For those of you who don't know, Jump Superstars is the result of a collaboration between the famous Japanese Jump magazine and Nintendo of Japan. It features a total of more than 150 characters from 27 different anime/manga series, including the likes of Goku from Dragon Ball Z, Naruto Uzumaki from Naruto, and many, many more.

Graphically, Jump Superstars is a pretty game. It probably sports the best 2D on the DS thus far, although it's not as if the game looks so good that it won't ever be surpassed in the graphics department on the system. Still, the game just looks so polished and nice as these characters battle in these manga inspired areas.

In terms of gameplay, Jump Superstars has a simple, yet effective battle system. In order to K.O. (knock out) your opponent, you will have two ways of doing so: either knocking them out of the battle area through a broken wall or by depleting their J-Soul. J-Soul is basically recognized as your common life meter. When you die, you drop these gold coins with the letter "P" on them, essentially the equivalent to how much power is left on your special gauge. Your special gauge determines how many more special attacks you can pull off before you have to replenish your power, either by constantly attacking your opponent or by picking up other gold coins. Gold coins can also be found in barrels and treasure chests in addition to fallen enemies.

Some people have compared Jump Superstars to the Super Smash Bros. series, and that would be a pretty accurate assessment. However, they're not quite similar in every category. Yes, both games allow up to four characters to battle on-screen at once, but Jump Superstars uses the DS' bottom screen for a unique gameplay element: by touching on a certain manga piece, you can switch characters, summon help, or even do some combo attacks. It's a pretty neat way to switch characters and proves that the DS' second screen isn't a gimmick.

Sound-wise, Jump Superstars has some catchy music. Each area has, as expected, a different tune and nearly all of them are just great to listen to.

Jump Superstars should provide most people with a solid amount of replay value. The main mode in the game is called "J Adventure." Basically, in "J Adventure" you go through these missions spanned across four different "islands." Each "island" has plenty of missions for you to finish, and each mission has several goals for you to complete; for example, one goal may require you to break more barrels than your opponent while another may require you to not get K.O.ed. As you could imagine, the former would be easier to accomplish over the latter.

Overall, Jump Superstars is the type of game that is perfect for the DS. In addition to providing a geniunely fun experience, it also showcases the DS' second screen in a pretty unique and interesting way. It's almost guaranteed that due to all of the licenses involved in the game, Jump Superstars likely won't see the light of day outside of Japan. Still, that shouldn't stop you from checking out a FAQ at a site like GameFAQs -- if you don't know any Japanese -- and importing this game because it'd be a damn shame to miss one of the best games that the DS has to currently offer.

It sure has been a while since I last updated thing, eh? *dusts off journal* Heh, I have some updates for you all:

- PSP360.net is still up but, sad to say, I have completely lost interest in terms of updating it, meaning that it'll be down and out within the next month. I had fun at times during the few months it was on, but with college and all, I simply realized that I couldn't afford to go on with it much longer.

- I do have a new Web site, soul[dot]less[dot]com. It's been up for a few weeks now (it's actually down at the time I'm writing this; it should be back up sometime tomorrow). Basically, it's a little personal site of mine where I post game reviews, among other things.

Hey all, it's been a while since I last posted something in my journal, but I'm here to tell you all that I've, in the last few days, started my own Web site, PSP360.net. In case you can't tell from the name (which also happens to be the URL, heh), the site covers the PSP and Xbox 360.

Here's a direct link to it: PSP360.net. I'd appreciate some feedback on it.

EDIT: I've added some forums to the site which you can check out (and register at! ) here.

Hey all, I got my PSP today from EB Games this morning. I'm currently recharging it, but hope to post impressions of the 6 games I have soon.

Ah... and here is a quick impression of the PSP itself after taking it out of the box: holy crap this thing is small (and sexy)!

Hey guys, I'm updating just to let you know that I've, partly thanks to my mom, finished paying off my PSP reservation. All I need now is my PSP unit to play the two games that I already own, Twisted Metal: Head-On and Wipeout Pure, on.