The Dragon Ball Z X Naruto Crossover That’s Been Lost To Time

Published Sep 14, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Tom Wilson is a Gaming Features Writer at Screen Rant. Over the past five years, Tom has worked as the Editor-in-Chief at The Game Crater, as a Staff Writer for GamingIntel, a List Writer at TheGamer, and, of course, as a Senior Writer at ScreenRant. Tom has experience writing reviews, guides, news, and features, and has been responsible for teams of writers, training them and editing their work.

Tom graduated with a Masters in Multimedia Journalism, and has since gone on to build up his portfolio of games journalism work.

Unlike in Western comics, crossovers between popular manga and anime properties don't happen often, even between the monolithic likes of Naruto and Dragon Ball Z. These incredible series tend to stick in their own lane, expanding their respective universes through spin-offs and sequels, rather than entering another. It's a shame, especially as the similarity in tone, style, and characterization between several popular anime ensures there's plenty of room for potential. Even the serialization of manga through the anthology magazine, Shōnen Jump, illustrates the shared space in which the medium occupies, one in which a crossover wouldn't feel out of place.

However, while it is rare, it doesn't mean it never happens. Indeed, there have been amazing anime crossover events before, including between the aforementioned juggernauts of the medium, DBZ and Naruto. There was even a project which many could rightfully hail as being the biggest crossover event in anime history, a release so ambitious one would assume it could never fail. Sadly, this title has now been lost to time, despite the potential it once held, leaving those eager to see how Dragon Ball Z X Naruto would look with little recourse.

This Epic Anime Crossover Game Had So Much Potential

There was something rather momentous about playing Jump Ultimate Stars as a child. The Japan-only Nintendo DS release was a culmination of every obsession I had at the time, bringing my favorite characters from Yu-Gi-Oh, Death Note, Shaman King, Black Cat, Hunter X Hunter, and Rurouni Kenshin into one experience during the formative years of my burgeoning love for anime. Despite being entirely in Japanese, thus prohibiting me from truly grasping its various systems, the intuitive nature of a Super Smash Bros.-esque fighting game meant that even my young brain could comprehend.

Even had I been completely unable to understand the game's combat or support system, I'd still have had a blast, the assorted characters finally being brought together, the ultimate mash-ups of beloved anime and manga icons serving as anime crossovers once thought impossible, offering an experience unlike anything else. Jump Ultimate Stars felt, at the time, like the greatest game ever made as a direct consequence of its core concept. It, however, is not the epic anime crossover at the heart of today's discussion. That would be its successor, Jump Force.

The 2019 release promised the same mash-ups of anime's greatest hits, albeit in massive environments and with 3D visuals instead of Ultimate Star's pixel art aesthetic. It had absolutely everything going for it: a huge roster, more complex combos and movesets, the aforementioned 3D environments, and an increase to 3 v 3 matches, all of which ostensibly made it anime's alternative to Super Smash Bros. And yet, Jump Force failed, rather spectacularly, and is now lost media, serving as a warning rather than an illustration of how to best execute an epic anime crossover event.

It's Almost Impossible To Play Jump Force Now

Jump Force felt like it was destined to be the bigger and better successor to the previous Shōnen Jump fighting games, pooling together the likes of My Hero Academia, Bleach, Yu-Gi-Oh, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Hunter X Hunter, and so many more. It is ridiculous just how many properties were represented in Jump Force, both in the base game and DLC, which is why it isn't hard to see why so many people were excited for what should have been the ultimate 50th anniversary celebration of the original magazine.

Sadly, Jump Force flopped at launch, proving to be a somewhat unpolished mess with disjointed visuals that favored stylized realism over the original aesthetic, causing every character to feel homogenized and uncanny (something Ultimate Star's pixel art never suffered from), and a lackluster narrative that struggled to live up to the potential all of these properties crossing over promised. Its gameplay fared no better, with combat feeling underbaked in many respects, and characters rarely sporting the unique traits they should have done to help set them apart.

Ultimately, this caused Jump Force's player count to dwindle significantly, which, consequently, meant Bandai Namco couldn't afford to continue paying for the exorbitantly priced licenses. Jump Force was delisted just three years after launching, with its online servers shut down, rendering it inaccessible to most. You can still buy a relatively cheap physical copy today, but the DLC characters are no longer available for purchase. It's a sad fate for what should have been the ultimate crossover between the likes of Dragon Ball Z and Naruto, especially as we're unlikely to see a game like it for quite some time.

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