Spike Chunsoft's Jump Force arrives on Switch more than a full year after its release on other platforms and it is, as it was then, a very mixed bag of anime nuts. Jump Force Deluxe Edition is an easy to learn, easy to master button-mashing brawler with a huge roster of over fifty characters from the illustrious archives of Shonen Jump magazine, it's a game that impresses in its initial hour or thereabouts before you start to get to grips with just how one-note the whole thing really is. This is a problem that's compounded in a Switch port that's a little too blurry to be comfortable in handheld and really struggles to maintain a decent framerate in its hub area when you take things online.
The story here, such as it is, sees you assume control of a player-created character who's been severely injured in an attack on New York City by Dragon Ball's big-brained baddie, Frieza. After being revived by Trunks using a mysterious Umbras Cube, you're granted the ability to become a Manga fighting hero and whisked back to Jump Force HQ where you'll choose a team of fighters to hook up with in order to put a stop to an apocalyptic plot involving Venoms, Umbras cubes and plenty of inexplicably convoluted conversations.
It's a single-player campaign that starts off well enough as you're introduced to the huge roster of ever-popular Shonen characters who've found themselves duking it in locations around the earth when their Manga worlds merge with reality. However, this fun premise quickly devolves into a dreary affair stuffed with flat exposition dumps presented in dull cutscenes with pretty much static representations of the various heroes involved. It's certainly a lengthy campaign all told, but it's also a repetitive and lazy slog that does nothing to excite or enhance the basic fighting that sits at the core of the game. There was a massive opportunity here to indulge fans with explosive confrontations between characters who share established histories and plenty of previous grudges – a whole world to take advantage of – but Spike Chunsoft just hasn't bothered, and it's a shame.
In terms of the actual fighting, things also get off to a pretty promising start. Facing off against your foes in teams of three, Jump Force is an immediately flashy, bombastic beast that's very easy to get to grips with. There's pretty much zero learning curve here as simple button presses pull off earth-shattering specials, awakening moves, flashy counters and parries. There are no complicated inputs to worry about; every character controls identically and within moments of booting the thing up you'll be flinging lasers and fireballs around arenas, causing screen-shaking earthquakes and stunt-rolling out of a Mini Cooper to shoot levitating oil barrels at your enemies.
Combat in Jump Force revolves very simply around timing dodges and blocks, tagging your partners in at opportune moments and giving yourself the space to charge up huge attacks that blow your opponent six ways from Sunday before they have a chance to do the same. There's certainly some fun to be had in the initial hours; tagging in teammates and surprising your foe with a sneaky throw, pulling off support attacks and investigating the hundreds of spectacular supers the game has to offer is undeniably a good time, but it's all very, very short-lived. There's just no getting away from the fact that the simplicity of the combat means that things get old quickly; it's repetitive in the extreme and a textbook example of style over substance.
There are efforts to inject some depth into proceedings, with all-manner of J-Skills and upgrades to apply to your character – through tedious and convoluted menus – and we appreciate the fact you can choose any moves from the entire roster of fighters to round out your player creations, but all of this feels redundant in the end because that core combat system is so repetitive and simplistic that you'll always be doing pretty much exactly the same thing during a fight.
Take things online and they improve slightly; there's an element of out-manoeuvring a human opponent that makes things somewhat more interesting, but, when all's said and done, once you've got tired of watching the fireworks there really isn't much more on offer here, unless you really are an absolutely huge fan of the characters and shows involved. There are events to take part in, missions and tutorials scattered around the extremely user-unfriendly hub area (would it really hurt to provide an actually useful map?) but all of these various activities result in you choosing three fighters and jumping into more of the same old, same old combat.
In terms of this Switch port too, as we mentioned, there's a blurriness to proceedings in handheld mode that makes things a little headache-inducing, with the resolution sitting at 540p for the most part, and taking things online causes the hub area (where you'll spend a fair amount of your time) to turn into a bit of a juddering mess. Finding opponents for online ranked battles or quick matches is also a pain; we managed a handful of fights during our time with the game – and they were impressively smooth when we got into action – but you should expect to spend quite a bit of time waiting or being thrown back to the menus if your preference here is PvP.
Conclusion
Jump Force is a good time for a short time; a simplistic button-masher that looks and sounds great in action but can't deliver in terms of providing players with any more than a handful of hours of dumb fun before it all becomes a bit of a bore. If you're a huge fan of the shows involved or you like your fighting nice and easy you'll get more than most out of things and jumping into an online battle – if you can find one – adds a little spice to the mix but, overall, this is a disappointingly dull, one-note affair that doesn't do its roster of ever-popular characters any sort of justice.
Comments 56
Wow a 5/10? You guys are way too generous.
So it's definitively a waste of money now, nice.
Man these characters are so deep down in the Uncanny Valley. They look super realistic but the eyes are like stickers and it just feels so off to me.
@Apportal Just what I was going to say I thought it was going to be a 2 or a 4.
When the game first arrived on other consoles, it got slammed so hard. I'm surprised they bothered to port it to the Switch, honestly.
It’s seriously terrible. God knows why I bought it but I did enjoy J-Stars Victory VS on PS4.
"Hard to find online opponents". I believe. Yet more, with the game just released.
@TG16_IS_BAE I’m starting to get the impression that Namco just doesn’t care about their craft anymore When they can just sell a subpar quality games and buyers will just eat it up. Same goes for Square.
@SeantheDon29 That seems to be going around a lot, lately. The Mario 3D collection...hoo boy, I really want that. But, the timed release window is something I don't support, and they didn't upgrade Mario 64 enough to justify the purchase, so it's a very hard pass for me. I may scalp it, though, 'cause in March that thing is gonna sell for more than the cost of the console, I wager.
@TG16_IS_BAE I guess they were trying sucker in Switch owners who were unaware of how disappointing it did on other consoles.
@nessisonett So it's not even as good as that game? That was my basis for thinking it would be passable...
@Elvie Basically! I mean, whenever you re-release something you have the opportunity to improve it...doesn’t sound like they did though.
@TG16_IS_BAE Oh you are talking about mario 64. It's not even the upgraded mario 64 ds version... That was my biggest disappointment.
@doctorhino The single player content’s pretty dire. Gameplay wise it’s about as good as J-Stars but that game had far superior content imo.
@doctorhino Right, for people who actually enjoyed the other games it must feel like a steal. I only want it for Mario 64, but yeah no thanks. I still own the original, and got a retrofighters n64 pad. Plays like a dream!
@TG16_IS_BAE I have played through the original more times than I can count, but I just wanted to play the ds version with an analog stick.
@doctorhino The DS version should have been their go to, but what do we know?!
Just port JoJo Eyes Of Heaven and I'll have my anime fighter fix
That or the new JoJo battle royale game
About what I expected tbh.
Feels bad my man Yugi shows up in a new Jump game and it's trash.
When this is like £10, worth it just for a few bouts with some anime characters, but nothing more.
The game is basically a mess. I get that Bleach, DragonBall, Naruto, and One Piece are very well known series but they don’t need 7 reps from each of those series. No love from Assassination Classroom, Kinnikuman, Reborn, Cobra, etc. for a game that’s supposed to celebrate 50 years of Jump I thought it could go more than just 16 series. Kudos for adding Ryo from City Hunter and two Saint Seyia characters, but meh. Just an average anime brawler with lame music.
Rating is low to me. I think more like 6.5 if you are big fan of anime/these character/shows. I own it on PS4 and it was worth the buy. Think when this hits $39.99 on sale, you wouldn’t regret buying it.
Betcha the next game they're bringing will be Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, hopefully it's better than this joke of a game.
Strange. I like the game on balance but this review is bang on the money. It still reads like a 6/10 personally. Anyway.....
Also, the DS Jump game was admittedly far, far superior to this one.
If powerpoint presentations was a anime fighting game.
@shonenjump86 J-Stars had a way more interesting cast. They even had Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo playable!
@nessisonett yes, I have J Stars on PS4 as well. That game isn’t that great either, but it did a better job at having more series included in that one. I liked how it had series like Haikyu and To Love Ru and didn’t just focus on series that was all about battle. And not to mention that J Stars has one of my favorite villains on there. Raoh from Fist of the North Star. 😁
Tried it on Game Pass, had fun for a few hours, got bored, deleted it.
That sums it up.
Oh gosh darn it. I was too quick to Jump the gun and get it. Since it was all the money I had saved, I feel Forced to play this.
@TG16_IS_BAE
Namco: "Okay we have Tekken 7 and Soul Calibur 6. Which is going on Switch?"
Some drunk exec: "THE SHONEN ANIME GAME THAT BARELY RUNS ON PS4, DUH!"
This review is way too harsh. This game is no more simplistic than any other arena fighter, i.e. the Ninja Storm Trilogy or My Hero Academia One Justice games. I'd give it a solid 7.
@JR150 Hahaha, you got me at the “some drunk,” that was well placed!
"A Textbook Example Of Style Over Substance" couldn't have been more true. Honestly, that seems to be true for a lot of anime games. Dragon Ball Fighter Z seems to be one of the few of them that has style AND substance.
@TG16_IS_BAE Lately? It's been the sad reality for ages.
@Entrr_username Too true!
@StefanN Thanks, now I can't unsee sticker eye Goku.
Whatever. I enjoyed it personally, so (for better or worse) I'm still interested in double-dipping on this on my Switch. I mean, it's not "great", sure, but I played far worst fighting games in this style throughout my lifetime as a gamer.
If you guys want a real "textbook example of style over substance" fighting game, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy (as well as Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle) can tell you all about it.
@Yosher I think you meant the guy below me!
I'm not a Dragon Ball fan, but that Fighter Z game nailed the visuals when I saw a friend play that game. Why couldn't this game do that? Also, Luffy just looks, disturbing...like...he ALWAYS has that face...From what I've seen I think the characters all have just one expression in this game. lol
@Kalmaro ....right. I mis-clicked. Sorry about that!
@Yosher No worries! I think when you edit, they still get a notification.
For me the good part is there are a lot characters to play, pretty much cover all the manga characters I know, which is really good.
The problem is they should just let you chose your main character as your favor I ate character instead of creating one that has absolutely no soul. Just look at this character: no matter how hard you make the face he/she does not talk, and during the conversation it only node the head like a *****.
The cutscene is almost meaningless as why I even bother I watch a repetitive conversation that lasts only 2 seconds but requires 10 seconds loading time?
For me 5/10 score is fair, as it is made for fans so you can play with your favourite characters but apart from that, there is not much left.
Bandai is so hesitant on bring games they people actually want, to the Switch. Yet they happily give us this rubbish?
@locky-mavo that because namco doesnt give a crap about probably still butthurt over being replace by retro studios for prime 4.
@TG16_IS_BAE
They ported this atrocity, yet Namco Bandai aren't sure if they should port .Hack GU (despite rpg's doing very well in general on Switch) to the Switch?
Namco Bandai is a weird company sometimes...
This game should be in 2D like skull girls! dose the game have Jotaro from JoJo because than I'm buying this game
@LatsaSpege Well the original games were in 2D and on the ds I believe. They were a lot of fun!
@NinjaSyao 100% agreed.
I actually like this game a fair bit on ps4, the combat isn't exactly complex, but it does provide a decent amount of mindless entertainment. It's a shame they didn't take the opportunity to add some additional modes - in particular things for local multiplayer (minigames and the like) - as I think it could have really elevated this game, and made it a little more appealing for the average player.
Well I ordered it from Gamestop and it's on the way and I want to play it for myself to judge it. I'm a fan of several of the series included so it may have some value to me and if I have at least some fun with it then I'm good.
@TG16_IS_BAE I think I realized why and it's sad. I think they got an N64 emulator working and just threw the ROM in it. That probably means no N64 SNES type deal since they are selling it at a premium and maybe even game packs coming of other N64 titles.
@doctorhino Yeah, it’s somewhat surprising to see such minimal effort from Nintendo, of all companies. Their new leadership needs to go, he’s not steering them in a good direction.
I find this game fun to play. It let's me play characters that I can create and it never fails me to play further. It does get harder but what game doesn't? This is my favorite manga-brought-to-life game.
Not surprised. It's a game where the characters play exactly the same, the artstyle is unappealing, the music is forgettable, the story is a cringe-inducing mess, the content is bare-bones, and the online is still a problem. I would've actually preffered a Switch port of Code Vein than this.
If people want to try out a somewhat decent arena fighter, then just get KLK:IF or One's Justice 2. They aren't perfect either, but at least they have superior artstyle, gameplay and soundtrack (and they have english voice overs which is a pretty big bonus imo).
@TheMelodiusRose Bro, this comment is nearly two years old 💀
To be honest, I am not too fond of a fighting game that is a bit talkative and slow. Also, why do you need to to talk to four key characters of the first three sectors and the main chamber to unlock the whole base roster of characters in the game to begin with? Who would make that an Idea? Games would have a whole set of characters ready without needing to be talking to anyone just to unlock them like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, My Hero One's Justice Series, Street Fighter series, Mortal Kombat series, Injustice Series, Tekken series, King of Fighters series , DNF DUEL, Blazeblue seriesseries, Guilty Gear series, Soulcailbur series. etc. I just don't get it. Also, why would they put a gauge just for dodging, I get special attacks and shields are fair and all with limited amount and times, but the dodging part is a rather, unfair choice for playing in fighting games. It just makes it easier for the AI to beat you.
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