As soon as the game boots up and you see the opening video of the Jump Superstars bursting forth from the pages of the manga, you know you're in for a battle of epic proportions. From this point on, you are in control of your Shonen Jump manga adventure. This theme is reflected throughout the game; everything from presentation (characters, stages and intro screens) to the way you interface with the game (menus and deck control on the touch screen).

At the heart of Jump Superstars is the ability to gather your dream team and battle with your favorite characters. Marquee stars from Dragonball Z, One Piece, Naruto and Bleach are here, as well as characters from lesser-known manga like Bobobo and Prince of Tennis. While not all 150 (yes... 150!) characters can be directly controlled in battle, the developers paid loving attention to the personality of each one. Everything from the slightly SD rendering on screen to the way characters animate really show the attention that went into making this game. You will be in otaku heaven the first time you see Goku perform a Kame-ha-me-ha or Yugi summon monsters from his deck to battle. Even little details, like Luffy holding on to his trademark straw hat as he jumps around the screen, have been considered. Pixels have never been so infused with life.

But what good is watching your favorite characters bounce around if you don't have a solid fighting system to send your opponent crashing through the screen? Playing similarly to Smash Brothers, you furiously fight with up to three other opponents on a multiplatform stage, trying to K.O. or ring them out. Each character fights with standard light and strong attacks, as well as specials and team attacks. You can also send your opponents flying out of the manga panel battlefield once the wall is busted open. Being a Melee type fighter, items also come into play during battle. These appear from smashed boxes, barrels or treasure chests, and will help or hinder your character. The Shonen Jump mascot will give you one stock for your Super gauge and items like food restores health, while weights and poison bottles will slow your character down.

The star of the fighting system, however, is the ability to do Dream Combos and Super Tag attacks. A Dream Combo is a chain combo, with three successive moves ending in a Special, performed by tapping Battle character panels on the touch screen in succession. For example, if you have Goku and Luffy in your deck as Battle characters, you tap Goku to bring him up on the playing field, tap him again to perform his flash kicks, then tap Luffy to do a barrage of punches and end with a Kameha-me-ha by tapping Goku again. Up to three different Battle characters can be used in a Dream combo if you have them in your deck. Super Tag attacks are performed by linking two Battle characters in your deck with special Kana tiles and tapping these during battle performs the tag attack.

As stated earlier, not all 150 Superstars are active Battle characters. Others are utilized as Support and Help characters; with Support characters popping up on screen to attack your opponent and Help characters used to boost the other characters' abilities. Battle characters take the most space (4-7 Koma, with a 7 Koma Battle character being the most powerful) and Support characters being 2-3 Koma. Help characters are 1 Koma. Playing the main adventure game will earn you Koma to build your deck. The earned tiles are initially incomplete, so you have to combine single Koma, displaying a character's face, with the right Battle or Support Koma to make it active. If you are not well versed in Japanese, this is where GameFAQS becomes especially handy to learn the intricacies of the game.

You assemble your team on the 5x4 grid on the touch screen, which has to contain at least 1 Battle, 1 Support and 1 Help character. The eventual deck looking like a page from a manga. A lot of strategy comes in to balancing your deck; arranging Koma to fit in the limited space and create the best team. The relationship of the panels also affects the stats of the characters. While you can still utilize a Zoro Support character, placed anywhere on your grid, you can power up both him and your Luffy Battle card by placing them next to each other. Additional Help cards can be placed next to these to further boost your abilities as long as those characters have a good relationship with each other. Luckily you can build several decks to use in different situations.

If you are any kind of otaku, or love Smash Brothers type gameplay, you need this game. The fusion with a trading card game will test your creativity in building powerful decks to take on all opponents. While some Japanese is needed to read mission objectives and to assemble card pieces, don't let that steer you away from the 2D manga fighting madness contained within. There is always the ever-reliable GameFAQs to the rescue. After a bit of a learning curve, even the most illiterate of gaijin will be able to build their Ultimate Team to conquer all comers.

System: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Ganbarion
Genre: Fighting
Release Date: Aug 8, 2005
# of Players: 1-4
Online Play: No

IMPORT FRIENDLY - ▲
LOAD TIME - O
ORIGINALITY - ▲
GRAPHICS - O
MUSIC - O
LONGEVITY - O
OVERALL - O

Bonus point! Jump Superstars commercial:

Double Bonus points! Name the retro game with the American comic book theme:

owari degozaru