I recently got around to importing a game I’ve been after for some time now – J Stars Victory Vs. Now, I’ll just come out and say it. I love the game. It’s great for fans of any of the series involved and the game play seems solid enough to make it a fun time waster with some buddies who have similar tastes.

It’s doubly fun for me because, as a kid, there was this one anime character that I really loved and never got a chance to play as in a game because they never made one – but he’s on this roster.

Anyway, getting back to the review here; the game is solid. The fighting is fun and, be honest, the game has the same appeal as Super Smash Bros., or PlayStation Allstars. There’s just something fun and spectacular about pitting your favorite characters against each other.

The day I got the game in the mail, a friend of mine came over to try it. I was playing as Himura Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin, and he was playing as Urameshi Yusuke, the main character from Yu Yu Hakusho.

Now, these two shows played back to back on Toonami when we were younger, and I can’t explain the feeling I had when I beat him and said “I told you Kenshin could beat Yusuke.” There was a moment of silence, then we laughed about it. And the laughing didn’t stop. The game has that kind of effect.

The fighting mechanics, however, are lacking. There aren’t any deep combos to learn, or anything to really sit and practice at like a traditional fighting game. It’s more akin to the Dragon Ball Z Tenkaiichi games back in the Playstation 2 era.

Of course, that’s not a bad thing. The style works great for the game, it’s just not a technically impressive fighting game, so don’t expect it to be (although, there are neat tricks and nuances to learn).

To be fair though, I do have some gripes with the game. First up, the character roster. Go look back at the previous JStars game and look at the lists. They’re huge. This game has a roster maybe half the size.

Now, I understand it’s the first 3D Jstars so the roster took a hit. I’m fine with that, but a lot of the character picks I think they could’ve done better with.

For example, I’ll use Yu Yu Hakusho again. They have Yusuke, Hiei and Younger Toguro. Now, why they picked Togouro over Kurama or Kuwabara is beyond me, and this holds true for a number of the series involved. They could’ve picked better characters.

I only have a few other minor gripes. First, the characters aren’t all unlocked for free battle at the start, instead you need to ‘buy’ them with in-game currency you earn through playing.

This isn’t terrible, just annoying. Also, there isn’t a four player brawl mode, it only allows two player couch play (I played on Playstation 3), which seems ridiculous considering there are four fighters on the field (although online does allow 2 on 2).

If I had to give a verdict I would say… get it. The game isn’t blow-your-mind spectacular, but you’ll sink hours to the fun. And the game is really just that – fun. If you like Jump and it’s crazy cast of characters, you’ll feel right at home with Goku, Luffy, Gon, and the gang.