not very interesting…..

I recently bought a Nintendo DS and, at approximately the same time, a copy of Jump Super Stars for the DS. The DS itself is fantastic; it is a great shade of “electric blue” and isn’t as ungainly as I previously thought. Because importing a game takes time, I picked up a copy of Mario Kart DS at the time of purchase in order to have something other than GBA games to play with until Jump Super Stars came.

Mario Kart DS is a fantastic game. Take the gameplay style of the N64 version, mix it with the graphics of the new version, add a whole bunch of courses from all the games in the series, then add an online multiplayer mode. The game is easily the best of the Mario Kart series, and easily one of the best handheld games ever. The game in single player is good enough to shine, and the ONLINE multiplayer mode is just genius. Play against anyone in the world who also has the game, at any time, with very little lag!

Jump Super Stars arrived quite a bit later than I had expected it to. It seems that the USPS shipped it to my old address (the address I hadn’t lived in for about four months now), and left it there for a couple of days before picking it up and shipping it correctly. They did all this, even when the address on it was correct. Anyways, on to the game; the game at first is daunting not only because it is in Japanese, but because there is a bit of a learning curve. It is not a traditional fighting game experience like you would get out of Street Fighter or something, but is more like a mix of Super Smash Bros, Marvel vs Capcom 2, and a strategy game. The way it works is you have cards that you earn by completing missions. You can use these cards to set up a deck on the lower touch screen that allows you to switch between characters, call in support characters to do a little damage, and to use powerups.

The game itself is based of a series of popular anime titles in Japan. Probably the most notable are Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Bleech, and One Piece. The other series I really have no idea about.