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DBZ is back and in fine form. Super Dragon Ball Z was developed in junction with Noritaka Funamizu, the famed Street Fighter II producer. The game is a bit more technical than previous DBZ titles and feels very familiar to titles like Tekken and unsurprisingly Street Fighter. However, this has come at the cost of some of the flash that the series was known for.
Originally developed as an arcade game, Super DBZ is a bit light in features. The game features an arcade mode and a survival mode. In both, you’ll have to defeat increasingly harder opponents. The difference is that in survival mode, you’re only given one health bar to make it happen. A training mode lets you get up to speed with the different characters while the versus mode lets you engage in a multiplayer fight.
The game does add some depth by allowing you to create a unique version of the character. You can rename one of the existing 18 characters and change the colors to your liking. Characters in the game include the popular Gohan and Vegeta, as well as somewhat less popular characters like King Piccolo. Winning matches will let you earn battle points which can eventually be used to make your character stronger and unlock new moves. Moreover, as you progress through the game you can win seven Dragon Balls. Once you collect them all, you will be rewarded with an unlockable, ranging from a new character to a new color palette.
The actual fighting mechanics will be familiar to fighting game fans. The game gives you two regular attacks, throws, dash attack, as well as block and jump. Pulling off the moves is rather easy and intuitive and it shouldn’t take long to find the best moves for the character. The game includes the familiar DBZ additions. You can take the battles to the air and continue fighting up top and of course, you will see many energy attacks being thrown around. For some characters, the game allows you to transform into more powerful versions of these characters during the fight. Doing so will give you a noticeable performance boost but will also drain your special power meter.
The game’s visuals are remarkably faithful to the Dragon Ball Z comic books. The character models are cel-shaded but particular care was taken to make them really look like animated comic book characters. The animation is fluid, with plenty of high-impact punches, kicks, and energy blasts being thrown around. The environments show the same level of detail. You’ll visit deserts, Namek and of course the World Tournament arena. The comic book look is further showcased by onomatopoeia like “whomp!” However, the game lacks the exciting camera angles and genuine display of power of its predecessors. It looks quite good, but it isn’t anywhere as flashy.
The audio is very faithful to its source material. Although the visuals attempt to recreate the comic books, the audio takes its nod from the cartoon series. The sound effects are quite powerful although again not as flashy as they could have been. The typical Dragon Ball Z music can be found in the game. The US voice over cast for the cartoon series provides the voices for the in-game characters.
Super Dragon Ball Z is probably the finest DBZ fighting title in terms of pure gameplay. The game takes obvious inspiration from new and classic fighters and successfully plugs it into the DBZ formula. However, with the increased focus on technical gameplay, some of the flash found in the Budokai titles is missing. And Dragon Ball Z is known for its showy, elaborate fights. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Aug 7, 2006
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