Post by Pilgrim John on Jan 29, 2006 1:55:42 GMT -5
JUMP SUPERSTARS, for the Nintendo DS
***review by Pilgrim John
Okay, so this is an import review.
As most know, this game will sadly never be brought stateside, due to legalities and ownership issues. The game itself must be imported from Japan. Be prepared to look up a walkthrough on IGN for directions on where to go via the menus; everything here is in Japanese.
I must say, Kevin's review had me foaming at the mouth to get this game. So, I'm going to give you readers some advice: get this game. Buy it off Amazon or eBay. Now. Why? Read the following review.
GRAPHICS:
Let me ask you a question: do you prefer 3D graphics over 2D sprites? No? Good. Then you'll dig the graphics here. Everything's in 2D spritage, and that's a good thing. Every frame of animation is beautiful, from Kenshin's swishy hair to Bobobo's nosehairs. Yes, nosehairs. The hyperactive action puts these purty sprites to the test as they zip along in a wham-bam hyperactive battle. All in all, the graphics are awesome; worthy of bad poetry, in fact!
GAMEPLAY:
OK, so you may have heard that JS has Super Smash Bros. influence in it. That's true, but don't let thoughts like "Oh man, not another Onimusha Blade Warriors" bar your interest in the game. Unlike Onimusha, Superstars borrows a page from Smash instead of taking off with the whole damn book. For example, Superstars has things like status ailments and breakable environments.
During battles, you utilize the buttons for the character you're currently playing. A jumps, B is "light" attack, Y is "heavy" attack, X is "Special attack, and L and R guard. By pressing either B or Y while holding the shoulder buttons, your character does a counterstrike manuevre perfect for catching your enemies offguard.
Your inventory on the touch screen is actually a page from Jump manga. By tapping the panels, you can do all sorts of things! Of course, this is how the panels work:
"Big" panels (4 or more spaces): This is a character panel. Touch it to switch to this character during a fight (It's smart to switch to another character when your current character's health is running low. It'll heal up while he's recuperating). The more spaces it takes up (up to six) determine what kind of Special attack the character has, and how powerful it is.
"Medium" panels (2 to 3 spaces): These are your summons. Weird word for them, but that's what they are. By touching them on your screen, they are summoned into battle to accomplish something--they can heal you and damage foes. When you are guarding from a barrage on all fronts, it's best to use the Summon character to get them off your back quickly.
"Small" panels (1 space): These only mildly help you. Sometimes, they heal you, other times, they'll give you a certain status effect. But that's it. You can use these on "Empty" panels (Ones that are balck-and-white and are missing pieces) to form another, more useful, panel.
The battle environments have the themes to the Jump manga entries (Like Bobobo's and Naruto's arenas); however, besides the look, none of the arenas are truly inventive like the ones in Super Smash Bros. The most creative you'll get here are platforms that rise and lower slowly. Anyway, these battlegrounds are not what you'll care about in the end.
Having over 150 characters to play in this game is a huuuge plus. Characters from 20 different mangas collide here--Rurouni Kenshin, Bobobobo-Bobobo, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho, Yu Gi Oh!, DeathNOTE, and Bleach are just a few.
Creating the perect page of manga for yourself is a lot of work, but in the end, it'll all pay off. You'll end up with a page full of playable characters and Summons! Have fun and go crazy!
The first player mode is much different than in SSB. It's no arcade mode, and it's most certainly different than Adventure mode. There are four Jump Islands that for reasons only your mother's mustache knows are floating in space. You must travel across them by completing missions and stuff. Why? Uh... I dunno. But it's fun. The mission objectives will almost always be different, and the directions are all in Japanese. This is where IGN's guides will come in handy (ALERT! BLATANT ADVERTISING!). Also, be prepared to die at the hands of some so-mighty-why-the-hell-are-they-even-in-this-game attacks. Goku and Gohan are stinky cheaters.
MUSIC/SOUND:
The punches and crunches of battle...no other kind of music can compare. The explosions, the bangs, and smashing of bones... Almost perfect. Where is the voice acting? All of the combatants are strangely mute, with not even one uttered "oof." That might be a good thing, though--Kenshin and Goku have always had a bad habit of screaming really loudly in their respective anime.
As for the music, most of it is rather corny and forgettable. Most of it sounds rather MIDIish, not complimenting the rest of the game at all. If you play it with the volume set to "Dead", you won't miss very much.
MULTIPLAYER:
Kevin is a sage. Why? He insists that you invest in more than one copy--one for you, and others for your DS-owning friends--and he's right. Multplayer sessions are good with just one copy, but they simply must be experienced with other JS copies. More choices of characters = more fun; equation of the day.
OVERALL:
It's never coming stateside, so stop holding your breath. It's the ultimate Naruto vs. Kenshin vs. Goku vs. Light vs. Luffy vs. JoJo vs. Yoh vs. Yugi vs. Hiei vs. Yusuke vs. Kurama vs. Piccolo vs. Bobobo game you will ever experience. So what are you freakin' waiting for?! Go out and order it from eBay or Amazon!
GOOD:
*The spritage is gorgeous in motion
*over 150 of your favorite (And perhaps not so favorite) manga/anime characters
*the gameplay is simply astounding
*the hyperactive battles will define the height of fighting games as we know them
*The touch screen Jump comic book pages. Simple, yet intuitive, helpful, and innovative
*The first-player mode is fun fun fun, quoeth Tigger
BAD:
*The first-player mode has a bad case of difficulty spikes. Prepare for unexpected ridiculously overpowered balls of light to cream you in seconds
*No voice-acting
*Most of the music is plinky
*Two words: "language barrier"
*The battlegrounds only serve as BGM preference
*You, if you don't pick up this wonderful game
*This game was released before NWC was introduced... so no WiFi VS. mode *pout*
SCORE: 9.5/10
Otaku will pee their pants and sell their organs just to own this game. Why let these pathetic losers beat you to it?
***review by Pilgrim John
Okay, so this is an import review.
As most know, this game will sadly never be brought stateside, due to legalities and ownership issues. The game itself must be imported from Japan. Be prepared to look up a walkthrough on IGN for directions on where to go via the menus; everything here is in Japanese.
I must say, Kevin's review had me foaming at the mouth to get this game. So, I'm going to give you readers some advice: get this game. Buy it off Amazon or eBay. Now. Why? Read the following review.
GRAPHICS:
Let me ask you a question: do you prefer 3D graphics over 2D sprites? No? Good. Then you'll dig the graphics here. Everything's in 2D spritage, and that's a good thing. Every frame of animation is beautiful, from Kenshin's swishy hair to Bobobo's nosehairs. Yes, nosehairs. The hyperactive action puts these purty sprites to the test as they zip along in a wham-bam hyperactive battle. All in all, the graphics are awesome; worthy of bad poetry, in fact!
GAMEPLAY:
OK, so you may have heard that JS has Super Smash Bros. influence in it. That's true, but don't let thoughts like "Oh man, not another Onimusha Blade Warriors" bar your interest in the game. Unlike Onimusha, Superstars borrows a page from Smash instead of taking off with the whole damn book. For example, Superstars has things like status ailments and breakable environments.
During battles, you utilize the buttons for the character you're currently playing. A jumps, B is "light" attack, Y is "heavy" attack, X is "Special attack, and L and R guard. By pressing either B or Y while holding the shoulder buttons, your character does a counterstrike manuevre perfect for catching your enemies offguard.
Your inventory on the touch screen is actually a page from Jump manga. By tapping the panels, you can do all sorts of things! Of course, this is how the panels work:
"Big" panels (4 or more spaces): This is a character panel. Touch it to switch to this character during a fight (It's smart to switch to another character when your current character's health is running low. It'll heal up while he's recuperating). The more spaces it takes up (up to six) determine what kind of Special attack the character has, and how powerful it is.
"Medium" panels (2 to 3 spaces): These are your summons. Weird word for them, but that's what they are. By touching them on your screen, they are summoned into battle to accomplish something--they can heal you and damage foes. When you are guarding from a barrage on all fronts, it's best to use the Summon character to get them off your back quickly.
"Small" panels (1 space): These only mildly help you. Sometimes, they heal you, other times, they'll give you a certain status effect. But that's it. You can use these on "Empty" panels (Ones that are balck-and-white and are missing pieces) to form another, more useful, panel.
The battle environments have the themes to the Jump manga entries (Like Bobobo's and Naruto's arenas); however, besides the look, none of the arenas are truly inventive like the ones in Super Smash Bros. The most creative you'll get here are platforms that rise and lower slowly. Anyway, these battlegrounds are not what you'll care about in the end.
Having over 150 characters to play in this game is a huuuge plus. Characters from 20 different mangas collide here--Rurouni Kenshin, Bobobobo-Bobobo, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho, Yu Gi Oh!, DeathNOTE, and Bleach are just a few.
Creating the perect page of manga for yourself is a lot of work, but in the end, it'll all pay off. You'll end up with a page full of playable characters and Summons! Have fun and go crazy!
The first player mode is much different than in SSB. It's no arcade mode, and it's most certainly different than Adventure mode. There are four Jump Islands that for reasons only your mother's mustache knows are floating in space. You must travel across them by completing missions and stuff. Why? Uh... I dunno. But it's fun. The mission objectives will almost always be different, and the directions are all in Japanese. This is where IGN's guides will come in handy (ALERT! BLATANT ADVERTISING!). Also, be prepared to die at the hands of some so-mighty-why-the-hell-are-they-even-in-this-game attacks. Goku and Gohan are stinky cheaters.
MUSIC/SOUND:
The punches and crunches of battle...no other kind of music can compare. The explosions, the bangs, and smashing of bones... Almost perfect. Where is the voice acting? All of the combatants are strangely mute, with not even one uttered "oof." That might be a good thing, though--Kenshin and Goku have always had a bad habit of screaming really loudly in their respective anime.
As for the music, most of it is rather corny and forgettable. Most of it sounds rather MIDIish, not complimenting the rest of the game at all. If you play it with the volume set to "Dead", you won't miss very much.
MULTIPLAYER:
Kevin is a sage. Why? He insists that you invest in more than one copy--one for you, and others for your DS-owning friends--and he's right. Multplayer sessions are good with just one copy, but they simply must be experienced with other JS copies. More choices of characters = more fun; equation of the day.
OVERALL:
It's never coming stateside, so stop holding your breath. It's the ultimate Naruto vs. Kenshin vs. Goku vs. Light vs. Luffy vs. JoJo vs. Yoh vs. Yugi vs. Hiei vs. Yusuke vs. Kurama vs. Piccolo vs. Bobobo game you will ever experience. So what are you freakin' waiting for?! Go out and order it from eBay or Amazon!
GOOD:
*The spritage is gorgeous in motion
*over 150 of your favorite (And perhaps not so favorite) manga/anime characters
*the gameplay is simply astounding
*the hyperactive battles will define the height of fighting games as we know them
*The touch screen Jump comic book pages. Simple, yet intuitive, helpful, and innovative
*The first-player mode is fun fun fun, quoeth Tigger
BAD:
*The first-player mode has a bad case of difficulty spikes. Prepare for unexpected ridiculously overpowered balls of light to cream you in seconds
*No voice-acting
*Most of the music is plinky
*Two words: "language barrier"
*The battlegrounds only serve as BGM preference
*You, if you don't pick up this wonderful game
*This game was released before NWC was introduced... so no WiFi VS. mode *pout*
SCORE: 9.5/10
Otaku will pee their pants and sell their organs just to own this game. Why let these pathetic losers beat you to it?