Everybody here likely knows that you can currently find some cartoon favorites like Bugs Bunny, Finn the Human and Samurai Jack on the roster of MultiVersus, but there’s another small title most probably don’t know about.
Cartoon Network technically has a 2v2 fighting game of its own though the title may be in danger of disappearing in the near future.
Heck, we didn’t even really know the game existed until Fighting Game Anniversaries posted about its launch from a year ago this week, which has received multiple updates to add more characters and features over time.
That game is Jump Jousts Jam, and it is heavily inspired by Divekick’s gameplay while expanding it in some areas.
Players get to choose from a cast of 13 characters including Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg from Teen Titans Go plus Bugs Bunny, Finn, Shaggy, Garnet, Gumball, 505, Kelsey and Bears to make a two-person team.
Like the first Marvel vs. Capcom, you then choose a special assist character to help you out in matches too with BMO, Yosemite Sam, Penumbra, Banana Joe, Scrappy Doo and Grim.
Jump Jousts Jam is a 2v2 fighting game featuring several playable characters from Teen Titans Go & other Cartoon Network shows such as Adventure Time, Steven Universe, etc. Players can select between two characters and an assist to engage in battle with each other. pic.twitter.com/XYrSGVjDcz
— Fighting Game Anniversaries (@FGAnniversaries) August 25, 2024
The gameplay is similar to Divekick in that you are forced to jump forward and back for movement where characters can perform three normals, metered special, tag attack, call the assist and Supers.
There’s a few good reasons you probably haven’t heard of Jump Jousts Jam considering it was published as a free web browser game by Cartoon Network Latin America from the developer Arf Game Studio in Uruguay, who have a history of similar titles like Teen Titans Go Jump Jousts, Bearsus and Stick Fighter.
Despite the limitations, it’s clear the team put in more effort with Jump Jousts Jam than you’d probably expect and that they have a love for fighting games.
You can especially see this with Gumball, who just straight up references multiple other fighters by transforming into them for attacks.
He turns into Street Fighter’s Ryu and throws a Hadoken while his Super ends with the cat dressed up as Akuma doing the Raging Demon pose.
On top of that, Gumball also references Super Smash Bros. with Fox’s Shine and Link’s spin slash too, and there’s even more since he straight up becomes Kick from Divekick too.
For what it is, JJJ seems pretty competently put together though the game does still feel pretty janky with its keyboard controls and seemingly no native way to use a controller.
You’re also of course just stuck with Arcade Mode and local Versus, so you won’t be finding any online matches with rollback netcode here.
To help commemorate the game’s first anniversary, one of the developers in Rodrigo Alem Fernández put together a fascinating thread that reveals Jump Jousts Jam apparently still averages thousands of players a day.
(4/) More stats:
We started tracking metrics on the final update (the Gumball one).You can see the traffic drop when they shut down the regional site. Luckily we had the localization for the EMEA on deck. Most of the current traffic and popularity comes from there. pic.twitter.com/UV9If95fMB
— Rodrigo Alem Fernández (@Rod_F) August 25, 2024
Warner Bros. Discovery’s ongoing financial woes and growing drastic tactics could very well mean Jump Jousts Jam could become unavailable very soon.
The parent company recently shut down the official Cartoon Network website after all these years and has it now redirect to their streaming Max service, which applies to the Latin American version of the site too.
You can still access Jump Jousts Jam directly from this link to the page for now, but there’s no telling how long that will stay live.
There’s also a version of JJJ with English text on the Middle Eastern Cartoon Network site, which still remains up for now as well.
(7/) Of note, the folks at Cartoon LATAM did great work with a promo trailer and site (closest thing to a Smash Dojo!)
However, as many cool things from Warner, the merger and eventual shutdown of the CN site caused this not even a year old promo content to become Lost Media. pic.twitter.com/xkhKIgfvCS— Rodrigo Alem Fernández (@Rod_F) August 25, 2024
If all of these pages were to go down, it does appear as though some third-party sites have the game as well, so perhaps JJJ could still live on unofficially.
Since this is a fairly obscure web fighter, losing Jump Jousts Jam to lost media wouldn’t exactly be the most devastating thing in the world, but it is an interesting little snippet of history that should stick around at a time when game preservation is becoming more important and facing roadblocks.
For those who grew up in the early 2000’s, just think back to all of the Cartoon Network and Toonami Flash games that are basically just gone now, and there are clearly players who still care about JJJ after a year.
To try and stave off the “nuclear option” of a corporate split, WBD is also reportedly looking at selling off at least part of their gaming division, which would have even more dire consequences for the makers of Mortal Kombat and MultiVersus, who they recently just purchased too.
NetherRealm Studios has already faced layoffs to the entirety of their mobile game team, but they may be gearing up now to work on their next AAA title after Mortal Kombat 1.
As for what the future holds for games under the Warner umbrella, things are pretty unclear at the moment.