Sunday VS Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen

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kndy
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Sunday VS Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen

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A fun game you can find cheap on eBay for your PSP.

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On March 17, 1959, two shonen (a term which means “boy”) manga magazines were released in Japan. One was Weekly Shonen Magazine published by Kodansha and the other was Weekly Shonen Sunday published by Kodansha. The former which were known for its mature titles that targeted high school and college students and the latter which targeted various ages.

But for over 50-years, these two publications have entertained generations of Japanese.

For Weekly Shonen Magazine, they had hits such as “GeGeGe no Kitaro”, “Cyborg 009″, “Hajime no Ippo”, “Eightman”, “Violence Jack”, “Boys Be…”, “Harlem Beat”, “Rave Master”, “Ashita no Joe”, “Tiger Mask”, “Devil Man”, “Kamen Rider”, “GTO”, “Love Hina”, “GetBackers”, “Samurai Deeper Kyo”, “Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle”, “Cross OVer”, “School Rumble”, “Over Drive” to name a few.

While Weekly Shonen Sunday had hits such as “Meitantei Conan”, “InuYasha”, “Major”, “Submarine 707″, “The Legend of Kamui”, “Ultraman Taro”, “Urusei Yatsura”, “Cyborg 009″, “Touch”, “Mai, the Psychic Girl”, “Tenchi Muyo”, “Ranma 1/2″, “Mobile Police Patlabor”, “Ushio and Tora”, “Ghost Sweeper Mikami”, “H2″, “Flame of Recca”, “ARMS”, “Konjiki no Gash!” to name a few.

And in an unprecedented move in Japan, both publications would combine their March 29, 2008 issue to celebrate their 50th year anniversary and also do a commemorative event including merchandise and manga crossovers.

And sure enough, that included a video game released titled “Sunday VS Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen”, a fighting video game featuring 30 playable characters from both publications plus over a 100 support characters.

Needless to say, to have characters from both rival publications in one video game is exciting and while it was amazing to see all Shonen Jump characters in the “Jump Superstars” videogames for the Nintendo DS, needless to say, many people have grown up with both Shonen Sunday and Shonen Magazine publications and to see characters from the last 50 years in a video game is unheard of.

Granted, you’re not going to see characters from Rumiko Takahashi’s popular “Urusei Yatsura” or “Ranma 1/2″ but you will see characters from “InuYasha”. You’re not going to see the Ultraman or the Kamen Rider characters, “Patlabor”, “Tenchi Muyo”, “Ghost Sweeper Mikami” series as well and frankly, I’m sure that the licensing for these characters for this game must have been challenging and possibly costly. But for those who do want those major characters, there was a trading card battle pack released in conjunction with this anniversary, but suffice to say, for various gamers of different generations, the characters will appeal to many people.

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For “Sunday VS Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen”, you do get the following 30 playable characters:

Shonen Sunday:

Hayate Ayasaki (Hayate no Gotoku)
Kaoru Akashi (Zettai Karen Children)
Yoshimori Sumimura (Kekkaishi)
Tokine Yukimura (Kekkaishi)
Kenichi Shirahama (History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi)
Miu Furinji (History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi)
InuYasha (InuYasha)
Kosuke Ueki (The Law of Ueki)
Recca Hanabishi (Flame of Recca)
Ryo Takatsuki (Project ARMS)
Aotsuki Ushio and Tora (Ushio and Tora)
Yaiba Kurogane (Legend of the Swordmaster Yaiba)
R. Tanaka Ichiro (Kyukyoku Chojin R)
Noboru Takizawa (Blazing Transfer Student)

Shonen Magazine

Ippo Makunouchi (Hajime no Ippo)
Mamoru Takamura (Hajime no Ippo)
Natsu Dragneel (Fairy Tail)
Lucy Heartfilia (Fairty Tail)
Negi Springfield (Negima! Magister Negi Magi)
Itsuki Minami (Air Gear)
Croissant Mask (Air Gear)
Shinichi Mechazawa (Cromartie High School)
Ban Mido (GetBackers)
Demon Eyes Kyo (Samurai Deeper Kyo)
Koutarou Shindou (Kotaro Makaritoru)
Devilman (Devilman)
Joe Yabuki (Ashita no Joe)
Tiger Mask (Tiger Mask)
Cyborg 009 (Cyborg 009)

Others:

Boss (specially made for this game)

This is not a game where one should think technical fighting in the sense of “Street Fighter”, “King of Fighters”, “Tekken”, “BlazBlue Calamity Trigger”, “Guilty Gear”, etc. Those games had years and years of upgrades, tests with gamers who look to these games for competitive fighting (Granted moreso on the console and arcade rather than portable) but by no means is “Sunday VS Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen” a bad fighting game because it’s not.

The thing is, your moves are not available from the start, you’re going to have to play a quest mode that is a bit tedious and challenging in order to get points to purchase these moves and then the fun really starts for the game. This is where you can really pull off some fun combos, aerial moves and see these characters fight crazy. And this is where a lot of people probably dismiss the game because they start off on arcade mode and realize how simplistic the moves are and they button mash thinking that the moves are limited without opening the characters full set of moves.

I will say that if there is one bummer about this game is that the speed can get a bit cumbersome with its lag at times and while it’s not as bad when you have a bad signal during an online matchup, for some people, lag is lag and it’s bad. But for me, it wasn’t that bad at all but it’s there. Bare in mind, I tried this on my PSP 3000 and not on the 1000 to see how slow it would be.

And I think another bummer for some players, including myself, is that not all your favorite characters will be on this game? Heck, I would love to play Lum (Urusei Yatsura) or Ranma Saotome (Ranma 1/2) with an Akane or Ryoga support but still, you do get a good balance of characters (30 playable characters) and then with over a hundred support characters, it makes the game worthwhile.

Overall, I can’t help but think of how cool it is to have characters from 50 years in a fighting video game. Who would have thought you would see some of these characters in a video game at all…especially from competing two rival publications. Again, it’s definitely a rare situation to see this happen and the fact that they joined forces for their 50th anniversary is quite unprecedented.

While “Sunday VS Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen” may not be the ultimate fighting game nor it be close to being a great fighting game, it’s still a fun and exciting fighting game with characters that you will probably never ever see again together in a video game. This is a one-shot deal and if you are a manga or anime fan who have familiarity with these characters, then you know how special this game is.

And the fact that you can get this game quite cheap online (I paid $18.99) makes this game worth owning!
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