Jump Force

After many hours playing Jump Force I have the feeling that the game is a missed opportunity. The fighting is a lot of fun, but the bugs and messy narrative drag the game into the mediocrity range.

If it wasn't for Jump Force's highly entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable combat, the game would be a disaster. But Jump Force is a fighting game, and so everything about it that's turgid and unnecessary can largely be avoided or overlooked. It's got a large roster of fighters, plenty of content, and looks great in action. Those are the things to focus on. Could it have been a hell of a lot better? Of course. But that doesn't mean you should write it off. Neither should you write it off for its unusual art style. Just engage in its unique brand of fighting, block out the rest, and enjoy.

Jump Force is a worthy celebration of the legacy of Shonen Jump manga, but it honors its source material a little too well with how filler-heavy the middle of its story arc is.

Jump Force is a game with some good and bad aspects. On the one hand, it comes with a great cast of characters that bring together the best Shōnen Jump manga combined with a spectacular combat system that will delight fans. On the other, the story is unoriginal with too many loading screens and weak scenes. So, it will certainly not be the best fighting game of the year, but we can always have fun with the spectacular attacks and customization of our avatar to create the ultimate Jump Force hero and beat the Venom.

The visuals and fighting system are worth the admission fee, but story, presentation and AI leave a lot of room for much needed improvement.

Jump Force celebrates 50 years of Shonen Jump with an overall rushed game that could have been so much more.

Given that Jump Force is supposed to be a celebration for Weekly Shonen Jump, I’d just cancel the party. The biggest names in manga have come together for a fast-paced, enjoyable fighting experience and instead it’s dragged down by a lacklustre narrative, repetitive missions and too many visual effects for its own good.

For all the harm the middling presentation does to Jump Force, the fighting does have satisfying explosive moments and the online versus mode does work well. There is depth to uncover in the combat, but it never truly sang to me or made me excited to tackle the next fight. Mostly I was just happy to not have to repeat a fight when I won, even if I was performing iconic attacks from some of my favorite anime.

40 playable characters and a huge fan service isn't enough for a fighting game. The game is technically disappointing with confusing camera management and a screen that often overdoses with visual effects.

Jump Force somehow only achieves mediocrity at best despite the star power found on its roster and the potential that comes with that cast. The characters are indeed faithfully recreated, stylish abilities and all, but nothing feels seamless. From the horrible cutscenes and choppy combat animations to the struggling frame rate, everything feels cut together haphazardly. Jump Force looks like an excellent idea on paper as a crossover containing over 40 characters from various Shonen Jump series, but in practice, the vision falls flat due to a serious lack of polish.

Boasting a roster of great Shonen Jump characters and a decent fighting game at its core, Jump Force forgets all of the other elements that you'd ordinarily take for granted. Fans might find something here to enjoy, but anyone who doesn't know their Frieza from their Vegeta might do well to steer clear.

Jump Force feels like a huge missed opportunity: a so impressive characters roster deserved more than a causal-oriented fighter with barely no difference between characters and a quickly boring combat system. Even the characters depiction ends up being disappointing, with a "realistic-ization" that does them no justice.

None of these issues are enough to bring a fighting game down on their own, but together they make for an excruciating exercise in patience, and I might have been able to find that patience if the game at large had more to offer. Its hyper-focus on gameplay does it no favors in that regard. Wait for a sharp discount if you must have it.

Jump Force is a mess of a game. It boosts a strong cast of characters and has decent fighting mechanics. The game is just isn't up to par when it comes down to the loading times, framerate and animations.