Jump Force, An Otaku’s Dream Come True?

How good is Jump Force? Media by Antwon Knight
Dai performing his finishing move
Media- Antwon Knight

Jump Force is a brand new crossover fighting game developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It has characters from various manga series’ featured in the weekly long-running manga, Shōnen Jump. Shōnen Jump has been around for fifty years and Jump Force is their way of celebrating the years of hard work by putting not all, but most, of their well-known shonen fighting manga series together in a video game for us to play.

Now, this isn’t the first crossover from the Shonen series, as some may remember Jstars Victory VS back in 2014. The major difference between Jstars and Jump Force is that it’s not a console exclusive. Jump Force is available on Playstation 4 and Xbox One. This is huge because, for years, PlayStation has exclusives for some anime games and there have been many complaints about that. Now, millions of fans don’t have to get a new system for a game.

The game has a beautiful scenery for the fighting stages. It also does a great job of capturing the 2D characters and making them 3D. With the game being 3D and not a 2D scroller, you get to see the stage around you as the fight progresses. Some stages do have interactions as in the fight can go from place to place just like the shows we watch. The stages at release is Matterhorn, capturing the beautiful scenery of the snowy mountains from Europe. The skyscrapers in New York, to the downtown area of Hong Kong are included. You can also fight in Paris, Mexico, Japan, San Francisco, and New Zealand. These areas are nice to appear in a fighting game.

Those who love the anime world also get to fight on planet Namek from Dragon Ball Z, the Hidden Leaf Village from Naruto, and Marineford of One piece.

Jump Force is a fighting game with a 3-v-3 tag system. All the characters share the same health bar, even though you’re fighting with one at a time. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s the same system Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 uses.

Jump Force launched on February 15 with forty-two characters from sixteen series and 2 new original characters for everyone to play. The 2 new original playable characters and 2 new characters only in story were designed by Akira Toriyama. Toriyama is the creator of the popular series, Dragon Ball. The game will also have nine downloadable characters, Seto Kaiba, Katsugi Bakugo, All Might, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Kid Buu, Madara, Hitsugaya Toshiro, Trafalgar D. Water Law, and Biscuit Krueger.

Shishio performing his Final Secret Sword technique
Media- Antwon Knight

Anime fans highly anticipated this game. I played the beta and understood game mechanics from prior knowledge from the Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm series and Dragon Ball Xenoverse series. With the gameplay, I have noticed things I love, dislike, and wish would be added to the game.

First off the defense mechanism had to be changed. There are three ways to defend: counters, dodging, and blocking. If you perform a dodge that’s good. The problem is, it resets the entire meter for just one dodge. You can be punished if someone had a dash grab move from a character like Dio.

The counter is the second way to defend. It takes about a quarter of the meter, which allows you to perform it multiple times if executed correctly. The issue is the timing because for different character combos the timing is off especially when characters vanish and attack at different speeds.

The last defense move is blocking and it’s fine. It’s counter is a heavy strike and grab and that’s fine because you can evade those two if you time perfectly. You can also sidestep while blocking to avoid attacks, which is great because you still blocking while sidestepping.

Remember, this is a team game and balancing your team is key to victory. The best way to create a good team should be a mix of close, mid-range, and distance fighters. Keep these tips in mind and enjoy the new crossover game.

See you at the Umbras Base.

This is me getting hit with a special move in a match online
Media- Antwon Knight

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