"Ultimate Fun!"

Back when "Jump Super Stars" was released for this very same console, manga fans worldwide rejoiced with a product where they could finally perform battles between their favourite characters. While most of series appeared in nothing more than small summon cameos, you could indeed have battles between worldwide famous Goku and Naruto, with characters such as Jotaro (of "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure" fame) or Arale also being selectable.

In this sequel of the game, interestingly called "Jump Ultimate Stars", players get not only a lot more series than the ones seen in the previous title, but also lots of new gameplay options. The kernel of the gameplay sticks to the things already seen in the last title, with the lower screen being mostly used for equipping and using the koma system. Now, you can easily select the leader of your party by adding a "Leader" tag to 4 (or higher) koma, but you can also associate the shoulder buttons, L and R, to in battle actions, such as using a specific Support character or changing to a new usable one.

In case you haven't played the previous game, I'd better explain what "komas" are. Each character available in the game has a koma of value 1, meaning that they can only help (with static bonus) other characters. By upgrading the value of such koma, you may be granted not only support characters (those with value 2 and 3) but also ones that can be usable in battle, which have a value of 4 up to 7, with 8 being reserved to the most amazing characters, such as Naruto, Luffy or Goku, among some others. An interesting innovation was added to the process of upgrading those koma, with players now being required to use a certain amount of money (awarded by finishing certain missions or accomplishing other tasks) to upgrade a character and acquire a better koma.

After performing the above tasks, you equip as many koma as you want in the lower screen, which has space for up to 20 different ones. When reaching any of the many battles sequences available in the game, you will then be able to use those characters, either as a support or a completely new character to call up when you need to.

So, you venture further in the game, entering the story mode once again. Now, there are many more areas than before, with each of them being dedicated to a single manga series contained in the game. As before, they contain one or more missions, which put you to defeat enemies under certain conditions, capture all the items of a certain type as quickly as possible, defeat each person with a specific move or character, apart from many other new ones.

In order to complete that mode, you just need to complete at least a single objective for each mission, but completing more of those also grant you extra bonus, either by providing you extra money or the possibility to unlock new characters. Unfortunately, such mode wouldn't have much replay value, and therefore new options were added to the game, like an unlockable Quizz Mode (with several questions about the many series available in the game), a Ranking Mode, some battle modes, information in the many series available in the game and, probably the most important of them all, a Wifi Battle Mode, all of which add up to the replay value of this game.

With this new option, long awaited by fans of the original title, you can battle other random players who have the game or face someone you know, via the usual "friend code" feature. This mode is quite interesting and unfortunately seems to feature some occasional slowdowns, which are annoying. Don't get this wrong, it doesn't always happen, but under certain unknown conditions it just seems to happen. In case you even want to battle someone who doesn't have the game, this product contains the important "Single Cart Play", which seems to pick a random deck for all players involved.

When it comes to the battle itself, they are not that changed, with a single change being made, where the characters can grab the edge of a stage, in case they are near it while falling down. The A.I. seems to have decreased a bit, with some of the targets in latter missions being hard to achieve, as some of the enemies seem to feel a fatal attraction to holes seen in the scenario.

If you're wondering about the storyline, it is pretty much unimportant, since it is only seen in 3 or 4 different spots of he game. It sort of continues from the previous game, with players even being allowed to visit the planet featured in the last title.

The graphics are slightly better than before, with all the characters being very detailed and completely recognizable from their original series. All their attacks clearly resemble their version in the manga and a more interested player may even recognise all the motions performed by the characters.

When it comes to the sound, while the songs are properly inserted in the game and they are of high quality, most of the times you may feel like they don't really associate with the series, mostly after hearing them in the anime series. Bearing in mind that the characters are based in the mangas and have nothing to do with the anime versions, that's not important. Everyone has their characteristic sound effects and they are cool.

So, who should get this game? Every fan of Japanese anime and manga will enjoy it, but it is also a nice product for all those people who want a different game. Knowledge of the Japanese language isn't fully required, but it helps a lot, when it comes to figuring out some objectives and making it possible for you to enjoy the game even more.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/06