Topic: Jump Superstars/Ultimate stars: Why it shouldn't be wasted...

[NWR_pap64]

Remember how one of the reasons they decided to give Ouendan an American makeover was because the game was doing so well they thought it would be stupid of them keep it Japan only? Well, I was thinking that this could be done with the Jump Superstar series.

The game is definitely a hit among fans, not just because it features well known manga characters. The games are almost considered to be the SSB game for the DS. The problem is that the anime stories and characters featured on the game are licensed by many companies in the US. It would be HELL to try and publish this in the US.

So I was thinking, why they don't take the original Jump superstars/Ultimate stars engin, work with Nintendo and Hal and update it to a SSB game?

They could easily replace the characters with Nintendo characters and keep the 2D gameplay intact, with the exception of updating or replacing the manga panel engine entirely (I don't quite understand how it works).

The problem I see with this is that they would also have to release the game in Japan as well and Japan had played this games two times already. Hal and Nintendo would have to make it so that its a brand new experience.

This definitely falls under wishful thinking category, but considering how popular the game is outside of Japan, they should do something with the engine.

[vudu]

It seems more likely that Nintendo would rework the original SSB for the DS (enhanced port, even).  While there are a bunch of similarities between SSB and the Superstar games, it's not exactly the same thing.  It would be like Nintendo pasting Mario characters over an existing 2D platformer and calling it a day.  (Whoops!)

[KDR_11k]

I think it'd be easier to start from scratch or 64 instead of turning JSS into SSB. The gameplay is too different.

[couchmonkey]

Howsabout replacing a bunch of characters with DC and/or Marvel comic book characters?  The design is quite successful, that actually sounds like a neat idea...better than most of the comic book games out there.

[KDR_11k]

You'd have to pretty much remake the content from scratch but that sounds like an idea that would sell in the west.

[couchmonkey]

My thinking is that you've got a good game design that's being wasted because the liscensing issues are so complicated.  How about reusing the design but changing the characters?  Of course at that point a lot of publishers would say, "the developers can just copy the original design, no need to pay for it." and it's all down hill from there...

[LuigiHann]

I'm pretty sure that the reason it's not coming out here is because is not because it'd be impossible to license all the characters, but because it would be expensive. Remaking the game with new sprites and characters would also be expensive, so that's sort of lose-lose from their perspective.
What they ought to do is just make a deal with Viz Media (who publishes Shonen Jump magazine in the U.S., and has the rights to dozens of Anime/manga properties, including many of those featured in the Jump games). They could just take out all the characters Viz doesn't have the rights to, and replace them with a handful of characters that Viz does have the rights to, like Inu Yasha and Ranma or something.

[Spak-Spang]

You could probably do the whole Comic Book thing easily enough...but DC would make you pay way too much for the Rights...and Marvel has agreements with other companies.

The best bet would be to try to make an agreement with Dark Horse Comics, but I dunno how easy that would be.  If that happened you could have some pretty awesome characters...though my two favorite would be:

Hellboy and Usagi.