Jump Force for PlayStation 4: Everything you need to know

Naruto, Goku, and more are coming to the same fighting game.

Anime fans know all too well how heated discussions over crossover battles can get. Can anyone beat Naruto? Is Goku the strongest Super Saiyan? What would happen if these two iconic characters clash?

While we're often left to our own devices to imagine these things - there's a whole YouTube series on it, even - Bandai Namco is finally making it possible to let you figure it out in video game form. That's thanks to Jump Force, a new fighting game that features popular anime characters from the weekly Shonen Jump manga publication. Let's jump right into everything you need to know about it!

What's new with Jump Force?

We'll periodically update this article when Bandai Namco reveals new information about Jump Force that we think you'll want to know, so check back every so often to get the full scoop on the upcoming anime fighter.

July 23, 2018

Surprising no one, everyone's favorite Bleach characters will be jumping into the fray. Bandai Namco has announced that Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, and Sosuke Aizen will be playable characters in Jump Force.

The company also revealed a new Hong Kong stage where these characters will battle it out. These stages are meant to blend locations in the Shonen Jump world with real-world locations. You can get a glimpse of the Hong Kong stage in the screenshot above.

What is Jump Force?

Jump Force is an anime lover's dream. Nostalgic feelings of those Saturday mornings you spent watching Goku charge up his powers for 8 episodes of Dragon Ball Z or Naruto finally getting a handle on his nine-tailed fox rush through your veins. You live for those anime fights.

And until now, those anime fights were mostly contained within their own universes. Now you can bring these characters into the same fighting game and have them battle it out for real.

Anime showdown

For now, we know that Jump Force features characters from four popular anime and manga series. Those would be Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Death Note. You'll be able to fight with various popular characters from those series, with Naruto and Sasuke from Naruto, Goku and Frieza from Dragon Ball Z, and Luffy and Zoro from One Piece being confirmed.

Ryuk and Light Yagami from Death Note are confirmed as in-game characters, however, it's noted that they won't be playable. We're not sure what sort of role they'll have in the game. They could be support characters that you call on to help you during battle, but there has been no specific mention of their exact intent.

The characters emerge with a high degree of detail and a mouth-watering graphical art style. It's weird to see some of these characters in 3D for the first time - the 3D version of Luffy, for instance, felt like a big shock - but Bandai Namco has seemingly done an excellent job with character modeling to make each character feel familiar. It's also impressive how cohesive everything looks despite these characters coming from vastly different styles of animation and art.

Inviting gameplay

Jump Force is a 3vs3 Tag Battle fighting game played on a circular 3D plane akin to the Naruto Storm games, meaning you will select an opening fighter and two other characters to be tagged in at any time during a fight. Curiously enough, all three of your fighters share the same health bar, so tagging fighters in is less about extending your health pool and more about allowing you to pull off cool tag team combos or managing matchups.

To that end, Jump Force won't be difficult for anyone to get into. Early gameplay shows that it's an approachable fighting game. You can button mash and pull off some meaty combos if you're not big on learning the intricacies of fighting game mechanics. Each face button on the controller can be mashed to pull off different moves.

That's not to say there won't be an opportunity for more engaging combat, though. Advanced mechanics such as tag juggling and a special meter will give more serious players an edge, though it doesn't look like it'll be so much of an edge that a newcomer will feel oppressed.

Some may write Jump Force off for that reason, and that's fine. But it's clear that Bandai Namco found it important to let even the most casual anime fan enjoy this rare mashup game.

When can you play it?

Jump Force is scheduled to launch in 2019. There's no hard release date set just yet, but we do know it'll be available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC once it finally arrives. You can pre-order the game at Amazon.com right now for $59.99.

See at Amazon

Be sure to keep it tuned here for further updates about the game as we're sure to learn more about the roster, fighting mechanics, and pre-order bonuses as we inch toward release.