As if to rub salt into the wounds of our not getting Jump! Super Stars in 2005, Ganbarion has managed to squeeze out a sequel to the greatest fighter on the DS already. True, there isn’t much competition, but rest assured it was an instant classic and what’s more, Jump! Ultimate Stars is even better than the original.

Playing like a 2D Smash Bros., Jump! Ultimate Stars features characters from the massively popular Shonen Jump! magazine in Japan. Fans of manga and anime will recognise most of them, but even the uninitiated should be able to spot folks from Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi- Oh!. In all, there are a staggering 300 individuals from 40 different series to unlock in the game and while some of these will be wasted on Western players, there’s still enough charisma amongst them to compete with Nintendo’s own cast of legends. Playing through the story mode slowly builds up your list of available characters and then these can be added to your team roster before heading into battle.

You’ll start off with Luffy and Naruto as your lead characters and while some of the objectives can be hard to fathom, the opening levels are relatively straightforward as contests usually involve knocking out your opponents, gathering up objects or getting a certain number of points. If one fails then another will succeed just by process of elimination; besides, there are already plenty of spoiler-free guides to be found online so you have no excuse not to add it to your wish list.

The art styles are as varied as the source material and the action barely takes the time to breath, let alone allow you to rest. What more could you ask for from a fighting game? Well, you could ask for a European release this time around, but that’s about all…