Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

After clocking in 45 hours in the past couple of weeks into this game, I think I can safely say I have enough knowledge about it to properly review it. If you don't know, Jump! Ultimate Stars is a game which takes characters from Jump magazine, and has them beat the crap out of each other. I was a huge fan of Ultimate's predecessor, Jump! Superstars, and came in with high expectations. And when I say high, I mean that these expectations were high, as a kite, by then.

The core gameplay remains unchanged. They still use the koma (panel) system. For the uninitiated, one unlocks manga panels of various shapes and sizes as one plays the game. Then, one can make a deck on a 5x4 grid. When going into battle, one picks a deck, which is displayed on the bottom screen. Touch the panels, and stuff happens. The biggest difference is the modification to the help (1 square) koma is no longer something that provides one with a helpful status effect. It is now passive. A person will put the help koma in their deck, and can pick what character it affects. If it isn't next to any character, it's possible to make it affect everybody. Also, 8-koma characters have been added, and, despite the fact that these monstrosities take up 2/5 of a person's deck, they are really freaking powerful.

The actual fighting system got some modifications, and is much more dynamic. Now, everybody can dash by pressing in a direction twice. Also, the attacks while blocking have been changed. Rather than having an attack that can move boxes and a stronger one that can move boxes farther, there is a slow but unblockable attack, as well as an attack that can change people's character. Certain characters can air-dash, and wall kick. Air-dashing is useful, wall-kicking is much less so.

Also, a new type of battle. In addition to the "get points by killing people" or "live longer than everybody else", there's a "collect badges" fighting type. Pretty much, there are five objects, whoever has the most of these five objects wins. I'm not that big of a fan of this type. It's mostly being in the right place at the right time and running away.

There are a lot more series in Ultimate, and a lot more playable characters. Due to the additions, the unlocking system is changed. Now, one unlocks help-homa in the adventure mode, and can buy support (2-3 squares) or batle (4-8 squares) in a separate unlocking menu. It's possible to buy other things as well, but I don't really feel like going into it.

The thing that sets Ultimate above its predecessor is the online mode. Wait around for a bit, fight some people, repeat. If playing with friends is beyond reach, online mode makes playing the game multiplayer a viable option for everybody. And, by god, that's what multiplayer (with people who know what they're doing) is like? The only way this game could get more addicting was if it could be injected straight into my veins.

I never get addicted to games enough to clock a ton of hours in a short amount of time. By god, I still don't know what smilie to use to rate it. Hm... pirate / ninja .
And pirates beat ninjas.