Bandai Namco Entertainment and Spike Chunsoft’s Jump Force is the latest video game featuring one of the most legendary stables of manga characters ever. But it’s far from the first and nowhere near the best. Video games based on Shonen Jump publications go all the way back to the Famicom, which is actually where most of the crossover titles lived until relatively recently. While some of the best Shonen Jump games have predominantly landed on Nintendo platforms (Shout out to Jump Ultimate Stars), there are plenty of quality titles to choose from on PlayStation consoles.
While it’s important to remember that with licensed anime games you’re never going to get that top shelf experience (except for Jump Ultimate Stars, shout out to the GOAT), there’s still plenty of fun to be had here. Battle Stadium D.O.N. won’t hold a candle to Super Smash Bros. by any estimation, for example, but that doesn’t mean a group of four anime dorks won’t have a great afternoon together huddled in front of a PS2 (or GameCube) at an anime convention.
As you may have gathered from my cheeky asides, this is a PlayStation-centric list. That means that any game not available on a PlayStation platform doesn’t qualify. That rules out most of the crossover titles, alas. So I opted to snag what I feel are prime examples for singular Shonen Jump properties to beef it up, and these inclusions are not necessarily the “best” overall games (that caveat is there mostly to justify Dragon Ball FighterZ being left out), but ones I feel encapsulate the Shonen Jump vibe the most.
Without further rambling, here’s the list:
Now for the fun part. Those were my favorite examples of Shonen Jump games. That said, readers, I’m wondering what you all think. What are some of the other Shonen Jump games out there you love, and why? Are there any Fighting for One Piece stans out there? Let me know in the comments.
Shonen Jump PlayStation List February 2019
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The Best of Shonen Jump on PlayStation
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Battle Stadium D.O.N.
This showed up on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube, and while only one of those platforms natively supports four players, it's still a Smash Bros.-like experience crossing over the "big three" during the height of the Naruto boom. It's wacky and weird, but the novelty outweighs its many kinks.
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Bleach: Heat the Soul
The PSP was an absolute haven for anime fans. While many of the anime titles released for the platform were never localized, the PSP being region free made importing a simple task. So many of them being fighting games, like this Bleach series that ran for 7 games, made the language barrier moot.
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Dragon Ball Xenoverse
There's something special about the Dragon Ball Xenoverse formula, and we see that exemplified in Jump Force's attempt to emulate its structure. It's a weird hybrid between MMO and Dragon Ball fighter, with crazy airborne action combined with some intense character customization. Also consider a goofy story and tons of unlockables, and you have a series that knows you love Dragon Ball and wants to let you roll in it.
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Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
You know those Yakuza games everyone loves? Well, this is literally another Yakuza, but set in the Fist of the North Star universe. It isn't a great take on the source material, but as a bizarre version that sees Kenshiro tending bar part-time, it's an experience like no other.
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J-Stars Victory Vs+
This is one of Spike Chunsoft's earlier efforts at Shonen Jump crossover fighting, but one that's much more a take on the Gundam Versus style compared to what Jump Force is doing. It's a tough learning curve, but the visuals are great and the roster has some real winners, such as the infamous Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo.
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Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Look, it's a CPS2 Capcom fighting game featuring the cast of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. This came out before the series became popular in the west so it was largely forgotten at the time (despite being localized!), but it did have a short-lived return on the PlayStation 3.
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My Hero One's Justice
Byking, developer of some truly strange action arcade lightgun games, created a Power Stone-like fighter baring the incredibly popular My Hero Academia license. It's fairly bare bones, but the core mechanics have a lot of simple complexity, and the single player mode has plenty of motivation to keep going through it.
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One Piece Pirate Warriors 3
Listen, there are a lot of One Piece games. This series even has Game Boy titles. This series is the god-king of Shonen Jump. It's also the only Shonen Jump property cool enough to get an official Musou series, and it even got three entries. Play this game if you like One Piece and big combos. It rules, especially the third one.
