Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions! Whew, what a mouthful! But what is it? The title almost sounds like pornography and the imagery that that context adds to Captain Velvet Meteor is rather lascivious, but no, we’re actually talking tactical manga action here. Not the dirty hentai kind either. Good stuff like Spy X Family, Kaiju # 8, Summer Time Rendering (which is a spectacular anime!), Hell’s Paradise, Slime Life, Heart Gear, Ghost Reaper Girl, and more!
That’s right, Captain Velvet Meteor is not only a tactical strategy game from developer Momo-pi Game Studio and publisher Shueisha Games but it’s also a licensed crossover game from famed manga publisher Shonen Jump! Now usually these things are kind of a wash in terms of gameplay and the focus is on the crossover but be assured, that’s not the case here!
In Captain Velvet Meteor you play Damien, a French-Japanese boy forced to move from France to Japan with his family. He’s not very thrilled about it and he’s stuck at home alone with a bunch of chores to do while everyone else is out for the day. But Damien has a rather vivid imagination and as he’s wandering around the house performing mundane tasks, he’s also daydreaming about his favorite manga, all lovingly lined up on the bookcase in his bedroom. Respect! He’s got good taste too!
Each chore causes Damien to get distracted and daydream, imagining he’s a made-up space adventurer, Captain Velvet Meteor. There’s a very Spaceman Spiff vibe here, almost like a Japanese Calvin and Hobbes, but if anything it’s a lighthearted tribute and certainly not cribbing off the classics. Each time Damien descends into his imagination, he’s met by a different manga character from his collection.
This is where the meat of the game occurs. Each section of the game leads Captain Velvet Meteor to a series of single layer isometric grids filled with enemies. Your goal is to work in conjunction with the anime characters to survive each wave of turn-based enemies while dodging their increasingly more complex attacks and defeating the boss at the end of each stage. It sounds fairly straightforward but the strategy in the game is surprisingly interesting.
Each level features a different manga character with different attack abilities. When the character is combined with Captain Velvet Meteor, there’s a joint attack available to players as well. For example, the Princess from ‘Tis Time For Torture, Princess’ has a direct sword attack that blows right through enemies for several squares, while Kofune Ushio from Summer Time Rendering has a swirling attack which reveals hidden shadows in the enemy ranks. If you destroy enough enemies between Captain Velvet Meteor and his manga partners, the enemies also drop golden spheres. Collect three and you can perform a powerful joint attack which decimates the enemy ranks within its reach.
There are also a variety of goals in each level. Some stages require you to defeat all enemies, others to reach the end in a certain number of turns, and still others simply to find the exit and use it. You don’t always have the time and opportunity to wipe out every creature and this forces players to make interesting tactical decisions. There are even optional goals to make things more challenging by killing certain enemies along the way or even utilizing known enemy behaviors to force opponents into destroying each other.
With elegant strategy, it’s easy to leave behind other elements of a game but this is not a mistake that Captain Velvet Meteor makes. Both in-between and during each stage, a fair amount of plot discussion goes on and it’s remarkably well-written. One would expect Damien to be a bit of a boring protagonist and in the home sections of the game that’s true to a degree but as Captain velvet Meteor, he’s charming, fun, and silly in a way that feels as much like a high quality manga as it does a good video game script. The interactions between the manga characters and Damien are fantastic and the nods to their individual shows are excellent, providing fan service without alienating players who are unfamiliar with the characters.
Speaking of which, while Captain Velvet Meteor is definitely designed to showcase a variety of manga, it does so quite skilfully and is one of the rare crossover games that actually succeeds in making characters who make the player want to read more about their stories. There’s no question that if you’re partial to manga and play Captain Velvet Meteor, you’re going to want to check out some of these comics. Of course, if you’re not partial to manga, the strategy is still well-worth your time, but this is definitely a game targeted to a certain style of audience.
A wide variety of odd enemies also await you in Captain Velvet Meteor. Each creature is suitably weird and creepy and feature an assortment of attacks which you’ll have to consider during play. Some enemies can literally be quashed under the heels of your boots, but others require multiple hits, close-in combat, or a combination of the two. A few even protect other enemies, forcing you to deal with them first as you’re slowly surrounded. Planning your moves to dodge enemy attacks and hit the right spots without becoming separated and cut off from your partner presents an excellent strategic challenge here. In addition to the enemies, you’ll also have to figure out how to hit switches and shut down enemy approaches. Some attacks stun enemies for a turn but those outside the radius or with ranged attacks are definitely still a threat.
There are two distinct areas to the game, Damien’s house and the Captain Velvet Meteor dreamscape. The art style is the same but also subtly different in each. The house seems more mundane somehow, with slight palette shifts and changes in the way lines are drawn and the sizes of characters that create a “real” section of the game. These contrast with the smaller characters in the imagination portion of the game which uses more vibrant and weird colors. The crisp anime-adjacent design style works very well with the gameplay and the game looks fantastic across the board. Occasional shifts to black and white to tell parts of the story are also effective. The music is quite good too and as you play, you’ll destroy boxes that unlock tracks from the game which you can switch between. There’s even a cell phone UI that shows the chores you have to do and stickers you find hidden around the house to play a bingo game.
We’ve learned not to expect a lot from crossover games that incorporate characters from other genres over the years. Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions takes those expectations, shatters them, then stomps on the pieces. This is an absolutely excellent tactical game that freshens up stale tactical expectations with new style and mechanics while incorporating cutting edge manga content in a way that’s thoroughly enjoyable for both fans and the uninitiated. The visuals are great, the script is great, and most importantly, the gameplay is equal to the rest of the game. With a fantastic overall aesthetic and clever elements abound, this is definitely a sleeper waiting to get noticed and any strategy fan worth their salt will have fun with it. It might not be the hardest strategy game out there, but it’s well-designed and blazes some new trails. This is a title that is absolutely worthy of being in your Switch library and probably worthy of a physical release as well! Don’t hesitate to go grab a copy…you won’t regret it!
This review is based on a digital copy of Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well in both. Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions is a Nintendo Switch exclusive at this time.
