Overview
Jump Ultimate Stars is a fighting video game developed by Ganbarion and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS, released on November 23, 2006. It is the sequel to Jump Super Stars. It is similar to the popular Super Smash Bros. series, except it uses characters from the Weekly Shonen Jump.
IMPORTANT
It should be noted that the game is in Japanese, from the story to the menus, and will require you to be knowledgeable in reading Japanese. This should not be a reason for stopping people from importing this game. There are several tutorials online on how to navigate the menus. Not only that, they are very intuitive and become second nature after a few play sessions.
Several people are turned off by this fact though, so its important to keep this in mind before venturing any further into importing this game.
Koma System
Jump Ultimate Stars utilizes the same "panel" system as it did in its predecessor, Jump Super Stars. Once again, players have a 5x4 grid that allows them to place whatever panels they seem fit to be part of their "deck". The koma come in different shapes and sizes. There are three types of "koma", battle koma, support koma, and help koma. Battle koma are 4-8 panels large, and serve as the playable characters a player can use in a battle. Higher panel koma usually yield higher damage special attacks and hp, but at the cost of having more characters in a deck. Support koma are 2-3 panels, and are a one time effect when used. They can be used as long as the player has at least one energy(SP) bar. Help koma are only 1 panel, and grant certain effects to a selected character, such as granting the ability for a triple jump, air boost, gaining more energy from attacking/blocking, etc. When creating a deck, one of each koma must be put in the deck, or else it will be invalid and unusable. As well, a "leader" character must be chosen (this character will appear first and be the "face" of your deck), and the player can set macros to the L and R buttons to any koma they wish to use.
Gameplay
Battles are fought on a 2D plane on different stages. Each stage is made to be related to a particular anime/manga series, and it is also made to look like a page inside a manga book. In fact, players can destroy the sides of the page and fall out (which results in a ring out). Platforms are present in most of the stages, as well as "gimmicks", such as the platforms moving or random effects that occur throughout the stage. Crates also appear in the stage, and can be broken to yield items that either positively or negatively affect the player.
Fighting is similar to Super Smash Bros. Players have a jump (and double jump) in the A button, two attacks buttons (B and Y), and a special attack button(X). Each character also has an Ultimate Action (UA), done by pressing or holding the select button, and these actions range from a short stun attack, to healing HP or SP. The player can also dash by double tapping a direction, and Jump Ultimate Stars introduces the ability to air dash as well. The attacks a character can do vary, as like Super Smash Bros, the player can perform neutral, side, up, and down attacks. This is done by pressing said direction with B or Y. The special attack only has neutral and Up X attacks. The L and R shoulder buttons can be used to map hot-keys to summon Support characters or call in Battle characters.
Nature System
Jump Ultimate Stars uses a nature system, which has a rock, paper, scissors relationship. Each battle koma has its own affinity, strength, knowledge, or laughter. Strength beats knowledge, knowledge beats laughter, and laughter beats strength. The stronger type will deal more damage to the weaker type, and this is visible in-game as contacting hits will result in a blue "hit" instead of the regular "hit".
Modes
Jump Ultimate Stars features three different modes, which offer various things from the main storyline to online play.
J-Universe
With your deck, go on the different worlds of Shonen Jump and complete the different objectives to gain new characters and new gems used to upgrade characters. There are also hidden objectives that can be unlocked.
J-Arena
This Includes a ranking play mode, that requires the player to compete in a tournament of 20 battles to see how far they can go. The battles have different objectives and modes, such as deathmatch, star collection, and point mode. At the end of each battle, points are awarded based on their place in the battle (1st - 4th). If a player manages to stay 1st in the tournament by the end, they are granted a bonus battle at the end, and if they win that one as well, they are rewarded with a pre-made deck.
There is also a mission mode in J-Arena, as well as practice and regular battle modes.
Wireless
Play against people from all around the world with Wifi connection or against friends with multi-card gameplay. After a battle, a player can choose to "save" their opponent's deck, either for practice or observation. There is also the option for Download Play. It is limited, however, to a single stage and set Koma.
J-Quiz
Take quizzes about your favorite mangas to test if your knowledge about these series is as good as you think it is.
Characters
The list of characters is pretty big so here's the list of characters with the different franchises they are from and how you can use them in Game:
Black Cat
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
- Saya Minatsuki
- Kyoko Kirisaki
Bleach
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
- Tokoro Tennosuke
- Gaoh
- Beauty
- Heppokomaru
Help Character(s)
- Hatenkou
- Softon
- Service Man
- Gyorai Girl
- Dengaku Man
- Ko Patch
Busou Renkin
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Captain Tsubasa
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Cobra
Support Character(s)
- Cobra
- Lady Armaroid
- Crystal Boy
D.Gray-man
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
- Rabi
- Yuu Kanda
- Aleister Crowley
Help Character(s)
- Miranda Lott
- Komui Lee
- River Wenham
- Cross Marian
Dr.Slump
Battle Character(s)
- Arale Norimaki
- Dr. Mashirito
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
- Senbei Norimaki
- Midori Norimaki
- Obocchaman
Death Note
Support Character(s)
Dragon Ball
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Eyeshield 21
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
- Mamori Anezaki
- Suzuna Taki
- Yukimitsu Manabu
- Daikichi Komusubi
- Natsuhiko Taki
- Tetsuo Ishimaru
- Doburoku Sakaki
- Haruto Sakuraba
Gintama
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Hokuto no Ken
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Houshin Engi
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Hunter x Hunter
Battle Character(s)
- Gon Freecs
- Killua Zaoldyeck
Support Character(s)
- Kurapica
- Hisoka
- Kuroro Lucifer
Help Character(s)
I''s
Support Character(s)
- Iori Yoshizuki
- Itsuki Akiba
Ichigo 100%
Support Character(s)
- Aya Toujo
- Tsukasa Nishino
- Satsuki Kitaoji
- Yui Minamito
Jigoku Sensei Nuber
Support Character(s)
- Nueno "Nube" Meisuke
- Yukime
Help Character(s)
- Hiroshi Tateno
- Kyoko Inaba
Jungle King Ta-Chan
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
- Joseph Joestar
- Josuke Higashitaka
- Giorno Giovanna
- Jolyne Kujo
- Gyro Zepelli
Help Character(s)
- Rohan Kishibe
- Johnny Joestar
- Jonathan Joestar
Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
- Hayato Gokudera
- Takeshi Gokudera
- Lambo
- I-Pin
- Kyoya Hibari
- Bianchi
Help Character(s)
- Kyoko Sasagawa
- Hary Miura
- Leon
Kinnikuman
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Kochi Kame
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
- Dajiro Ohara
- Reiko Akimoto
- Keiichi Nakagawa
- Volvo Saigo
- Kaipan Deka
- Hayato Honda
- Neruo Higurashi
Help Character(s)
- Lemon Giboshi
- Higure
- Haya Isowashi
- Terai
- Ai Asato (Maria)
- Haru Mido
- Tatsunosuke Sakonji
Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro
Battle Character(s)
Help Character(s)
- kane-chan
- Eishi Sasazuka
- X Majin
Midori no Makibaou
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Muhyo to Rouji
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
- Jirou Kusano
- Yoichi "Ryouji" Hiko
- Piko
- Esochee
Help Character(s)
Naruto
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Ninku
Battle Character(s)
Help Character(s)
One Piece
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
The Prince of Tennis
Support Character(s)
Pyuu to Fuku!
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
- Takane Shirakawa
- Jirou
- Pogii
Rokudenashi Blues
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
- Yoenji
- Katsuji Rokudenashi
- Masa-chan
- Chiaki
Rurnouni Kenshin
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Saint Seiya
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
- Shiryu
- Shun
- Hyoga
- Ikki
- Saori "Athena" Kido
Help Character(s)
Sakigake!! Otokojuku
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
- J
- Omito Date
- Jaki Daigourin
- Hien
Help Character(s)
- Genji Togashi
- Ryuji Toramaru
- Raiden
Shaman King
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Slam Dunk
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
- Haruko Akagi
- Mitsuyoshi Anzai
Taizo Mote King Saga
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Tottemo! Luckyman
Support Character(s)
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
Yu Yu Hakusho
Battle Character(s)
Support Character(s)
Help Character(s)
International Release
The game is not going to be brought over from Japan due to copyright issues. Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed this shortly after the games launch. Many import retailers like Play-Asia offer the game at a significantly higher price than most local DS games but that has not stopped it from being one of the most heavily imported titles as the DS is region free.
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