Jump Force

Jump Force (Japanese: ジャンプフォース, Hepburn: Janpu Fōsu) is a crossover fighting game developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment featuring characters from various manga series featured in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump anthology in celebration of the magazine's 50th anniversary.[2] The game was released on February 15, 2019 for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with a Nintendo Switch port scheduled for release worldwide on August 28, 2020.[3][4]

Jump Force
Box art featuring (from left to right) Naruto Uzumaki, Monkey D. Luffy, and Goku.
Developer(s)Spike Chunsoft
Publisher(s)Bandai Namco Entertainment
Director(s)Toyokazu Sakamoto
Producer(s)
  • Hiroyuki Kaneko
  • Koji Nakajima
Programmer(s)
  • Akira Watanabe (Lead programmer)
  • Shigeru Saito
  • Yosuke Yoshida
Artist(s)Satoshi Tsurumi
Writer(s)
  • Ryuichi Hitori
  • Yuuya Amano
  • Hiro Ito
Composer(s)
  • Takanori Arima
  • Zac Zinger
  • Chad Seiter
  • Jerome Leroy
SeriesShōnen Jump
EngineUnreal Engine 4
Platform(s)
ReleasePlayStation 4
  • JP: 14 February 2019
  • WW: 15 February 2019[1]
Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
  • WW: 15 February 2019
Nintendo Switch
  • JP: 27 August 2020
  • WW: 28 August 2020
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Premise

When the real world collides with many of the Shōnen Jump universes, humanity is invaded by the "Venoms", an army of mind-controlled villains led by Kane and Galena. In order to fight back, many heroes are recruited to join the "Jump Force" under the leadership of Director Glover and his A.I. partner Navigator. But a suspicious figure is using both the Jump Force and the Venoms as an attempt to gain a mysterious artifact and merge all worlds into one.[5]

Plot

Frieza attacks New York City with an army of Venoms, being confronted by Goku; however, a stray laser blast from Frieza fatally wounds a civilian in the war zone. Trunks revives the civilian with a cybernetic device called an umbras cube, giving them the potential to be a hero like them. Frieza withdraws, allowing Goku and Trunks to take the civilian back to their HQ, where they are greeted by Director Glover. Glover explains that the manga worlds from "Jump" have somehow begun merging with the real world and using their own umbras cubes to turn evil-hearted humans into Venoms, forcing him to create the Jump Force to quell the threat; the organization consists of heroes from the "Jump" worlds, along with other people saved through the cubes.

The group is divided into Alpha, Beta and Gamma teams; Goku leads Alpha (along with Piccolo, Zoro and Gaara) to fight off the invading Venoms, Luffy leads Beta (along with Boa Hancock, Vinsmoke Sanji and Boruto) to reclaim the territory from the Venoms, while Naruto leads Gamma (along with Kakashi, Sasuke, Trunks and Sabo) for stealthy reconnaissance. The new hero, who serves as the game's player character, is asked to join one of the divisions to help repel the invasion.[6] Light Yagami has also joined, secretly to find a way to restore his Death Note; the worlds merging de-powered it.

The Jump Force discover other heroes being mind-controlled by umbras cubes charged with evil energy. They free the heroes and recruit them, taking the cubes for inspection. Duplicates of the Jump villains made of the dark umbras cubes also appear, along with the real ones, adding to the confusion.

After an amnesiac girl named Angela is rescued, several members of the Jump Force suddenly become possessed by evil auras during missions, leading them to suspect a traitor is among them. While Sanji is initially blamed, the culprit is revealed to be Angela, who is a disguise for the evil Galena. Galena steals the collected umbras cubes and gives them to her master Kane, a man seeking to wipe out humanity in revenge for the deaths of his family. The player pursues and defeats Kane, but Glover reveals himself to be the true mastermind behind the merging of the worlds, and kills Galena and leaves Kane to die for having outlived their usefulness. In truth, he is Prometheus, a "keyman" who was charged with showing the real world the stories of "Jump". However Prometheus grew tired of humanity's vices and attempts to merge the real and the Jump worlds together in order to guide humanity in the right direction.

Prometheus steals the player's cube for its good energy, planning to use it to balance the evil energy he collected from the villains to become a god. The villains temporarily ally with the heroes, while Kane gives his cube to the player and Goku empowers them further with the energy from all of the Jump Force, allowing them to destroy Prometheus. However, his death does not separate the realities, leaving Earth still under threat from the Jump villains. At Trunks' suggestion, the player character becomes the new Jump Force director and continues to protect humanity.

Meanwhile, Light finds an umbras cube left behind by Prometheus, planning to use its dark energy to re-power his Death Note.

Gameplay

Jump Force is a 1-v-1 fighting game where the player controls a team of three characters from a selection of various manga series featured in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine.[2] Players control one character at a time while the others are used as support, with players able to switch between them during battle. Combat functions similarly to the previous Jump fighting game, J-Stars Victory VS, with players moving around a 3D space and utilizing various combos and special moves to attack their opponents. The match ends when one team depletes the other's health bar.

Characters

The game's launch roster features 40 playable characters from 16 series, with 14 additional characters available as downloadable content via Character Passes and three added as part of a free update for a total of 57 characters. In addition, players must create their own unique playable character, customizing them with abilities, outfits and accessories earned through gameplay.[7]

Playable characters
Black Clover
Bleach
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
City Hunter
Dragon Ball
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai
Fist of the North Star
Hunter × Hunter
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
My Hero Academia
  • Izuku Midoriya[24]
  • All Might (DLC)[25]
  • Katsuki Bakugo (DLC)[26]
  • Shoto Todoroki (DLC)[3]
Naruto
One Piece
Rurouni Kenshin
Saint Seiya
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu Yu Hakusho
Original Jump Force characters
  • Galena (ガレナ, Garena)[33][34]
  • Kane (力イン, Kain)[33][34]
  • Prometheus/"Director Glover" (プロメテウス/グラバー, Purometeusu/Gurabā)[33][35]

Non-playable characters
Death Note
Original Jump Force characters
  • Navigator (ナビゲーター, Nabigētā)[33]

Development and release

Jump Force was developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco.[37] The game is using Unreal Engine 4,[37] and was created in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shōnen Jump.[37] Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama designed the original characters created for the game.[32][38][39] Jump Force was announced at E3 2018 during Microsoft's press conference[2] and the game was released on February 15, 2019 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[37] A Nintendo Switch port was announced in April of 2020. The Switch version, titled Jump Force Deluxe Edition, includes the downloadable content from the first Character Pass and is scheduled for release worldwide on August 28, 2020.[3][4]

Reception
Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
MetacriticPC: 60/100[40]
PS4: 56/100[41]
XONE: 61/100[42]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Destructoid6/10[43]
EGM6.5/10[44]
Game Informer6/10[45]
GamePro75/100[46]
GameSpot7/10[47]
GamesRadar+[48]
IGN6.3/10 (English)[49]
7.5/10 (Spanish)[50]
OXM (UK)8/10[51]
Hobby Consolas71/100[52]
Shacknews7/10[53]
Softpedia[54]
The Games Machine7.3/10[55]

The game received "mixed or average reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.[41][40][42]

Sales

In Japan, approximately 76,894 physical units for PS4 were sold during its launch week, becoming the top-selling game that week.[56] As of 17 March 2019, the PS4 version has sold 190,214 physical units in Japan.[57]

In North America, the game debuted at number two on NPD's monthly sales chart for February 2019, behind only Anthem. Jump Force is North America's fourth best-selling game of 2019 (behind only Kingdom Hearts III, Anthem, and Resident Evil 2), and had the third highest launch month sales for a Bandai Namco game in the territory.[58]

In the United Kingdom, Jump Force debuted at number four on the weekly charts, with the PS4 version accounting for 74% of launch sales.[59] Steam Spy estimates that the PC version sold between 50,000 and 100,000 units worldwide on the Steam platform, as of 23 March 2019.[60]

Awards
YearAwardCategoryResultRef
2018 Game Critics Awards Best Fighting Game Nominated [61]
2019 The Game Awards 2019 Nominated [62]
2020 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Fighting Game of the Year Nominated [63]
NAVGTR Awards Game, Franchise Fighting Nominated [64]

References
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  2. Lee, Julia (10 June 2018). "Jump Force brings together Dragon Ball, One Piece, Death Note and more". Polygon. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  3. "Jump Force Deluxe Edition for Switch launches August 27 in Japan and Asia". Gematsu. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  4. Romano, Sal (15 June 2020). "Jump Force Deluxe Edition for Switch launches August 27 in Japan, August 28 in the west". Gematsu. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
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  12. Sherman, Jennifer; Mateo, Alex (18 January 2019). "Jump Force Game Adds Boruto to Lineup". Anime News Network. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
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