"More Like...Street Fighter Z. Heh."

Pie is delicious for eating. And this game is good for playing. See the resemblance? No? I don't either. The point however is that this game is good. Pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Now I have to do some explaining for you all so you understand what I'm talking about. Oh, before I begin. This game has no story mode. The developers finally realised that a DBZ fighting game with a story mode is the dumbest thing ever.

Graphics 10/10

The graphics are similar to previous DragonBall Z games on the PS2. Cel-shaded and whatnot. Still, the special attacks and variety of moves available means that there are beautiful graphics to go along with them. You can see the detail put in to each of the characters. Hair flying everywhere, the look of pain or rage on the face of the characters fighting. Awesome stuff.

Music and Sounds 9/10

Very appropriate. Fast, frantic music sets the mood to this game. Seeing how it's made of fast, frantic action. You've got the voices for each characters thrown in or the punching and special attack sounds. Standard sounds yeah, but the game would be empty without them.

Gameplay 10/10

Let us pause for a minute and reflect upon the wonderful nature of this game.
Okay now let's start. You have battles, special attacks, melee fights, aerial standoffs, time limits, background interaction, environment secrets the Kamehameha! What's NOT to like? I'll tell you what, the absolute and total RIP-OFF of the Street Fighter games. BUT that's not enough to stop this game from being fun. After all, the Street Fighter games were awesome right? Right. This game is awesome too. So all is good in the world.

Anyway, the fighting. That's what the game is all about (being a fighting game and all). You have what a standard fighting game should have, health bars. And your objective is to whittle down the enemies health bar before they can do the same thing to you. By pulling off combos and spectacular special attack you whittle down their health bar and finally win and move on to your next opponent.

Now, as I stated above there is no story mode in this game of DBZ. So, what motivates you to keep going? What gives it that addicting feeling? I'll tell you what. The amount of things that are there to keep you coming back. First of all there are 18 characters. Not as many as in the previous games but not an amount to be laughed at either. Playing with each of these characters is a unique experience and you are sure to become quite attached to each of them. Though you are sure to have your favourites.

The most important thing about this game that makes you want to keep playing is an awesome little device called the character card, which makes me wonder why I called it a device. Oh well. The character card basically allows you to customize your character. Think of it as a stat levelling up screen if you will. The most awesome thing about it though is that it gives you FULL reign over your character. Want a different costume for him/her? You got it. Want to upgrade a skill or two? Done. Want to learn ANOTHER CHARACTER'S MOVE? Sure go ahead. Now that last one is the most coolest thing ever introduced. By the designers introducing this card into the game they made it so that it wasn't just a fighting game but an AWESOME fighting game.

Re-playability 8/10

You're going to be back for some more. Promise. There's no way you'll just leave after one sitting. Unless you happen to dislike fighting games.

Overall Score 9/10

You can see the amount of work put into this game. Down to the very last detail. Everything is absolutely perfect. Go buy it. You'll definitely like it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/06