Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension

"The #1 SNES Dragonball Fighter, that only slightly messes up the storyline of DBZ..."

Dragonball was, and still is, one of the most popular Mangas/Animes ever. It was created by Akira Toriyama in 1982, based off the famous Chinese folk tale, Record of the Journey West. It instantly became a hit. It spawned 3 series; Dragonball, the story of Son Gokuu, a strange youth with a tail. It started when he was a child. His adoptive Grandpa had been killed when Gokuu turned into a strange Were-Ape creature; by looking at a full moon; called an Oozaru, and stomped on him. He later meets Buruma, and they go on a quest to gather the Dragonballs, meeting new friends, including Chichi, his future wife, and enemies along the way. He then goes to train with Kamesennin, and makes many friends, like Kuririn and Lunch. The comes Dragonball Z, where we learn Gokuu's background, of the Saiyajin, and he and Chichi's 2 sons are born. He makes many new friends and enemies throughout the whole series. DBZ became the most popular of the 3 series, in Japan, the US, and just about every where else. Then Dragonball GT, not made by Toriyama, but TOEI. Gokuu gets turned back into a child, and they look for the Black Star Dragonballs to wish him back into an adult. Then, a few more Sagas take place, and the Dragonball series finally ends. Throughout the series, many games were made. Many of them fighting games. Hyper Dimension was one of the best Dragonball games ever.

Graphics: 10/10
Perfect. The graphics of this game are some of the very best on the Super Famicom. They characters and backgrounds look almost exactly like the Anime and Manga. The Ki blasts are all yellow, which is one of the only bad parts of the game. Little blasts, big blasts, and special blasts are all yellow, with the exception of a few, such as Pikkoro's Monstrous Ray of Death. The game uses a special chip that makes the graphics so good. This chip gets the graphics section 10/10.

Sound: 8/10
The music in this game isn't great. Some of the tracks are quite boring, and none are from the anime. But, a few of the songs are quite enjoyable, Emergency and U-Blue, to name 2. The punches, kicks and ki sound realistic. When the punch or kick hits the opponent, a smack sound is heard. When ki hits an enemy, an explosion is heard. The charging of Ki sounds pretty cool, but not like it does in the show. The character's grunts sound like they do from the Anime. 8/10 here.

Gameplay: 10/10
The controls are very easy to use in Hyper Dimension. It's very fun to play and easy to use. Push B for a kick, A for a Ki blast, Y for a punch, and X for a chop, that can deflect Ki blasts, throw an enemy, or knock an opponent into another screen. Theres many different moves for each button. For instance, when play as Gokuu, push Forward + B for two kicks, instead of one. Push Down + Back + Forward + A for a special ki attack, such as Kamehameha or Final Flash. Charging up your Ki attack requires you hold the button to charge. When it reaches it's max power, it automatically shoots. The more you charge, then longer it take, but the stronger the attack becomes. It is great to do when an enemy is dizzy. Up is Jump and down is crouch.You can attack in the air, and jumping is a good way to dodge Ki attacks. If you push something like Back + Down + Forward + X, you can knock a person into another screen. An attack to the left will send them to the left, as with the right. Use it below them, and you can knock them into the air, where you can have air battles! When in the air, your punch becomes a forward lunge punch, and your kick becomes a forward lunge kick. You can shoot ki in three ways; Forward, Northeast/west, or South/east/west, depending what direction you are facing. Use one of the X attacks to send them to another screen, or back onto the ground. Your character does a taunt when he(sorry, no female fighters in the game, :/) wins. He has one for the ground and one for the air. Story mode is fighting as they did (almost) in the actual series. Vs. lets you fight against a friend or a computer. You can have Tenkaichi-Budokai Tournaments, and practice against an unmoving opponent in Practice Mode. In options, you can change the game options. Anyway, the gameplay in this game is fantastic; 10/10.

Character Choice: 8/10
They characters in this game are: Son Gokuu(SSJ2), Majin Vegita(SSJ2), Super Gotenkusu(SSJ3), Son Gohan(Mystic), Super Veggeto(SSJ), Pikkoro, Furiiza(Final Form), Mr. Buu, True Buu, and Perfect Seru. Each player has different attacks, size, and fighting style. Gokuu is a mix between offense and defense. Vegita is an offense fighter. Gotenkusu defense, Gohan defense, Veggeto is a mix, and Pikkoro is offense. Mr. Buu is defense, True Buu offense, Furiiza offense, and Seru is defense. Most of the players are average, medium size, but Veggeto and Seru are large. Furiiza and Gotenkusu are small-sized. There are no secret characters; in fact, there are no secrets in the game at all! They could have added a few more people, such as Mirai Trunks, Kuririn, or maybe even Tapion or Kaioshin. But overall, the character choice is good and well based, so it gets 8/10.

Story: 7/10
The story starts from when Pikkoro fights against Furiiza (Freeza) on Planet Namekkusei. It goes until Gokuu fights True Buu at the end of the series. The game changes what actually happens in the series a little. They have Son Gokuu fight everybody, which is not what happens. True, Gokuu beats Furiiza and Buu, but not Seru (Cell). Son Gohan, Gotenkusu, Veggeto, and a few other people are never used in the story-line, even though the were an important part. Gohan defeats Cell, not Gokuu. They have no cut-scene showing what actually happened; EX: Gokuu using a Genki Dama (Spirit Bomb) to defeat Buu. But, since the game is already filled up with the incredible graphics and gameplay, what can one expect on a Super Nintendo? Since the story is bent and changed a bit, and Gokuu does the majority of the fighting in Story Mode, this gets 7/10.

Replay Value:
The Replay Value for Dragonball Hyper Dimension is a 10/10. Beating Story-Mode is no big achievement. It is easy, short, and doesn't require much effort. Playing against the Computer or another player is the real fun of this game. Like many other fighting games, playing for practice, fighting against a computer, or battling against a friend to get boring. This game will keep you playing for a while. If this was a rateable column, then it would get a 10/10.

Hardware:
You just need a Super Famicom and a copy of <i.Dragonball Hyper Dimension. If you download the ROM, you need an Emulator, like ZSNES, to play it. To play the Japanese Cartridge on an American SNES, you have to physically tamper with the console to have it be able to read the cartridge. DO NOT try that without looking up how to do it, of course.

Buy, or Rent?:
Well, you can't rent this, and buying Dragonball Hyper Dimension will take quite a bit of $$$. EBay and similar sites will be charging something from $60 to $200 for this game. If you are a person who wants to do the right thing, and doesn't mind tampering with his SNES, then buy it. If you don't want to bother with that, get the ROM.

Over-all Grade:
AN EXCELLENT GAME : 9/10
One of the greatest Dragonball video games ever.

Dragonball Hyper Dimension was the final and best Dragonball game released on the Super Famicom/SNES. After this, games like Dragonball GT Final Bout, Dragonball Z Legends, and Dragonball Ultimate Battle 22 were released on the Playstation. After Dragonball GT finished in Japan, no more games were made. Now, since Dragonball is so incredibly popular in the USA, games sponcered by FUNImation are being made by Infogrames for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Sony Playstation 2, and Nintendo Gamecube. But as for Hyper Dimension, it is the best Dragonball game on the SNES, and even one of the best fighters on the entire console.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/02, Updated 02/15/02