These game was a major fixture for me, and a fantastic way to learn about shonen manga. Since the DS, we've gotten other Jump crossover games and other Ganbarion platform fighters, but I've always longed to see this series return.
Since it's been quite a while since the last one, there's certainly a lot of new material that a game could pick from. I mostly live under a rock, though, so I'm just going to start us off with stuff that I would be excited about even at the time:
I don't think it's the most well-known version, but the first piloted giant robot series actually got its start in Weekly Shonen Jump. A few months after it would get its anime and an accompanied second manga for another magazine - I'm honestly not too aware about the details, but I get the sneaking suspicion that behind the scenes issues might be a challenge for this one.
I was really big on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure when Jump Superstars was announced, and so I was also looking into other Hirohiko Araki works where I could find them. Baoh was an early one which managed to be popular enough to get an OVA and be referenced in a few games like World Heroes - it's conceptually similar to Kamen Rider where the hero is modified into a bioweapon and fights bac against the evil organization that transformed him, but it's a more organic and violent take on the concept. Baoh made it into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle, but let's see it jump to a crossover game as well. Let it stand as its own series.
When Jump Ultimate Stars was announced, Fist of the North Star hadn't been included. The idea of introducing a serious famous for making characters' heads explode into a colourful manga crossover was the funniest thing to me. Dark Schneider from Bastard!! strikes me as hitting a similar note; he's a womanizing megalomaniacal wizard with aspirations of world domination, powerful enough to revive himself from the dead (but not necessarily bringing his clothes with him). The whole thing's got a Frank Frazetta vibe that doesn't seem like Weekly Shonen Jump would be the place for, but it was in its weekly magazines or special issues for over ten years.
Fans of Guilty Gear might be interested in knowing that this is where it got the reference-loaded heavy metal fantasy setting from. For example, Dark Schneider is named after Udo Dirkschneider. At the time of manga's creation, he had recently left Accept to form his own band, U.D.O..
Jump Superstars was notably not an anime game, it was a manga one. This is significant for Yu-Gi-Oh!, as the manga was not originally based around the card game, but was originally a darker work where the yet-unnamed Atem challenged miscreants to games and hit them with a magical curse if they lost. Jump Superstars had a few references to early Yu-Gi-Oh!, such as allowing Yugi to deliver a Penalty Game that pixelates another player's vision, rolling d20, or summoning his virtual pet.
While the Konami-backed anime gave Kaiba a much more prominent role, Joey was originally the second lead, with a number of his "games" being more like gimmicky fights. Having him be playable would be a great opportunity to show off the early manga, giving us a very different character from Yugi. Remember when Joey kicked a guy in the face in a game of laser tag? Remember when he fought off yo-yo wielding gang? Remember when he fought Leatherface in a tar pit? You're not going to get this stuff in a typical Yu-Gi-Oh! game, but Jump Superstars 3 could give it to us.
For Akira Toriyama fans, Sand Land has received a lot of praise. The series captures what Toriyama was aiming for with early Dragonball. It's an adventure manga that manages to build a setting while balancing lighthearted qualities. Beelzebub plays a similar role to Goku, being a mischievous but earnestly good-natured hero.
A big talking point I heard flying around at the time was how you'd make Death Note playable in a fighting game. The series was hot, it seemed like one of the big draws. But it just didn't happen. Death Note characters were summons, but they never became playable. Lame! Light's appeared in later crossovers too but still hasn't made the jump. Now that we're in a post MvC3 Phoenix Wright world there's no longer an excuse of this. Give the man an attack where he heads potato chips and the opponent gets hit by the crumbs.
That's all of the things that I thought of, but there are plenty more possibilties out there. What would catch your interest?
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