Jump Ultimate Stars

Jump Ultimate Stars
Developer(s)	Ganbarion
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	JPN November 23, 2006
Genre(s)	Fighting
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Media	Nintendo DS Cartridge

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. The game was released in Japan on November 23, 2006. It is the sequel to Jump Super Stars.

Overview

Jump Ultimate Stars preserves many of the features in Jump Super Stars, and improves upon them through sheer quantity, rather than deviation. Jump Ultimate Stars appears as an improved version of Jump Super Stars through the addition of many more Shonen Jump series (such as Kinnukuman, Hokuto no Ken, and Ninku) and more abilites for characters of major manga series (such as Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece). The game boasts 305 characters (56 of which are fully playable) from 41 different Shōnen Jump manga series; however, the characters from Hikaru no Go and Mr. Fullswing do not return in this sequel and Steel Ball Run has since been revised into a story arc within JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. 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 ("panel" in Japanese), but they do have their Help koma alternative.

Like its predecessor, the game was not released outside of Japan largely due to international licensing issues for the plethora of series represented.

Gameplay

Character selection and usage is only possible through the koma; koma appear as structures that take up square areas on the lower screen of the Nintendo DS. A koma depicts a character from a particular series with a simple picture (one square), or appearing to do something tied to a certain section of his manga series (detailed with a statement on the koma). The bulk of the gameplay is based around using koma to create decks on a four by five grid.

Koma come in various shapes and sizes, taking up one to eight blocks. There are three kinds of koma that can be initialized in battle: Battle, Support, and Help komas, with decks needing at least one of each type and an assigned leader before being playable.

• Battle komas are four to eight squares that represent playable characters. They are controlled directly by the player for fighting and movement. They are based on various manga panels and represent what kind of special attacks the characters have. Each battle koma 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.
• Support komas are two to three squares that represent non-playable characters that can perform actions such as attacks, healing or status effects. They appear on the battle screen. Once touched on the lower screen to do a type of attack, they disappear.
• Help komas are single squares that can give different boosts to characters they are placed next to. They apply certain effects to Battle Komas through an arrow or provide extra energy for special attacks. Larger komas (taking up more squares) signify greater health (and power).

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 komas can be unlocked by clearing challenges in Story mode, or evolving existing komas using gems collected in Story Mode to unlock new paths and komas, such as stronger variations of Battle koma. The stronger type will deal more damage to the weaker type.

Special techniques

The gameplay of 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.

Battle Stages

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 (Namek from Dragon Ball for example). 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.

Playable characters

There are 56 playable characters in this game.

• Eve (Black Cat)
• Train Heartnet (Black Cat)
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo)
• Don Patch (Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo)
• Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach)
• Rukia Kuchiki (Bleach)
• Tōshirō Hitsugaya (Bleach)
• Renji Abarai (Bleach)
• Kazuki Muto (Buso Renkin)
• Allen Walker (D.Gray-man)
• Lenalee Lee (D.Gray-man)
• Arale Norimaki (Dr. Slump)
• Dr. Mashirito ('Dr. Slump)
• Goku (Dragon Ball)
• Vegeta (Dragon Ball)
• Gohan (Dragon Ball)
• Gotenks (Dragon Ball)
• Piccolo (Dragon Ball)
• Frieza (Dragon Ball)
• Kid Buu (Dragon Ball)
• Gintoki Sakata (Gintama)
• Kagura (Gintama)
• Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star)
• Raoh (Fist of the North Star)
• Taikoubo (Hoshin Engi)
• Gon Freecs (Hunter × Hunter)
• Killua Zaoldyeck (Hunter × Hunter)
• Jotaro Kujo (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
• Dio Brando (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
• Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada & Reborn (Reborn!)
• Kinnikuman (Kinnikuman)
• Ryotsu Kankichi (KochiKame)
• Neuro Nōgami & Yako Katsuragi (Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro)
• Toru Muhyo (Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation)
• Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto)
• Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto)
• Sakura Haruno (Naruto)
• Kakashi Hatake (Naruto)
• Fuusuke (Ninku)
• Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)
• Roronoa Zoro (One Piece)
• Nami (One Piece)
• Vinsmoke Sanji (One Piece)
• Nico Robin (One Piece)
• Franky (One Piece)
• Jaguar Junichi (Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar)
• Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)
• Pegasus Seiya (Saint Seiya)
• Momotaro Tsurugi (Sakigake!! Otokojuku)
• Heihachi Edajima (Sakigake!! Otokojuku)
• Yoh Asakura (Shaman King)
• Anna Kyoyama (Shaman King)
• Yami Yugi (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
• Yusuke Urameshi (YuYu Hakusho)
• Kurama (YuYu Hakusho)
• Hiei (YuYu Hakusho)

Manga series

Dragon Ball

The Dragon Ball series appears in Jump Ultimate Stars. Goku, the main character of Dragon Ball, is a major character in the game, and seems to have been the main character to Jump Super Stars, for he was the most prominent character on the cover. Dragon Ball is one of the most represented series in Jump Ultimate Stars, with Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Gotenks, Piccolo, Frieza, and Kid Buu being fully playable (they have Battle Koma forms). Dragon Ball has a large role in the game (through Dragon Ball Z influence of characters), with Goku and Vegeta being among the most powerful characters in the game. Dragon Ball seems to emphasize its might among the Shonen Jump series of video game with Goku having an eight square koma which is the highest and rarest type.

Dr. Slump

Arale Norimaki and Dr. Mashirito are playable characters, while Senbei Norimaki, Midori Norimaki, Gatchan, Obotchaman and Unchi-kun are support characters.

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. There are 24 returning series with the addition of 17 new ones (the asterisk marks newly included series), concluding 41 in total.

• Black Cat (5 characters: 2 Battle, 1 Support, 2 Help)
• Bleach (17 characters: 4 Battle, 7 Support, 6 Help)
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (12 characters: 2 Battle, 4 Support, 6 Help)
• Buso Renkin (4 characters: 1 Battle, 3 Help)
• Captain Tsubasa* (5 characters: 3 Support, 2 Help)
• Cobra* (3 characters: all Support)
• D.Gray-man (9 characters: 2 Battle, 3 Support, 4 Help)
• Death Note (5 characters: all Support)
• Dr. Slump (7 characters: 2 Battle, 2 Support, 3 Help)
• Dragon Ball (13 characters: 7 Battle, 2 Support, 4 Help)
• Eyeshield 21 (17 characters: 11 Support, 6 Help)
• Gintama (13 characters: 2 Battle, 6 Support, 5 Help)
• Fist of the North Star* (7 characters: 2 Battle, 2 Support, 3 Help)
• Hoshin Engi* (4 characters: 1 Battle, 1 Support, 2 Help)
• Hunter × Hunter (7 characters: 2 Battle, 3 Support, 2 Help)
• I"s* (4 characters: 2 Support, 2 Help)
• Strawberry 100% (7 characters: 4 Support, 3 Help)
• Jigoku Sensei Nūbē* (4 characters: 2 Support, 2 Help)
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (10 characters: 2 Battle, 6 Support, 2 Help)
• Jungle King Tar-chan* (4 characters: 1 Support, 3 Help)
• Reborn! (10 characters: 1 Battle, 6 Support, 3 Help)
• Kinnikuman* (10 characters: 1 Battle, 7 Support, 2 Help)
• KochiKame (15 characters: 1 Battle, 8 Support, 6 Help)
• Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro* (4 characters: 1 Battle, 3 Help)
• Midori no Makibao* (3 characters: 2 Support, 1 Help)
• Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation* (7 characters: 1 Battle, 4 Support, 2 Help)
• Naruto (9 characters: 4 Battle, 1 Support, 4 Help; Rock Lee, Neji Hyuuga, Hinata Hyuuga and Shikamaru Nara were removed from the Naruto cast)
• Ninku* (3 characters: 1 Battle, 2 Help)
• One Piece (10 characters: 6 Battle, 2 Support, 2 Help)
• Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar (7 characters: 1 Battle, 3 Support, 3 Help)
• Rokudenashi BLUES* (5 characters: 1 Support, 4 Help)
• Rurouni Kenshin (7 characters: 1 Battle, 4 Support, 2 Help)
• Saint Seiya* (7 characters: 1 Battle, 4 Support, 2 Help)
• Sakigake!! Otokojuku* (10 characters: 2 Battle, 4 Support, 4 Help)
• Shaman King (8 characters: 2 Battle, 1 Support, 5 Help)
• Slam Dunk (7 characters: 5 Support, 2 Help)
• Taizo Mote King Saga* (3 characters: 2 Support, 1 Help)
• The Prince of Tennis (9 characters: all Support)
• Tottemo! Luckyman* (3 characters: 2 Support, 1 Help)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! (5 characters: 1 Battle, 1 Support, 3 Help)
• YuYu Hakusho (6 characters: 3 Battle, 1 Support, 2 Help)

Reception

The Japanese magazine Famitsu gave the game 30/40.

Trivia

• Arale (Dr. Slump), Goku (Dragon Ball), Kinnikuman (Kinnikuman), Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star), Pegasus Seiya (Saint Seiya), and Momotaro Tsurugi (Sakigake!! Otokojuku) were already playable characters in the very first Jump crossover game: Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden. Captain Tsubasa, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, KochiKame were also represented in this game.
• Jungle King Ta-chan and Rokudenashi BLUES were already represented in Famicom Jump II: Saikyō no Shichinin before being introduced in the Jump Stars games.

Gallery

External links

• Jump Ultimate Stars official website (Japanese)
• Jump Super Stars Japanese Wikipedia page