Project Versus J, the ‘ultimate Shounen Jump game’, also in the works

One Piece: Kaizoku Musou 2 wasn’t the only new title revealed in the latest issue of Jump magazine in Japan. A “Project Versus J” game was also teased at in the same issue. 

Bandai Namco Games will also be handling development on Project Versus J, made in part to commemorate Weekly Shōnen Jump’s 45th anniversary in the coming year – the magazine was launched June 2, 1968.

Not much else is known about this newly announced title, other than that it’s the ultimate Shounen Jump video game, and that it will feature characters from at least three popular Jump franchises – One Piece, Dragonball, and Toriko: Gourmet Monsters.

No platform(s), release date (well, it will definitely have to come out sometime in 2013), or other such specification details were given.

Project Versus J isn’t the first time a title has been called “the ultimate Shounen Jump game”. Back in 2005, Nintendo published Jump Superstars, a four-player 2D fighting game for the Nintendo DS made by developer Ganbarion that contained 160 characters (34 playable) from 27 different Shounen Jump manga series.

In 2006, a sequel entitled Jump Ultimate Stars – also on the Nintendo DS, from the same publisher and developer –  was released that upped the intellectual property ante to 305 characters (56 playable) from 41 different series. The large number of characters in both games was made possibly by the fact that every fighter was represented by a finite number of lo-res 2D sprites on the Nintendo DS.

On the consoles, in 2006 Bandai Namco Games published the ill-fated Battle Stadium D.O.N. for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube. The 3D fighting game, which featured characters from Dragon Ball, One Piece and Naruto, received abysmal review scores from Weekly Famitsu, among other publications.

Is Project Versus J going to be another 2D fighter akin to Jump Superstars and Jump Ultimate Stars? Or will it be a 3D fighter for consoles (or the PS Vita or 3DS) that will hopefully not play as badly as Battle Stadium D.O.N. did?

Which would you prefer?

Source: Twitpic