Late last month saw the release of J-Stars Victory VS, a 3D fighter where characters like Goku, Luffy, Naruto, and Kenshin all battle it out. But this is not the first Shonen Jump Magazine mega-crossover game. Rather, it's the fifth sixth.
Famicom Jump: History of Heroes
The first Jump crossover game was Famicom Jump: History of Heroes (ファミコンジャンプ 英雄列伝). It came out in 1989 for the Famicom (NES). It is an adventure RPG and features 16 playable heroes from among the 32 Jump series represented. Made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the magazine, the basic plot involves the Jump heroes coming together to fight an alliance of Jump's greatest villains.
Famicom Jump II: The Strongest Seven
The second game was a direct sequel: Famicom Jump II: The Strongest Seven (ファミコンジャンプII 最強の7人). Also on the Famicom (NES), this game was released two years after the first in 1991. Like its predecessor, it is also an adventure RPG. However, this time, the amount of playable heroes drops from 16 to 7. Of these seven, only two playable characters from the last game return—Goku and Momotaroh Tsurugi.
Jump Super Stars
The next major Jump crossover title, Jump Super Stars, wouldn't appear until 2005 for the Nintendo DS—14 years after the previous one. Unlike its forebears, Super Stars is not an adventure RPG but a Smash Bros.-like fighter. It features 34 playable characters from 27 different Jump series—with 160 characters total featured in some capacity.
Jump Ultimate Stars
The fourth Jump crossover, Jump Ultimate Stars, came a year later in 2006 and also on the DS. Like Super Stars, it is a Smash Bros.-like fighter but with a much expanded roster. In Ultimate Stars there are 56 playable characters from across 41 different series. A total of 305 characters appear in some form or fashion. However, even with the expanded roster, some characters—namely the ones from Hikaru no Go and Mr. Full Swing—do not return.
And what of the newest crossover, J-Star Victory VS? Stay tuned to Kotaku as we delve into it more over the coming week.
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