Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors

"I'm good, you know? :-)"

Introduction
A couple years ago, there was a japanese animation series which was released worldwide and became really famous. Its name? Dragon Ball Z, of course! This game is based on the story of that series, and fortunately it captures the essence of it, making it a great game.

Gameplay
Once you get to the main menu, you will notice something that you will really enjoy: This game has exactly 6 different play modes, including a story mode, a training mode, vs modes and so on... You will be able to pick your player from a large set of characters from the series, and apart from those that you can pick initally there are also lots of them that you can unlock by spending points in the a ''Store'', which also enables you to unlock different character levels (for example, you can also play with Gokuh SSJ apart from the normal Gokuh, and this also goes for the other characters...), new modes and many other things. In order to win points you have to perform certain tasks, like finishing the story mode, in which you will be able to face some battles which occured in the series, and on those battles you will also see how nice this game is... On battles you are able to perform combos at a speed that makes almost everyone amazed, apart from being able to strike using impressive ki attacks (like the all-powerful Kamehameha or the weak Masenko...) which will require your character to have a certain amount of energy. Between each level of this story mode you will also be able to see certain scenes from the anime, which by the way are really well drawn, nothing to do with a certain Dragon Ball fighting which was released some time ago in the gameboy advance. Finally I must say that the number of players that you can pick on the Vs Mode depends only their level, which means that if you pick a SSJ Gokuh you will be able to pick less characters than if you picked a normal Gokuh...

Story
Depending on which character you pick at the starting of the Story mode, it will change... For example, if you pick Gokuh you will be able to play a first battle against Vegeta up to the end of the Buu saga, but if you pick Trunks you will play a different story, which even doesn't have the same ending. This means that you will surely have lots of stories to play with...

Graphics/Sound
I must say that both the graphics and the sound appear to be quite nice. You can clearly see all the characters (which are well drawn!) and their moves, plus the menus, the musics and sounds really seem like having been taken from the series, even when they weren't.

Play Time/Replayability
Since this game has lots of stories to play and lots of characters to unlock, it has quite a long play time and a shiny replay value. Also, be aware that this game is quite hard even on the weaker play modes, which may be tough for newbies...

Final Recommendation
This game is quite good for people who liked the series. If you are a Dragon Ball Z fan, you have to buy this one!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/04