Dragonball Z: Burst Limit
Genre: Fighting
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Developer: Atari
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Price: $49.99; Released: June 10, 2008

I’m kind of surprised by the number of Dragonball Z fighting games that have come out over the last few years. I can understand the appeal, but I’m curious how much of a difference there is in the games from year to year. Dragonball Z: Burst Limit being the first one I’ve played, I can certainly see why fans can enjoy it, and I can see why people looking for a nice casual fighting game can enjoy it, but I wonder if people who have similar games or other Dragonball games should bother to pick this up. It’s a perfectly enjoyable game, but I get the feeling that I wouldn’t really be missing anything by not playing it.

There are plenty of things to like about this game, particularly if you’re a fan of the anime series. The developers have gone out of their way to recreate the look and sound of the show, using the English voice actors and all the sound effects you would expect. The game also looks great. The transition to HD makes the characters jump off the screen, and almost look too good when compared to the show. The actual fights features lots of scenes from the show recreated, and they frequently break up the action mid fight. While this usually gives the player some kind of advantage, it can get a bit annoying after a while, but it does make you feel like you’re actually in an episode.

One chief complaint I would have is the number of characters in the game. There are a total of 21 playable characters, all from the Saiyan, Frieza, and Cell sagas. Now 21 isn’t a bad amount of characters, but when other games in the series have upwards of 100 characters, the list seems a little small, and I would have liked to have seen at least a few more. The other problem is that all the characters play pretty much the same. Now that’s both a compliment and a complaint. The gameplay is easy for anyone to pick up, and there’s not a large amount of moves to memorize. Most moves can be pulled of with the ease of a couple of buttons, so if you’re looking for an easy game to play with a few friends, this is a good one to pick up. However, if you’re looking for a deeper fighting game with a lot of different moves, you’ll find this game to be a bit lacking in that department. There are certainly other fighting games on the market that can give you a more rewarding experience; I’m looking at you Soulcalibur IV.

There are a decent number of play modes to choose from. You get your standard versus mode, either against the computer or another player. The big addition to this game is the online versus mode, letting you prove your worth against other players throughout the world. Story mode takes you through the basic plot of a good chunk of the show, although if you haven’t seen the series before, you probably won’t be able to follow it. The fights in story mode are pretty short, and you get graded on how well you do in the fight and if you can do certain things during the fight. As with the number of characters, I wish the story mode had been longer. I’m not the most experienced fighter, but I was able to blow through the story mode in a couple of days. It doesn’t take too long to go through on the easier difficulties, but there are five difficulty levels to go through, so there’s a fair bit of game for a completist to go through. You also get a practice mode and a pretty decent tutorial that will have you punching and blasting in no time. Of course if you’re one of those 360 achievement hounds, there’s some easy points to unlock, and that may be worth a rental alone.

If you like Super Smash Bros. type fighting games, and you like Dragonball Z, you should check this out. Moves are easy to learn and pull off, and the presentation is pulled right from the show. If you’re looking for a deep fighting game though, or if you’re not a big fan of the franchise, you might want to just give this a rental. There’s a good game here, there’s just not enough of it, especially compared to the similar in spirit Smash Bros. Melee. But if you don’t have a Wii, and are looking for an easy fighting game to pop in on your 360 or PS3, you can do a lot worse. Of course, now that Soulcalibur IV is out, a lot of people will be looking to that game to get their aggression out. If you can find it on sale though, this is at least worth picking up. Not the best game I’ve ever played, but I had some fun with it, and that’s what’s most important to me. I’ll give it a 3 out of 5 kamehameha’s.