Jump Force’s 5th Anniversary Tells A Cautionary Tale

Summary

Looking back on Jump Force five years after its release makes it clear that aesthetic and genre choices were a major downfall, with its realistic visuals and arena fighter mechanics receiving criticism from fans.
The gameplay and single-player mode fell short, with repetitive fights, low playstyle variety, and a poorly written campaign. Glitches and technical issues further marred the experience.
Future Shonen Jump games can learn from Jump Force's mistakes by returning to a more vibrant and stylized look, offering genre variety, and improving team mechanics and single-player modes to create a more exciting and enjoyable game.

Entering 2024, there's no shortage of licensed Shonen Jump games for fans to enjoy. Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections recently launched, while Hunter × Hunter: Nen Impact and Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero are both on the horizon. Even older titles like Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker are still seeing regular DLC drops. In the middle of all of this action, there's been a noticeable lack of crossover Jump titles since 2019’s Jump Force. Released in Japan on February 14, 2019, and worldwide on February 15, Jump Force promised to be a grand crossover experience, but ended up as a high-profile flop.

That's not to say Jump Force sold poorly; in fact, it became the fourth highest-selling game of 2019 in North America, only beaten by multi-million sellers Resident Evil 2, Kingdom Hearts 3, and Anthem. Jump Force also got two seasons of DLC, something unlikely if it was underperforming. However, that didn't save it from being delisted from digital stores on February 8, 2022, with its multiplayer servers subsequently going down on August 24, 2022. Jump Force was presumably deemed not worth the cost of renewing its character licenses, and now only serves as a guide for how not to handle a Shonen Jump fighter.

Jump Force Was Misguided From The Start

Unfortunately, the issues plaguing Jump Force were visible right away. As soon as the first trailer was released, many viewers came away wondering why the game was so ugly. In an effort to appeal to North American audiences, Jump Force doubled down on a realistic aesthetic, applying photorealistic surface textures and a washed-out color palette to its iconic, stylized Shonen Jump cast. This wasn't universally hated, but it didn't take much time for Jump Force to be hit with unflattering comparisons to Dragon Ball FighterZ and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm that it never managed to shake.

Its genre was another warning sign to many, as frequent Bandai Namco-published anime arena fighters had been drawing fan fatigue since the PS2 era. To make matters worse, Jump Force developer Spike Chunsoft’s arena fighters had been going down in quality for years after peaking with Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 in 2007. 2014’s J-Stars Victory VS and 2016’s One Piece: Burning Blood were Jump Force’s immediate predecessors, and Jump Force would inherit almost every issue both titles had on top of introducing its own. This included lacking an English dub, flying in the face of its stated goal to attract more English players.

No Part Of Jump Force Was Good Enough To Hook Players

A lot could be forgiven if Jump Force’s gameplay or single-player were fun, and it did come with a lengthy story mode starring a custom avatar. Unfortunately, Jump Force couldn't even get this promising premise off the ground. 3-man tag teams felt like a vain attempt to hide the low playstyle variety among the large cast, and fights often felt like mindlessly mashing through bloated health pools. Even Jump Force's cinematic Ultimate Attacks weren't always enough to keep the action exciting. The campaign was poorly written and very repetitive without much reward, and the whole game was riddled with glitches and stuff animations. Combined with excessive special effects tanking the framerate, minimalist HUD elements, and a completely forgettable soundtrack, Jump Force wasn't built to last.

What Future Shonen Jump Games Could Learn From Jump Force

If there's one silver lining to Jump Force, it's that the game’s relative success means a future Jump fighter is still possible. There are plenty of lessons that a new Shonen Jump crossover could learn from Jump Force, and returning to a more vibrant and stylized look is just the start. Spike Chunsoft is already demonstrating this in the heavily cell-shaded, well-lit, and dynamic visuals present in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, so even if it gets handed the keys to Shonen Jump again, Spike should be able to deliver something better. Not allowing the most globally popular franchises to dominate the roster and DLC would also help, as one of past Jump fighters’ main strengths is how many properties they represent.

Another strength to bring back from older Jump games is their genre variety. Games ranged from action-RPGs to trivia competitions, and three of the five that actually were fighting games were platform fighters instead of arena fighters. The mechanics they used to stand out from Super Smash Bros. Didn't always pan out competitively, but it did breed 2D environments where characters had small but diverse movesets. Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars are especially well-liked despite never leaving Japan, so the next Jump game could earn some trust back by returning to their gameplay style.

The Next Jump Crossover Should Try To Be As Exciting As It Sounds

Even setting aside arena fighter exhaustion, comparing Jump Force to its predecessors shows better uses for team mechanics than Jump Force’s simple tag system just encouraging high-tier groupings. Reserving slots for multiple assist-only characters, which could work like Mortal Kombat 1’s Kameo Fighters in a new Jump title, would be preferred over three near-identical characters sharing one life bar in every bout. Speaking of MK, many fans would be overjoyed to see the first traditional 2D Jump fighter, though ensuring the next game meets the online standards that have been raised since Jump Force's launch is more important than conforming to any particular genre.

With decent online treated as a given nowadays, attention should be turned towards building a better single-player. The bar for fighting game story modes is low, and Jump Force falling short even with a great custom avatar in play was tragic. Since Jump crossover games, and licensed anime fighters in general, tend to live and die by their fanservice, ensuring that is felt in the gameplay, presentation, and writing should make most other mistakes a Jump game could make tolerable. Jump Force is a fascinating case study in what not to do with a crossover fighter, and hopefully, future projects will learn how to avoid its pitfalls.

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