One of the best things you can say about Japanese characters is that all of them wear their influences on their sleeves with pride. If you take a moment to think about all the characters that have become popular out of Shonen Manga you will probably stay up a couple of days listing them all. This has been a growing trend that Americans have experienced since Dragon Ball Z made it to the USA.

It Works for the Rest of the World

That is one of those weird times when America is the last one to get on the bandwagon. The show became very popular in the late, but it was already a worldwide phenomenon that very few properties this side of star wars can challenge. Since that moment more characters have made their way from Japan to America, but never at the same rate that it happens with the rest of the world. When Bandai-Namco decided to create the Jump Force saga and bring it to America, it could go either way.

Sadly with this game, it goes wrong, and it’s all because the dynamics of the game remain lost in translation for American Audiences while the game makes a lot of sense to the rest of the world. Let’s elaborate for a minute: Jump Force is a crossover game in the same vein a Marvel vs. Capcom, the only difference here is that nearly fifteen different Animes are gathered under a single universe and a roster of nearly 40 characters has to fight it out. With such a premise, the plot is almost unnecessary, but Bandai-Namco still went for it and wrote a story for the game.

A Game that Looks Good and Plays Even Better

Let’s take a moment to state the obvious first: this game is brilliant when it comes to look and gameplay. The chance to team up teams of characters a la King of the Fighters is always great. The gameplay is no different from previous entries of Jump Force games, with improved mechanics that make it easier to land combinations. The cut scenes between fights or in the middle of them can be a little distracting, but given the fact that each character has a unique story, it’s hard to find fault on that. The humor of the game is very Japanese, and we loved every minute of it, from facial expressions to the lines uttered by some characters.

The of the Unreal Engine 4 gives these cartoon characters a super realistic take merged with a 2D design that is hard to topple even in regular animation, graphically speaking, this game has no matches right now (until something better comes along). So, with all that being said, we have to take a stand on the only problem of the game we did find. The port that is being sold in America changed a lot of the original script to make room for western references that have no place in a game like this one.

There is also the fact that many sites are ripping a hole on this game because they don’t get the pacing on a frigging crossover game that is not supposed to have a complex plot in the first place. Jump Force is one of the best games featuring all the popular Shonen heroes of all time. Don’t lose the chance to enjoy it because of a few naysayers!