Jump Superstars (Nintendo DS)

The import of Jump Superstars has been getting pretty favorable reviews on the net, so I was wondering does anyone here have it and what do you think? I’m also wondering how playable it is with very basic knowledge of japanese (I’m mostly worried about the deck building part, I doubt the rest of the game has much text).

Also, anyone know if it supports single-cart multiplayer?

I enjoyed it. It’s not the deepest fighter you’re ever going to see, but the deck system is a pretty neat wrinkle. I didn’t get too wrapped up in strategy, but it was fun to see what sorts of attacks the different characters had. One interesting touch is that any given character will have multiple movesets, depending on which card you use to place that character in your deck. I liked that.

I’m not sure how much you’ve read about it, but you have to unlock the cards before you can do too much deck building. You unlock the cards by going through the mission mode. The goals for the missions are in Japanese, but there are good translations available. I used this guide over at IGN to get through the language barrier. There are also one or two at Gamefaqs. I was able to get through the mission mode and unlock all of the cards with those guides, and I don’t speak or read a word of Japanese.

Building decks is a little tricky, but that IGN guide will help a lot. I didn’t have much trouble with it after reading that. The mecahnism for unlocking the multi-panel cards involves some trial and error, but there are guides to those as well, if you get really stuck.

I think it supports single-cart multiplayer, but you’ll only be able to use the cards that you’ve unlocked. I haven’t played any multiplayer, though, becuase the only other person I know who has a copy lives an hour away and hasn’t started the game yet. cough ;)

If you follow some of the anime or manga that are featured in the game, then you’ll probably enjoy it. Also, if you get obsessive about collecting things, then you’ll enjoy unlocking the cards. I had more fun going back after finishing a couple of missions and seeing what new cards I had than I should probably admit to.

Thank you for the impressions! I does sound like a game I would enjoy, even though I’m not into fighting games all that much at the moment.