It's the fights that really count, and they're crazy fun. [Issue#225, p.71]

If it wasn't for Jump Force's highly entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable combat, the game would be a disaster. But Jump Force is a fighting game, and so everything about it that's turgid and unnecessary can largely be avoided or overlooked. It's got a large roster of fighters, plenty of content, and looks great in action. Those are the things to focus on. Could it have been a hell of a lot better? Of course. But that doesn't mean you should write it off. Neither should you write it off for its unusual art style. Just engage in its unique brand of fighting, block out the rest, and enjoy.

Jump Force is a game with some good and bad aspects. On the one hand, it comes with a great cast of characters that bring together the best Shōnen Jump manga combined with a spectacular combat system that will delight fans. On the other, the story is unoriginal with too many loading screens and weak scenes. So, it will certainly not be the best fighting game of the year, but we can always have fun with the spectacular attacks and customization of our avatar to create the ultimate Jump Force hero and beat the Venom.

For all the harm the middling presentation does to Jump Force, the fighting does have satisfying explosive moments and the online versus mode does work well. There is depth to uncover in the combat, but it never truly sang to me or made me excited to tackle the next fight. Mostly I was just happy to not have to repeat a fight when I won, even if I was performing iconic attacks from some of my favorite anime.

Jump Force somehow only achieves mediocrity at best despite the star power found on its roster and the potential that comes with that cast. The characters are indeed faithfully recreated, stylish abilities and all, but nothing feels seamless. From the horrible cutscenes and choppy combat animations to the struggling frame rate, everything feels cut together haphazardly. Jump Force looks like an excellent idea on paper as a crossover containing over 40 characters from various Shonen Jump series, but in practice, the vision falls flat due to a serious lack of polish.

Jump Force feels like a huge missed opportunity: a so impressive characters roster deserved more than a causal-oriented fighter with barely no difference between characters and a quickly boring combat system. Even the characters depiction ends up being disappointing, with a "realistic-ization" that does them no justice.

With such a vast amount of iconic material on show here, it’s disappointing to see the sheer lack of effort put forward in regards to its overall execution. The game’s combat is indeed reliably fun, but this means very little in the face of its several shoddy design choices, its horrendously lengthy loading times, and its cast of characters that are painfully devoid of characterization. Fans of the IPs would do well to temper their expectations.