really like this. I really like the way the map looked and everything in the original and having planets floating in space just seems kind of bland.

+/- Some of the general challenge of the game is gone. It's easier to unlock all of the pieces, and navigating the map is more simple. I'm not positive but I think some of the harder objectives have been removed and some of the original hard objectives are now considerably more easy, especially the avoid getting hit ones.

+/- Some characters have been sufficiently retooled to the point where characters you liked from the original are no longer going rub you the right way. Naruto stands out in my mind, the Rasengan isn't as quick as it used to be and doesn't launch nearly as much but then you have characters like Kenshin who now have some far more practical specials.

And there you have it, my quick thoughts on the original vs. the new version. It's a great game but I'm kind of torn between which game I like better. I highly recommend this game as long as you are willing to deal with the Japanese in any way you see fit.

I'm not new to video games, and I've yet to jump right out by saying something like this, but..
This is the best game I've ever seen/played.

There are 300 characters in this game (although you can't battle as them all, most are support characters, as in you put them next to one of your characters you battle with in your deck and it can make them stronger, have more hp, etc.

I will say, most of these animes I either haven't heard of or never bothered to watch, but that doesn't take away from the fun. And even if you'd never watched any, this is still an extremely good video game.

Alright, I'm going to break this down as simply and as fast as I can.

You make a deck/decks of supports and fighters, you can have more than one obviously, however there is a limited ammount of space in your deck. (And when I say deck, it doesn't mean like cards, it looks more like a mini manga strip or something.) You do have to have one fighter at least (obviously) and one support (1 that you can summon in for an attack then he/she leaves and 1 that just goes next to a character to boost them up.)

There are tons of levels, different objectives in each fight (five in each fight) depending on which ones you complete you earn other characters, although if you want them as a fighter (although not all do) you have to evolve their koma. Koma's are levels, fighters are anywhere from 4-8 koma. Supports that come into battle and just do one attack or restore health, or give you a good effect like you'd get from an item, etc are 2 or 3 koma. The other support is a 1 koma.

There is Wi-Fi in this game, from what I hear it's good and adds tons of playing, saddly I have dial-up, so I can not use this feature as of now but plan to some day.

Just one bit of warning: It is in Japanese, so you will need to go online and find a guide to know what the missions are and what's what, however that's not hard.

I highly recommend this game as the best game I have ever played.

if you like super smash brothers, or manga, or anime, or ALL!
this is the manga/anime version of mario super smash.

This game is by far the greatest fighting game on the DS, and while I know that isn't saying much, it is arguably the best game on the DS period, and that is saying a lot. Jump Ultimate Stars is enjoyable for anyone to pick up and play, both hard core gamers and casual will find this an enjoyable experience. Best of all while the game is based off of Japanese comics known as manga, you do not require any knowledge of them to play the game. In fact not knowing anything about the manga may even help you create better decks since you won't act like me and put the same favorite characters in over and over again. The game plays as a Smash Bros. style fighting game in respect to controls and level set up, while the life and special gauge is more like a traditional fighter. You play through the single player game by completing missions which are easy enough to complete, and although the mission objectives are in japanese, you can usualy finish a mission just by playing it once and killing your oponents. For those that require something special, or for people who want to complete all of the missions in a level a good english translation is readily availabe at gamefaqs.com. You gain points from matches, both single and multi player, and you use those points to open new characters and new forms of characters you already have. Characters are put into play from your decks you create. Each character is broken into "komas". Single koma characters give you stat boosts, two and three koma characters are summoned to do a single attack, and four to eight koma characters are playable. You get a four by five panel of komas to place as many characters as you want to fit (as long as you have at least one of each type) and can create up to fifty different decks leading to many different possibilities. The strategy is further advanced by the fact that there are three types of characters (power, laughter and knowledge) that are weak and powerful against each other which leads to a want to create balanced decks. With the combination of ease of play, complexity of strategy and multiplayer fun (that leads me to over fifty hours of game play currently even though I finished opening every character within twenty five) this game is the most played DS game I own (and I have about a dozen). I can not think of any game to recomend more to a DS owner then Jump Ultimate Stars.

My friend and I purchased this game together and have enjoyed every minute of it. Shonen Jump's entire collection is put together in one awesome battle arena to prove who's the best. The concept of the game is to do specific tasks in different world, most of which are Series specific worlds, (ie. Bleach World, One Piece World, etc.) and when you complete these tasks you either earn "points" or characters. The goal of the game is to unlock all of the characters and then buy up all of their forms. With these characters you design teams on a 4X5 panel system. For this system you have to put in at least one playable character(4-8 panels), one support character (2-3 panels), and one help character (1 panel). You must also select one of your playable characters as a leader, even just the one, in order to be able to play with the team.

Now let me be frank, the worlds do not provide enough points to unlock all characters (there just aren't enough worlds to provide points for over 300 characters!!!). So, when you're finished with unlocking everything you go to ranking mode! There are only three types of ranking mode originally, with 20 levels to beat, each. These three modes are: point mode(kill enough times to earn more points than other opponents), "death" mode(this is where you must become the last one standing! You'll probably love this mode best;)) and finally star mode(collect the most or all 5 stars before time runs out). If you tie on these modes are fail to kill everyone you enter "sudden death" where each leader is forced to fight until only one is left, hopefully that's you.

After beating all three types, you earn tournament mode where any of the three types could appear, you'll never know which is to be done until you're in the battle. Keep repeating these modes to earn enough points to buy all your characters' forms.

After you've finished unlocking your over 300 characters you can enjoy building thousands of combinations and battling online or against friends.

Personal Opinion: As a true otaku, I found this to be a nerdgasm of fun.

Gamer Opinion: It's got just about everything you could want from a gaming piont of view, collect stars or just DESTROY THEM ALL!!!!!
Truly, it deserves 6 stars. I hope you enjoy this game, buy it!

very hard to navigate if you dont know japanese kanji. ended up never playing it. other than that, its a pretty awesome game. if you dont have any problem with the menu, that is.

There isn't much I can say here that will detour opinions people have already made about this game however if you're a potential buyer wondering if this a worthy purchase, the short answer is yes, it's a must have title.

This is a full feature fighter on a hand held with tons of fighters from tons of animes and gameplay that, while not as refined or in depth as some of the more serious fighters out there, still holds up really well to make a very fun and frantic experience. The game resembles Smash Bros a bit in style of gameplay but is unique enough to be called its own. Graphically this isn't the cream of the crop but for the sheer amount of things going on it holds up very well. Can't really say much on the story or presentation as I don't read Japanese however the menus feel good and look good. This is easily one of those titles that if you're a fan of anime or fighters or just want a good import to play you'll regret not buying. Did I mention the game has online?

After countless online auction battles, I finally get my hands on this, the sequel to one of the hottest imports for the Nintendo DS. The game lets you take part in four-way brawls much like in Super Smash Bros., except you play as characters from Dragonball Z, Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh! and other series from the Shonen Jump manga magazine. Despite the considerable language barrier, you won't have too much trouble constructing decks of 'koma' (comic book panels) that power up your 2D brawlers using the touch screen. But knowing Japanese (and being an avid reader of Jump) undoubtedly helps in completing the in-game missions and enjoying JUS' stockpile of goodies. Still, it's fun being able to pit your manga characters against each other, or mixing and matching koma to create the ultimate fighting team. Now I'm off to fight that musclehead with the blond afro and long nosehairs.

This game is rated CERO A (All Ages): Violence.

This review is also available in [...], under the username Japanophile.

I own this game and have had it for a while now and I enjoy it. All manga fans will love this crossover game. I like how the teams are as you need all the types pf Koma. This is a short review but I would defiantly recommend this game for fans of any Shonen manga.

This is both an adventure game as well as a fighting game featuring the characters from JUMP. It's a lot like the first game, but it has more characters and new stages. It's heavy on the Japanese, so if you don't know any, this game will be difficult to play and navigate.

Tons of fun to play though! I love it as much as the first one.
(Maybe more since there are even more awesome characters in it!)