Author: Bert Perez
After signing up for Xbox’s Game Pass Ultimate service, I knew I had a wealth of games waiting to be downloaded and played. Of course the main reason I subscribed to the surface is because of the relatively new Gears 5 being available to those enrolled. I was pleasantly surprised though to find Jump Force as part of the library of games available. Now this game has been out since February 2019 and it had been on my radar before then. I decided not to pull the trigger on purchasing it because I have my own catalogue of games that I’m trying to work through. I am glad I didn’t but am still happy to be able to play it.
Jump Force seemed to be the typical fighting game but does have a couple things going for it. First and most importantly, for all those anime fans that wanted to take their favorite characters from the Jump universe and pit them against each other, this game allows you to do so. With characters from DragonBall, Naruto, One Piece and more you have plenty of options to sample from. Also as part of the campaign, you are able to create your own character allowing you to create a mash up of styles from each of these top shows. Though you are forced to select a fighting style that reflects one of the three major shows for each character you make killing any hopes you have of making a super saiyan ninja priate.
The other highlight of this game is the change in art style to portray a more realistic look. The other fighting games revolving around these characters follow an art style similar to that of their respective shows. With this game you obviously get the sense that the developers, while having access to the unreal engine, wanted to make the game stand out from its predecessors. They certainly accomplished that and made the fighting sequences very flashy and over the top, but in a good way. However, there was a cutscene in which Goku’s hair mostly disappeared making him look bald with patches of hair all over his head. I tried desperately to capture this image but the Xbox’s screen capture function was disabled during the scene and I was not able to get a photo on my phone either.
Without a doubt, the fighting is the main attraction of the game and features some great combat controls. Personally, I have never been a fan of the long button pressing combos seen in games like Mortal Kombat or Injustice to execute flashy moves or take downs. With Jump Force you do get the standard quick attacks that deal small amounts of damage and the long attacks that deal more. Yet with a combination of two buttons you are able to unleash big attacks that are consistent with the characters you play as. Your personal character’s moves are customizable and is able to use the same moves too.
Unfortunately this game does have some flaws and some of them are downright annoying. The first major flaw is the unavoidable nuisance of loading screens. The game enters these loading screens way too often and feels like an eternity to wait for the game to move on. You not only get loading screens before every fight but you get them between cutscenes and sometimes after picking a menu option.
The next drawback of the game is the unnecessarily large social area that you appear in after each battle. It’s counterintuitive to add elements in a fighting games that take away from the fighting in the actual game. Dragonball Xenoverse and Naruto Storm Force both had similar problems. Both games wanted you, sometimes forced you, to explore these areas in order to progress further in the campaign.
DragonBall Area featuring Goku as team Leader. 
Naruto area featuring Naruto as team leader 
One Piece area featuring Luffy as team leader
Jump Force has shaped the social space around its story which at first seemed like a good story but later turned out to be a bit half baked. Essentially, the story revolves around the characters from the Jump universe suddenly being brought to life into the human world (the good) to later find out a power cube is responsible for turning humans and Jump characters alike into villains (the bad). You initially start out as a human but are fatally wounded and brought back to life by this power cube by the good guys.
After you get through some tutorials you then have to choose one of three factions that each, supposedly have different roles to play but the roles do not come across very well in the time that I played. Each faction has there own dedicated space which adds to the size of the social area. Yet the shop and mission elements in each faction exist elsewhere in the map making it redundant to have the same features spread out all over the place but at least you have a scooter that helps you move around.
Although I have only scratched the surface of this game I do expect to finish the campaign and try to earn as many achievements as possible. Even though it may not have been a mainstream success it still has some great qualities to it and I will definitely geek out over playing as the Naruto characters featured in the game. If you’re not a fan of either fighting games or of the anime titles this game features then this is not the game for you. Otherwise, I hope to see others enjoy this game as much as I have.