For those fans of the Shonen Jump manga some awesome news surrounding their latest gaming project Jump Force, has just been announced. An Open Beta test will be held in January over three days, over four different sessions from January 18th to January 20th.
Players will have the opportunity to play with 17 unique characters and battle in 5 different locales; news an avid Shonen Jump fan like myself is happy to hear! Sadly PC gamers will have to wait until the full game is released as the open beta will only be playable on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Not content with just this announcement, Bandai Namco have also stated on their official Twitter page that a number of new characters will be revealed in the upcoming period before release. They made a quick note that more characters from the Naruto franchise will be making their debut soon.
This makes sense considering Naruto is one the games central figures and only having two characters thus far announced is kind of paltry in contrast to the many colourful characters the series has spanned in its decade plus series run. Personally, my money is on the inclusion of Sakura Haruno, and Madara Uchiha as extra fighters.
The Open Beta Test will have four sessions in the following times:
- Session #1 – Friday, January 18th at 13:00pm – 16:00pm CET (Jan 18th 23.00pm- January 19th 2:00am AEST)
- Session #2 – Friday, January 19th at 6:00am – 09:00am CET (January 19th 16:00pm – 19:00pm AEST)
- Session #3 – Saturday, January 19th at 17:00pm – 20:00pm CET (January 20th 03:00am – 06:00am AEST)
- Session #4 – Sunday, January 20th at 21:00pm – 00:00am CET (January 21st 07:00am – 10:00am AEST)
The list of 17 playable fighters are as follows:
- Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece)
- Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)
- Vegeta (Dragon Ball)
- Frieza (Dragon Ball)
- Blackbeard (One Piece)
- Younger Toguro (Yu Yu Hakuso)
- Hisoka (Hunter x Hunter)
- Gon (Hunter x Hunter)
- Sasuke (Naruto)
- Pegasus Seiya (Saint Seiya)
- Son Goku (Dragon Ball)
- Roronoa Zoro (One Piece)
- Yusuke Urameshi (Yu Yu Hakusho)
- Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach)
- Rukia Kuchiki (Bleach)
- Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star)
- Naruto (Naruto)
Gamers don’t even need to worry about pre-ordering Jump Force to have a crack at the beta, so this is the perfect opportunity for any fans of the several series going into the game, to give it a go. Just over a month away from its release Jump Force will available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC from February 15.
With the announcement of an open beta and even more playable characters coming, who are you most excited to play as, and who do you want to see join the Jump Force roster?
About the Author
Kieren Munn
A typical gaymer, I enjoy most RPG's, Platformers, and Fighting games. I started gaming early with Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat and Alex the Kidd on my Sega Mega Drive. This started a "healthy" obsession that has spanned 5 generations of consoles, and I won't be stopping anytime soon.
