Super Dragonball Z

For a long time, fighting games never held much appeal to me. In my day, you had a stick and a shiny red button, so the concept of special moves always eluded me. Even when I pounded the crap out of a cocky young cousin playing Street Fighter, I secretly knew that it was because the gods of Konami smiled upon me as I mashed as many buttons as I could as fast as I could.

Yet there's no denying the thrill of something like Marvel vs. Capcom, and I'm obviously drooling for Justice League Heroes, though I'm also betting there's really a greater sense of plot and thinking that must go on in that game. (And if there isn't, I still don't care - it's the Justice League.)

So it must be that for a straight-on fighting game to be successful, it has to have interesting characters, if not characterization, that make it fun to whale on opponents. Super Dragonball Z definitely has that.

Of course, if you're already a fan of Dragonball Z, then you know that. But other than an exposure to the character Buu one Christmas that gave my daughter nightmares (thanks to my brother Chris), it's never been a property that caught my attention. Truth be told, it still isn't, but I had fun playing the game.

Knowing much about the mythos of the various Dragonballs doesn't seem to matter. In fact, it might actually hurt. (I largely played as Piccolo, and in doing research couldn't really decide if he's a hero or a villain - all I know for sure is that the insect-like Cell is a complete and utter bastard.) Instead, you just have to pick characters you like and see what you can do to build them up.

The game incorporates features from earlier incarnations. If what you seek is a revved-up version of the game as it was before, it's here as players can move along a map facing down various opponents and earning the rights to dragonballs.

As a way of working out the day's aggressions, that can suffice. But it might be more prudent to "create" a character you can save and improve upon as you work through the game. No, this new version from Atari and Funimation doesn't actually have a character builder, per se. You're limited to twelve characters from the show, but as you fight, you have some choices as to what new abilities you gain, and despite appearances, you can give them any name you want.

All that information fits on a virtual trading card, too, so it's like you've got a card game. But the information does not travel from port to port - it's all still locked up in your memory card.

Take that character and fight in a variety of settings. As should be par for the course, you can work out in a training arena, mastering your skill sets and generally making opponents cry. You can also just get down to it and go through a brutal gauntlet of foes in order to gain the seven dragonballs that will summon, naturally enough, a dragon who will grant your fondest wish.

That's provided your fondest wish involves hitting someone at twice the speed as before or the ability to generate a blast of mental force. Wait a minute. That actually does have real world applications…

The game has broken free of side scrolling fighting. Your battles move around pretty chaotically, with graphics that have a 2D animation feel while still being in three dimensions. It's a cool look, but not groundbreaking, as other games have utilized it before.

Likely because it's ported directly from the Japanese version of the game, the text has a very primitive feel, getting the same amount of information into a text box in English as it would in kanji. One of the fun side effects of that translation, however, is the vocalizing each character does when it's beaten. There's a lot of muttering under the breath.

Super Dragonball Z also begins with a warning, something I hadn't seen before on a game. It advises you to play for no more than forty-five minutes at a time, followed by a break of at least fifteen minutes. Wise words, perhaps, but hard to do when caught up in the excitement.

For long-time fans, this game also offers "Cyborg Frieza," but I won't snow you on it - as someone not steeped in the mythos, it doesn't mean much to me. But again, I understand. Offer me Golden Age Flash in a game, for example, and I totally geek out.

So if I had fun playing this, I suspect that real fans will have much more.

Super Dragonball Z