"Closer, but no Kame-hame-YAAAAA"

Dragon Ball Z has spurnned a lot of Video Games. Rightfully so, since the cartoon is pure action. Any American fans can instantly agree -- if there was ever a cartoon that should be a breeze to turn into a good Video Game, it would be Dragon Ball Z.

So, why then, after so many tries, is Bandai unable to accurately portray Dragon Ball Z in a video game?

Well, truth be told, their third attempt is closer than their first. But it still needs work.

The game is set up a lot like the first one.. kinda tournament like with a few variations. However, I understand Dragon Ball Z 2 had a story mode.. and that mode seems to be sorely lacking in its entirety in this sequel. What the heck? Despite some dialogue, we don't get any of what Dragon Ball Z is all about... action with a Story. How disappointing.

Dragon Ball Z 3 is, by the way, a fighting game. Unlike the first incarnation, however, this second sequel has more to it. For instance, a split screen format lets fighters drift as far apart from each other as they want. They throw fireballs at the touch of a button.. their basic moves are pathetically limited.. like, a punch and a kick. They can fly, they can speed VERY quickly towards each other.. all closer to the original. And, they can throw enORMOUS fireballs with a little charging. And, yes, they can even throw them into the sky from the ground and vice versa. Which is good.. it seems as if though Bandai came closer to assimiliating the Dragon Ball feel.

However, the "basic" fighting of the game is more limited than ever. If you kick or punch a character, they fly away.. even when they block. You can't follow up, rapidly punching and kicking, which makes the game basically a fireball kinda game... whereas it should play better as a mix of both. I was saddened that Bandai had come so far since their first attempt, only to fall short here. If you do manage to smack someone, you'll be damn lucky if you can follow up with another blow before they're ready go. Combos do not exist.. counters also dont happen, since there's really only two kinds of melee attacks. You can't outspeed the other player or anything... catch em off guard with a weak when they're going for a fierce.. it just doesn't happen in this game.

As for the finer details of the game, it's all there. The character selection is wider than ever.. including many characters I am not familiar with. Everyone important is along for the ride though.. Piccolo, my favorite, San-Goku, and Vegeta. And the gold hair.. I won't get into that though! I just wish I understood why these guys are getting GOLD HAIR!?!??!

There's enough background variety to keep you busy for a while at least. However, it would have been nice to add a few animation features to these backgrounds.. for the most part, they're pretty still.

The graphics are decent. Animation is really choppy -- a two frame kick. The basic look of the characters is right on Akira Toriyama's cartoon, but their motions aren't always as similar. The graphics look a lot like the original's... you'd figure they could improve a little hm? No such luck.

The sound is basically the same story. Punches suffer from smack and pow sounds that would never be at home on the cartoon.. but we get screams and yells now that are straight out of the Japanese cartoon.. not that that matter a lot to me. There aren't enough of the screams anyways... not to be Dragon Ball, anyways.

The Gameplay I've already been through. It plays a lot like a basic fighter, except you can fly, charge really fast, throw fireballs at the touch of a button.. and, yes, throw big fireballs after you charge. And you can kick or punch.. not that it matters much. Best get some instructions on how to throw those fireballs, though.. you won't easily find out just dabbling around with the game.

After all is said and done, this final installment into the 16-bit DBZ fighting games is as close as they came to mimicking the cartoon, but the missing story mode, some wrong sound effects, lack of variety and lack of real melee fighting take it down a few notches. It might be worth my time to try out the Playstation DBZ games now... but I'm getting more and more disheartened, especially since I found out the PSX Dragon Ball GT game was pretty bad.

If you're gonna play some Dragon Ball fighting games on your Super Famicom, stick with DBZ 2, with the story mode. Why they were crazy enough to take it out of chapter 3 is beyond me. Dragon Ball super fans don't really need all three installments, however. The second one should satisfy you fine. This one tries to improve a bit.. but actually falls.

Habby DBZing.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99