"Manga never looked so good."

This wonder was announced for the DS shortly after the DS came out. For me, it was one of the reasons to get a DS. Having around 150 characters out of 27 different series, it ranges from the new star Naruto and Ichigo to superstars Gokuu and Kenshin. The amount and variety of characters alone would have anyone interested in manga, interested in the game. Well, if you're reading this, you're probably one of them.

STORY:
I'm not.. too quite sure on this one, and it's not a big part of the game by any means. Someone's trying to do something with the manga world, and you're stopping him.

AUDIO:
Something I rather enjoy. It's nothing TOO fancy, but very high-tempo and fitting for the game's settings. A very typical, easy-to-listen-to, and not distracting soundtrack. In short, very Shonen Jump-esque. There are no voices in the game, for mainly three reasons. For one thing, getting all the voice actors or voices for the characters at all would take the developers a long time to make; 2: this is a manga-based game; 3: with all the characters and attacks, it would be insane to determine what exactly was going on. Although, I would have enjoyed some voices, it was definitely better to leave out. Adds to the entire feeling of the game. However, the attacks and everything else has a sound effect. Nothing out of the ordinary.

VISUAL:
The graphics for this game are in 2D. You control a various amounts of 2D sprites in the game that look like the character they're supposed to look like. Very sharp and clean, although it doesn't get to every little detail. Just your typical 2D sprites, but exceptionally clear and crisp because of the DS. Everything else: the interface, the world maps, the menus are all very easy to navigate and visually appealing.

GAMEPLAY:
Now here's where it gets interesting. Instead of the typical pick-your-character and duke-it-out, you have something called a koma deck. Komas are sort of like cards for you deck you customize for use in battle. There are three types of komas: battle (the character you control), help (people who help you with certain attributes), and support (people who come out and do attacks or help you in your battle). Each deck needs one battle, one support, and one help koma. Each koma consists of various sizes and shapes. The more blocks a koma has, the more powerful the koma is, usually. 1 block komas are help, 2-3 blocks are support, and 4-7 blocks are battle characters. You arrange your deck according to how you like it to appear on the touch screen, so in battle, you just touch each koma to use. Not only that, komas allow you to do special things such as a special TAG COMBO, a regular combo, and just switching out between characters. The proximity of the komas also affect you on the battlefield. Putting Naruto and Sasuke together yields a positive result, as with Gokuu and Gohan, Piccolo with Gohan, Kenshin with Sanosuke, etc. Komas are unlocked as you go through a JWORLD, a small overworld map where you navigate to different areas to fight people with certain conditions to beat for unlocking komas. Very often, you get something called a "serifu" koma or a speech koma, which is a silhouette of a character and a phrase they say in the manga. You use these to match up with a help koma to unlock the "serifu" koma, which can range from 1-7 block komas. Now to actual gameplay...
The stages are large places, consisting of many chests, barrels, boxes that have items, similar to Super Smash Bros. You can KO characters by beating them to a pulp, or ringing them out. You have a jump button, a light attack, a heavy attack, and a special attack. These can be used in combos with each other using directional buttons. This adds a LOT of depth to the game, similar to Super Smash Brothers. Now think about that WITH the koma system. You have one VERY fun and VERY deep game.

BOTTOM LINE:
Now, you're probably wondering "OMG WTF THIS IS JAPANESE THOUGH! WILL THERE EVER BE AN AMERICAN RELEASE?" I have two answers for you..
Once you get used to the game, navigating through will be a breeze, ESPECIALLY if you use the helpful FAQs that the JSS board members have compiled. I know I needed them. As to your question about an American release, it's been agreed that it will not likely see a release stateside for licensing issues and such.

You can purchase the game from many import stores, look out for your best options!

DS owners, I'd be jumping for joy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/05