"Good, but not what I'd call "Super.""

So many Dragon Ball Z fighting games!

America has seen a growing number of DBZ-related games over the past few years. Many of these were nothing more than sub-par games with a popular license, just made to make a quick buck. The original Budokai series began to show a more impressive, more worthwhile product, each installment getting better than the next. Tenkaichi came along with a new way to play with the franchise, and a lot of folks liked the new experience. Now we have a new DBZ fighting game installment, called "Super Dragon Ball Z" (which I shall call "SuperDBZ" from here on), a port of a Japanese DBZ fighting game from the arcades.

Now, I'm not the authority on Dragon Ball Z, but I have been playing the other fighting games since Budokai. I like Budokai 3 the most so far. I've tried Tenkaichi and wasn't into it; the complex controls, terrible camera, and numerous bugs turned me off. Now I've tried this new fighting game from another different developer. In my eyes, it still doesn't hold a candle to Budokai 3. But it's at least better than Tenkaichi.

In a nutshell, SuperDBZ attempts to make DBZ more of your traditional 2D-fighting game, while adding a few 3D implements to make it more interesting. You'll find certain moves can be performed with your standard Street Fighter-esque button combinations more often than not.

The controls in SuperDBZ, thankfully, weren't so much of a difficulty this time around as Tenkaichi had been. But they can still be a little confusing. It's a little more free-roaming than Budokai, sure. But in a 2D game I normally expect up to jump, down to crouch, and back to guard. That's not really that much of an issue though, since it didn't apply to the other DBZ fighting games either. But dashing directly to your opponent has been simpler in Budokai and Tenkaichi. Double-tapping towards the opponent isn't the right answer here.

Plus, it felt like there was more to attacking then there was to applying any defense. In Budokai you could dodge physical attacks and deflect Ki blasts, or teleport behind the enemy and strike them from behind. And that actually made it enjoyable; just avoiding attacks felt satisfying. And even Tenkaichi let you do some similar defense, though the teleport moves wasn't available to even half of everyone. Both games also let you fight off each other's powerful Ki blasts, which was tricky and intensifying in itself sometimes. SuperDBZ doesn't give you so much of the defense spectrum. You could either guard against attacks or attempt to side-step away from them. I've found myself mostly trying to attack the other guy before they attacked, and seemed like enough of a defense for me. It shouldn't ought to be like that!

Another gripe in control ability is that the coveted "Super Saiyan" and transformation abilities aren't highly emphasized this time. The transformations in this game feel so short, it almost feels to me like it's not worth the effort sometimes...especially if it requires a complex button input that will leave me defenseless for a long while. Budokai could let you press a combination of buttons all at once (or for ease, assign the same buttons to a shoulder) and it's ready for use. Plus not many characters can transform at all.

But I'm not saying SuperDBZ's fighting system isn't good. It's just not the best I've seen. It does give you a good attack set, and strategy can let you make some decent combo attacks. But I've seen the other games do it better. I haven't reached any point where the hit counter went to ten.

Enough of that. Let's look at the presentation of the game.

I think that this was more disappointing that the slightly awkward fighting system. There's very little modes for you to play! There's the "Original" mode, which is like the home version of the arcade game. In this you confront seven opponents, each stronger than the last, in order to beat the game. The last opponent is always Cell, and the ending appears to be the same for everyone...very disappointing. There's also the "Z Survivor" mode, where you attempt to defeat all the opponents without losing all your stamina. This was actually more entertaining than the "Original" mode, mainly because it isn't quite the same line-up each time and it kept me more on your toes when I played. Unfortunately you don't get much from winning it rather than a "Congratulations!" screen. There's also the ol' "Versus" and "Training" modes we've seen from countless other fighting games. That's about it, really. A very sad selection, especially for a solo player. No involved story modes or tournaments!

What they use to attempt to give SuperDBZ more substance is to allow the player to customize their own version of one of the characters available in the game. They have you battling opponents in the two single-player modes to gain experience and Battle Points to raise your character's stats. Experience also lets you acquire new enhancements and moves through a "skill" tree, as well as from wishes from the Dragon Balls. Unfortunately, once you filled up all your skill slots and made it to the end of the tree, there's not much skill-wise that you can earn for that character unless you decided to make them start from scratch.

Speaking of characters, there's a minimalist crowd in SuperDBZ. They provide you with 12 normal characters and 6 bonus characters, 5 of which have to be unlocked. It's a small selection, but at least there's more variety between the different characters' abilities...something folks have complained about not having in the other DBZ fighters. Unfortunately the two single-player modes, for some reason, seem to stick with the normal 12. At no point have I seen Majin Buu, the one bonus character available at the start of the game, as a fighting rival in Original OR Z Survivor. The selection feels like they took a handful of the notable characters somewhere between the sagas of Frieza and Cell and chucked them into the standard set, then added another odd assortment of characters to somehow compensate. Plus...Chi-chi?

Graphic-wise, the game is similar to Budokai 3...to an extent. SuperDBZ attempts more to cater to a comic-style look by adding word effects to when you strike. Also, not only are the characters cel-shaded, but the backgrounds also appear to have fallen victim to the world of line-art. It's cute, but in some cases I think they might've overdone it, like the numerous clouds in Enma's palace. Plus, some of the character models look a little...ick. If you play this game and see Frieza's picture of Krillin's smile made from two straight lines, you'll see what I mean. One other gripe is that the characters' movements seem strangely unnatural somehow, almost mechanical in a way. Thankfully, a smooth framerate is maintained through the game, which I missed in Tenkaichi. I think loadtimes are a little shorter too. And the destructible multi-leveled environments are a nice touch.

As for sound, it's a little sigh of relief to hear music OTHER than what I've heard from games with the word Budokai in the name. I just don't know if it's better. It sounded like some of it belonged in a Street Fighter game rather than a DBZ property. Not that it's all bad. Sounds are typical, and the characters are voiced by the actors from the American dub. Though I've noticed the sound quality isn't exactly crystal clear, it's nice that FOR ONCE Cell doesn't have his first-form raspy voice while in his "Perfect" form.

So how long would this game live for the standard player? Not too terribly long, from what I can see. With a small selection of modes to play and only a few characters to play as, it won't take long for a player to grow tired of it. It's good to play with friends for perhaps a short while, but it doesn't have much to run on.

SuperDBZ feels like it could've had more. More modes, more characters, more expandability...more anything! But it just falls short of feeling like a full package. But it's at least something to try out. It's a nice rental game, if anything. In its mechanics, it works better than Tenkaichi, especially since I saw no real bugs in the game. But I think Budokai 3 still tops this, mainly because it offers more satisfying gameplay, and it just gives you more to do.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/03/06