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[DS] Jump! Ultimate Stars

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[DS] Jump! Ultimate Stars

Unread postby Marble » 22 Apr 2009 01:28

EDIT: Latest revision is up.
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Jump! Super Stars was a fighting game that had some cool ideas, and while enjoyable initially, was really quite shallow – basically another fan service anime fighter for the otaku, complete with simple combos and one button supers, etc. Jump! Ultimate Stars looks and sounds nicer, and adds new mechanics to create what initially seems like a game superior to that of its predecessor. Unfortunately, some of the hazardous game concepts present in Jump! Super Stars have evolved into disasters in this sequel.

The most notable changes include dash attacks being replaced by normal dashes (which are far more versatile) and the modifications to the help character system. Instead of their effects being activated by a touch at the cost of meter, their effects are always present and have no cost. The upside of this is that it allows you to add some simple customizations to your characters and give them abilities like triple jumping and air dashing. But unfortunately there are some help characters that are way too good, such as some that make your character automatically regenerate health over time.

Inescapable traps are another problem, most of which are caused by overpowered assists. There is this particular assist, which stuns you if you’re hit by it. Both the attack animation and the effects of stun last for a while. Even if you block it, it sets up a guard breaking move. Then, the only thing that can happen, is that you get stunned, and eat combos. Not a single character in the game has an answer for this trap. A singular purpose help character may save you, but as with most of the inescapable traps and infinite combos in this game, there is only one legitimate way out.

Assist characters could be used in hit stun in Jump! Super Stars. While the concept is amazingly retarded, in practice it did not impact too negatively on the game – but only because that game did not have any assist characters strong enough to fully exploit the broken nature of this mechanic. Not only has it been retained in the sequel, it’s far worse because the assists are overpowered. For example: Sena assist could break your combos in Jump! Super Stars, but all that would happen is that your movement would be slowed down. In Jump! Ultimate Stars, Sena assist can still break your combos, except he completely stuns you. There are equally broken assists (Trunks, Seiya, the list goes on) that allow you to break your opponent’s combos, and then proceed to combo your opponent! What this all means is; when your opponent has meter, hardly anything you can do is safe, even on hit! Developer Ganbarian has taken the worst concept from any fighting game I’ve ever played and amplified it to game ruining status.

And while this assist system may seem to fix the problems with the aforementioned inescapable traps and combos, it just brings more problems. It severely limits the options of every single character, severely reducing character diversity - and ultimately, complexity – from a game that was already pretty shallow.

As far as the characters themselves go, most of the cast is pretty balanced but there are a few characters at the top that are just too powerful. A good example is Raoh. The reason he’s so strong, (besides having good stamina and some of the best combos in the game) is because his up Y attack has ridiculously good priority and a huge hit box, and this move alone rapes most of the cast. Most characters in the game don’t have an answer for it, besides, you guessed it, having the right assist character.

A guard crush system was present in Jump! Super Stars where your guard would be broken if you blocked for too long. Much to my amusement, in Jump! Ultimate Stars you can remain blocking indefinitely just by rapidly tapping down on the d-pad! It’s not like this is hugely detrimental to the enjoyment of the game or anything - it just makes me wonder if they even played this shit before they decided to put it on shelves!

At first, Jump! Ultimate Stars seems to have a promising premise. There are some nice improvements from Jump! Super Stars, most of the stages look nicer, the music is generally more energetic (bar recycled tracks), inclusion of online mode is a big plus and some of the new character designs are excellent (such as Bankai Ichigo). But it is ultimately ruined by over powered assists/characters and the ridiculous situations they create. While the ability to use assists in hit stun may seem like a solution to this problem, it brings an even greater one and the end result is simply not fun. If these problems were removed, than Jump! Ultimate Stars could at least be a playable fighting game.

But what we get instead, is a frustrating game where none of your fucking moves are safe, even on hit. When both players are willing to capitalize on what is available and play for victory (Note: This is rare these days because most of the remaining Jump! Ultimate Stars community has silly beliefs regarding “cheapness” and “honour.”), matches mostly consist of A) Two players constantly firing a barrage of assists at each other B) Two players constantly tapping down trying to bait each others assists, or C) Two players jumping around the screen and using an assist whenever the other player comes near.

This makes Jump! Ultimate Stars an inferior game to its predecessor, despite being less vanilla. Whatever improvements Ganbarian made in this sequel end up being irrelevant once you get your skills to a level where you can understand just how broken the game mechanics are. After that, Jump! Ultimate Stars is capable of appealing to only one audience: Anime fags who think a good game is anything where they can pick Naruto and ignorantly mash buttons.
Last edited by Marble on 30 Jun 2010 05:24, edited 3 times in total.
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Unread postby icycalm » 22 Apr 2009 10:25

I lolled with the last sentence. Homophobia really does make every article better, it would seem.

It's a great review. Your judgements may be right or wrong -- I don't know since I've never played the game -- but as a review, as regards structure, argumentation, flow, and even to a great extent phrasing, grammar, etc., I really have no criticisms to make.

Except one rather major one.

You don't seem to be aware that this is a sequel to Jump Super Stars:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_Super_Stars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_Ultimate_Stars

If you have time at some point, you should read this article:

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/sequel_the_videogame

And pay special attention to the "Interchangeable reviews" part.

The gist of it is that when I am reading a review of a videogame sequel, the ONLY things I want to see criticised are the changes from its predecessor -- because I (as the ideal reader) -- have already played the first one and read your (as the ideal reviewer) review of the game, in which you already criticised the first game, and therefore also all its elements which have been retained in the sequel.

Because, if the changes between the two games are not discussed in the review of the sequel, where on earth will they be discussed? And what's the purpose of a sequel, if players do not even notice the changes and additions it brings to the table?

So, if you can play the first game, as well as research it extensively (in terms of balance, etc., since the competitive scene for it must probably be dead by now), and review THAT first (and you can also copy-paste whatever parts of this review are applicable to it, and use them there instead), I would like to post that review on the frontpage. Afterwards, if you want, you can also review the changes made in the second one, in a new review (either full length or one-minute).

Otherwise we'll just leave this review in here. It's a good review, and will no doubt be useful to many people, but I can't have sequel reviews on the frontpage which do not discuss the sequel's changes.


Some more observations, if you go ahead with this:

By reading the Wikipedia pages, I can see that there are aspects of the game(s), mechanical aspects, various game modes, etc. which you are ignoring. If you deem that they are not very important then don't devote much space to them, but ignoring them completely is not a good idea.

And the same goes for the audiovisual aspect of the game. You are completely ignoring it. Obviously, it must not have made a big impression on you either way, otherwise you would have said something, but I would still like your opinion on this, even if it's just a single line. I am not asking you to manufacture a reaction here, and launch into a paragraph of graphics/sound comments just because I asked you to -- but you must surely have a reaction to how the game looks and sounds, even if it is just "meh". Even a single line will do if you don't feel you have anything more to say on the subject.
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Unread postby Marble » 22 Apr 2009 11:15

Let me thank you for taking some of your time to make constructive criticism to my review, it's really helpful and I appreciate it a lot.

But yes, I will most certainly read that article as soon as I have the time. I will also try my best to track down a copy of Jump! Super Stars and review that (taking into account your other criticisms), although this may take a while.
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Unread postby icycalm » 22 Apr 2009 11:54

There's no rush. Take your time and do a good job.
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Unread postby Marble » 28 Jun 2009 05:19

Ok, it's been about two months and I do not have a review for JSS. I do however, have a review for JUS that contains comparisons from the previous game (in the same way that say, JoshF's Sonic the Hegehog 2 review does even though he has not reviewed the first game). I don't particularly want to write one for JSS, but if you do really insist that there has to be a JSS review to go along with this one (especially since you gave me such a detailed explanation and helpful criticism) then let me know I will write one anyway.

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Jump! Super Stars wasn’t the deepest fighting game out there, but by all means, it was perfectly playable and enjoyable. Jump! Ultimate Stars looks and sounds nicer, and adds new mechanics to create what initially seems like a game superior to that of its predecessor. Unfortunately, some of the hazardous game concepts present in Jump! Super Stars have evolved into disasters in this sequel.

The most notable changes include dash attacks being replaced by normal dashes (which are far more versatile) and the modifications to the help character system. Instead of their effects being activated by a touch, at the cost of meter, their effects are always present, and have no cost. The upside of this is that you can essentially customize your characters and give them abilities like triple jumping and air dashing. But unfortunately there are some help characters that are way too good. (There are many that make your character automatically regenerate health over time.)

In Jump! Super Stars, assist characters could be used in hit stun. While the concept is amazingly retarded, in practice it did not have too negative an impact on the game (because most of the assists were useless). Not only has this mechanic been retained in the sequel, it’s far worse because the assists are more powerful. For example: Sena assist could break your combos in Jump! Super Stars, but all that would happen is that your movement would be slowed down. In Jump! Ultimate Stars, Sena assist can still break your combos, except he completely stuns you. There are equally broken assists (Trunks, Seiya, the list goes on) that allow you to break your opponent’s combos, and then proceed to combo your opponent! What this all means is; when your opponent has meter, no move in the game is safe, even on hit (besides certain projectiles). Ganbarian has taken the worst concept from any fighting game I’ve ever played and amplified it into a game-ruining monster.

Another problem is inescapable traps, most of which are caused by overpowered assists. There is this particular assist, which stuns you if you’re hit by it. Both the attack animation and the effects of stun last for a while. Even if you block it, your opponent has more than enough time to use a down Y move, which will break your guard. Then, the only thing that can happen, is that you get stunned, and eat combos. Not a single character in the game has an answer for this trap. In this particular example, there is a help character that will negate the effects of this assist, all though it is useless outside of this situation. Otherwise, the only way out is having the right assists and enough meter to use them. As with many of the other infinite traps/combos in this game like this.

As far as the characters themselves go, most of the cast is pretty balanced but there are a few characters at the top that are just too powerful. A good example is Raoh. The reason he’s so strong, (besides having good stamina and some of the best combos in the game) is because his up Y attack has ridiculously good priority and a huge hit box, and this move alone rapes most of the cast. Most characters in the game don’t have an answer for it, besides, you guessed it, having the right assist character.

Jump! Super Stars had a “guard crush” system where your guard would be broken if you blocked for too long. Much to my amusement, in Jump! Ultimate Stars you can remain blocking indefinitely just by rapidly tapping down on the d-pad! It’s not like this is hugely detrimental to the enjoyment of the game or anything, it just makes me wonder if they even played this shit before they decided to put it on shelves.

If all the paragraphs above and a two star rating have not made it clear that this game sucks, then I do not know what will. But I am going to continue nitpicking anyway. The single player mode is still mundane and full of out-of-place “challenges” like collecting fruit and destroying walls. The “deck” mechanic (carried over from Jump! Super Stars) is a feeble attempt at balancing the game because you are given more than enough space to pick the top tier character of your choice, Trunks as an assist and still have room left over. There is even more fat content then the previous game, including a terrible mode where the players must fucking collect coins in order to win!

At first, Jump! Ultimate Stars seems to have a promising premise. There are some nice improvements from Jump! Super Stars, most of the stages look nicer, the music is more energetic (bar recycled tracks), inclusion of online mode is a big plus and some of the new character designs are excellent (Bankai Ichigo). But it is ultimately ruined by over powered assists/characters and the ability to use assists in hit stun. While this is the most obvious and prominent issue, it’s not by any means the only one. If the ability to use assists in hit stun was removed, then the game would be infinites galore! However, if Jump! Ultimate Stars received some serious fixing, we could certainly have an enjoyable fighting game.

What we get instead, is a frustrating game where none of your fucking moves are safe, even on hit. When both players are willing to capitalize on what is available and play for victory (Note: This is rare these days because most of the remaining Jump! Ultimate Stars community has silly beliefs regarding “cheapness” and “honour.”), matches mostly consist of A) Two players constantly firing a barrage of assists at each other B) Two players constantly tapping down trying to bait each others assists, or C) Two players jumping around the screen and using an assist whenever the other player comes near.

This makes Jump! Ultimate Stars an inferior game to its predecessor, despite being less vanilla. Whatever improvements Ganbarian made in this sequel end up being irrelevant once you get your skills to a level where you can understand just how broken the game mechanics are. After that, Jump! Ultimate Stars is capable of appealing to only one audience: Anime fags who think a good game is anything where they can pick Naruto and ignorantly mash buttons.
Last edited by Marble on 30 Jun 2009 04:19, edited 2 times in total.
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Unread postby icycalm » 28 Jun 2009 14:07

Marble wrote:Ok, it's been about two months and I do not have a review for JSS. I do however, have a review for JUS that contains comparisons from the previous game (in the same way that say, JoshF's Sonic the Hegehog 2 review does even though he has not reviewed the first game).


lol, yeah. There's only a tiny difference. Josh is a recognized veteran and expert on the genres he reviews, and I have no doubt whatsoever that he has played the first Sonic and knows exactly what he is talking about -- something which is also evident from his review. Contrast this with your case, in which I have not the slightest idea what you have played or what you know or how powerful your critical and judgement abilities are, not to mention that I personally have not played any of these games and am therefore completely incapable of assessing the correctness of your judgements. And at any rate if you "don't particularly want to write a review for JSS", there's no point in pushing you in this direction, because if you did write anything it would most certainly suck. So please do me a favor and don't write anything.

So anyway, I'll read the updated review and get back to you soon with some more comments, but just a quick note after skimming it: the use of the term "core mechanics" is among the most telling signs of a reviewer who has no idea what he's talking about. You can simply delete it from the first sentence of the second paragraph, without replacing it with anything, and it will read just fine.
Last edited by icycalm on 28 Jun 2009 14:18, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread postby Marble » 28 Jun 2009 14:15

Ah, yes that is fair enough.

Yeah just looking over it after posting it there was a few phrasings I was thinking about changing (I guess I didn't proof read it as well as I did the first time). I will get on it!

EDIT: Fixed some lazy phrasing in the review, such as the word "gameplay."
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