Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension

"A great fighting game and quite possibly the best graphics you'll ever see on the SNES."

Talk about awesome. Even people who aren't anime fans can enjoy this game. Everyone who says that Bandai can't make a good fighting game haven't played this game yet. Not only does it control well and have a good fighting game engine, but it's visually superior to all other SNES fighting games...and possibly all other SNES games period.

Story: 10

It's DBZ. What more do you need to know? ^_^

Gameplay: 10
For a fighting game that only has one punch button and one kick button, the gameplay sure is great. The combo system is easy enough for beginners to get in good damage and complex enough to make learning the most powerful combos challenging (in a fun way). Special moves are pulled off the same way they are in the Super Butoden series, plus there are a good amount of extra types of moves (like the upward energy blast).

You also have a throw button. Hitting the throw button by itself just does a chop. You throw just like in almost all fighting games. However, this button also has another use. It let's you give a deafening blow to your enemy, sending them off the screen and into another scene. You can hit them off the screen in any direction, including the air, where (duh) AIR COMBAT commences! Fighting in the air is less complex than fighting on the ground, but it's quite fun.

There are many neat things that happen in this game. For instance, if two fighter's fists collide, they will get into fast, close combat (just like on the show) for a few seconds, then both of them will jump back to recover. If you are quick enough, you can recover first and pull off an energy blast move. If you are both fighting in the air, there is a way you can get into an energy ball blasting duel. Each character will take turns shooting energy balls at each other and you have the option of deflecting or dodging. You must hit the right button at the right time.

Your power level is a number instead of a meter in this game. You have no life bar. Your power number is both your ki and your health. If you begin powering up, you will see a small dial start spinning. Every time it spins one full circle, you regain 5 ki points. If you dizzy your opponent, you can either use a special move on them or use the time to heal.

Devastating desperation moves are able to be performed when your ki goes below 80.

Like most fighters, there's a story mode, VS mode, tournament mode and practice mode.

Graphics: 10
This game holds the most data out of any other SNES/SFC game due to all the data being compressed. There is a special chip inside the cart that decompresses it on the fly. Why did the data have to be compressed? Because of all the frames of animation, that's why! You will never see better 16 bit animation anywhere! Check out the animation when Piccolo powers up and when Gohan does a standing kick and you'll see what I mean. Not only are the fighters well animated, so are the backgrounds! The Namek landscape is my favorite. Awesome graphics. I myself have not seen cooler visuals on the SNES and I doubt I'll see better anytime soon, if at all.

Sound/Music: 8
The sound effects are just fine for a fighting game. The amount of voice in this game is spectacular! Strangely, not every character has great voices. Piccolo, Cell and Freeza all have a lot, but Gohan, for example, instead of saying ''Masenkou'' and ''Kamehameha'', says, ''Da!'' and, ''Yaaa!'' respectively. Also, even though Vegeta has a good amount of voice, instead of saying ''Final Flash'', he just says, ''Kurai!'' Oh well.

The music, sadly, isn't as good as the music in the Super Butoden series. There's only one good fighting song (Another S) and the two songs that play during story telling are good, but that's it.

Control: 10
Like said above, the game engine is nicely done. Controls are very responsive and smooth because of this. If you thought that you couldn't enjoy a fighting game that just has one punch button and one kick button, play this. This game even plays better than Ultimate Battle 22 for the PSX!

Replay Value: 10
Beating story mode flawlessly gains you access to some special matches, and it's always fun playing against other people. You'll also wanna keep playing this game just to see the great graphics!

Bottom Line?
This is the second rarest DBZ game there is, so don't expect to find it for cheaper than 100 bucks. This fighting game is graphically astounding for a 16 bit system not to mention it's very fun to play, which is why I give it a 10.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/01, Updated 04/22/04