Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game

"One of the Best DBZ Games. And No, That's Not Saying Much"

When it was first announced that we'd be seeing Dragonball games produced right here in the U.S., I was rather pleased. After all, we've been graced with a plethora of ballzy consoles since Dragonball's peak in the land of the rising sun that could bring Akira Toriyama's classics to life like never before. In the past, you had to look hard to find a Dragonball game you could call ''good'', and you best give up if you want to find a DBZ game you could safely call ''classic.'' Unfortunately, the curse of mediocricy continues to afflict the DBZ license.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm a fan of DBZ, and also a fan of the DBZ card game. That said, I'm probably a prime candidate to write this review. Me, my friends, and a core base of DBZ card game players right here in town enjoy playing this card game on a regular basis, and a portable, video game version certainly seemed like a good idea. After all, a card game should represent enormous replay value, and a well produced computer version would give fans of the actual card game a chance to practice strategies and experiment in ways they couldn't do with a limited set of cards. At the same time, though, it would be easy to ruin a product -- a CCgame is made up of a lot of rules and a lot of little intricacies that could easily be marred in a console release, thus ruining the very gameplay people would buy the cartridge for. In regard to all of this, Infogrames latest release is somewhat hit and miss, falling neither into the category of excellence nor complete and utter crap. Allow me to elaborate...

Story: N/A
In short, there really is no story. The game bounces you up a tournament style ladder where you have to take out two or three opponents at a time, until you reach Cell at the last level. It could be claimed that the game traces a path of your character as he trains to defeat Cell, but the game never presents itself this way, so there's little point in pretending. The pity here is that the game could have used that extra spark of presentation -- the game obviously borrows inspiration from the Pokemon Trading Card game for Game Boy, which offered the novelty of a Pokemon like quest to link the card games together. Too bad, too bad.

Graphics: 7
A real mixed bag. The graphic part of the user interface is slick, the cards are presented nicely in view mode, and the digitized versions of the game cards, though slightly dithered, are still enjoyable to look at. In fact, looking at still screens, it'd be easy to rank this even higher. But as you play, you realize the game lacks polish and pizzaz. Attacks could have been complemented by small animations, kamehameha sprites and the like, but attacks are merely punctuated by a flash of red and a sound effect. The only card animation we really see, in fact, are the pictures of the opposing characters crashing into each other at the beginning of the match. Having this game in computerized format open the opportunity to make things look a bit more lively than just cards on a table, but this game is almost completely static. But the real point loss comes from the garish blue font they use to print commands. A dark blue, undecorated font is used on the brushed steel interface to announce turns, phases, and so forth.. and it's really quite ugly and in stark contrast to the other fundamentally pleasing visuals.

Audio: 2
Yeesh. Again, the opportunity to do something a bit more and make the game a bit special is wasted. When I first started the game up, I was pleasantly surprised to hear digitized music samples coming through my tinny GBA speakers. The novelty wore off as it occurred to me that same loop of music repeated over and over.. and over and over again. You could safely count the number of music tracks in this game with one hand, even after lopping a few fingers off. Thankfully, there is an option to turn the music off. The sound effects are less noticeable, but still less than they could have been. Attacks and card selections are all accompanied by appropriate sound effects, but they are generic and sound like they were taken from a stock set, and feature nothing necessarrily taken from the show -- even the ''angry scream'' sounds generic.

Gameplay: 7
The real meat of a game like this, the Gameplay of the DBZ card game is full of pleasant surprises and disappointments. First of all, I've never gone through the tutorial in this game -- this review is being made from the perspective of a seasoned DBZ card game player. As such, the GamePlay part of the review can be broken up into several sections...

Interface: 5
In a game like this that's completely driven off of menus and menu selections, the interface is radically important. There's only so much room on that Game Boy Advance screen, and there's a lot of information to be displayed. For the most part, the interface works well. After you get your bearings in, you'll know where to go to check up on what drills are on the table, what non-combats are available, how many cards are in your opponent's hand, what cards are in your discard pile, and more. Still, navigating can get cumbersome. The screen feels the need to flip around when checking on cards, an unnecessary visual effect that slows things down. Sometimes the engine won't let you access information you desperately want, like what power levels you and your allies are at before deciding who accepts damage. Also, sometimes valuable information is missing when you want it the most. I would love to know how much damage a physical attack in my hand is going to do to an enemy without having to first view my power table, then his power table, then a physical attack table -- the game should just TELL ME.

The deck building interface is pretty intuitive and effective -- hilite a card, choose how many you want in a deck. Its pretty bare bones, and works well, but I wish it would do more. The ability to sort cards by certain criteria would have been very valuable, and although I'm often aware of what cards I can and can not use, I'm certain people new to the game would appreciate knowing why they can't stick Garlic Jr. Level 3 in their Goku deck.

Rule Interpretation: 7
I feared the worst in the release of DBZ Card Game for GBA. I'm a stickler for rules, see, and there are enouch corrections and changes in the DBZ rules throughout its short history that there were too many places for anyone to screw up in bringing the game to the little screen. Seeing that Infrogrames didn't spend much extra time on sound and even graphics, I didn't expect them to get anal enough with the rules to please a hardcore rule junkie like myself. Truth is, they actually did pretty good. The game uses an old CRD set (CRD is the most current set of rules) in the same timeframe as the Trunks Saga, so some of the changes made since then are not in place, and that's understandable. That, combined with the fact that some rules were quite obviously overlooked, means you can do some things in this game that simply aren't possible in tournament based play. For instance, you can pack a deck with three Saiyan Truce Cards (normally limit 1 per deck) and three Nappa Physical Resistance (again, normally limit 1 per deck), and even use your ''defending in combat'' abilities when attacking. However, the game does take some cards that I figure must have been pretty special cases, programming wise, like Trunks Energy Sphere, Red Lightning Slash, Red Gravity Drill, etc., and pulls them off quite nicely. Overall, I had plenty of nitpicks, but the core game is kept in tact.

Card Selection: 6
For those familiar with the game, we've got cards from Saiyan up until Androids Saga present. Personalities are mainly taken from the Trunks saga, and even the Masteries are included. Unfortunately, some of the colors just end up being unbalanced compared to others. Saiyan Style, for one, was a fairly ineffective style until the Androids Saga, Cell Saga, and Cell Games saga, and without those latter two expansions in the game, the Saiyan Style comes off as a bit underpowered. Black is actually rather effective, but Black began to transition from a versatility style in the Saiyan Saga to a more physical, card control style later on, and since the game includes expansions over this time the result is a black style that's a bit nondescript. Orange could have used some more of its most popular drills (they kept Orange Energy Dan Drill in, though, which surprised me), Blue needed some more ''WOW!'' cards, Namekian could have used some more oomph. Red (probably the style that changed the least throughout the game's evolution) has all its basics covered, though. As a result, you probably won't be building those Tokui-Waza decks for a while.

The Actual Game: 6
One thing you'll notice is that the game runs too damn slow. Even after you've gotten your feet wet, the game still feels the need to announce every phase, make you painstakingly watch every card drawn, etc. etc. Despite being in computerized form, the game doesn't necessarily move any faster than it would if you were playing with the actual cards.

Computer AI is another mixed bag. Some very potent strategies have been installed into the opponents you face, each one is unique, and each one can offer a valuable experience. For those not in the know, there are multiple ways to win in the DBZ card game, and the variety of foes you face in your travels will try every trick in the book on you, one by one, so that you can familiarize yourself with all the ways to win and lose. You'll find yourself going back to the Deck Builder many times to tweak a deck just to take out one opponent, and that's a good thing -- the game comes at you with a stiff upper lip.

On the flipside, though, the AI does have some shortcomings. For one, they never even consider passing up the opportunity to attack, which can be disastarous in some cases. Even after watching the computer lay down three non-combats in one turn, they will attack you with an empty hand and their one personality power. I'll sit back with four cards in hand, and after swatting away their first attack, I'm left with no obstacles in the way to nail them into the wall.

Second, the computer almost always uses their defensive cards up at the first opportunity. An important part of the Dragonball card game is the mind games that play out in combat -- the attacker will try and fish out all of his opponent's defenses so he can hopefully land that one big punch. Against the computer, you can usually take the most straightforward route -- throw out the little hits first and work your way up -- and safely get all the defenses out of the way right away.

Another gripe with the game is the methods through which you gain cards. I haven't finished the game yet, but so far I've been given 10 random cards for each opponent I beat. The game starts you off with a decent set of cards -- nothing you can build a Toku-Waza deck out of, and certainly nothing you can make a tournament winner out of, but enough to get you past those first few opponents. After that, though, you have to fight for each new cards. WIth over 300 cards to gain, many of which are quite rare, getting a measly 10 cards per victory can leave you with an eternity of play ahead of you. Great for those who can play this game forever, but bad for anyone, like me, who wants to actually put together a decent, realistic deck to try against other opponents.

Multiplayer: 8
Long car rides, rainy days, you name it, this is a great multi-player game. Those with thousands of actual cards would probably scoff at the idea of sitting around and playing a limited version of their favorite CCG, but in truth the game gives you the opportunity to try out decks and ideas you couldn't possibly do with your cards unless you tore apart a few of your prize decks. I say multiplayer is an essential part of the experience -- my overall impression of the game would probably drop a notch or two if I didn't have someone else to play against -- so you might want to make sure someone else you know picks up the cartridge when you do.

Value: 8
An unusually high score, given the games shortcomings, but it's hard to ignore the game's strong points. If you honestly enjoy the game itself, you can overlook the hamperings to play this game for hours, as each card game is different. If you have a friend or two to play against, the fun of making your own decks and trying them out lasts as long as you don't get sick of looking at the cards. Add on to that the fact that this game is released at $30 (which is good, cuz it's stretching it to say that it plays like a game that worth $40) and comes with a promo card that anyone who plays red anger would KILL to have three of, and you've got your money's worth.

In the end, what we have here is a game that's happy being what it has to be, and nothing more. ''What it has to be'', though, is a fun if not bukly interpretation of a good old fashioned collectible card game. Although lacking the nifty features and robustness of the template portable card game, Pokemon TCG, anyone who likes DBZ, the DBZ card game, or both will get a kick out of this.

Final Score: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/03/02, Updated 06/03/02