Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit

Dragon Ball Z has had tons of fighting games going all the way back to the Super Famicom days. Some of these older Dragon Ball games are terrific (particularly Ultimate Battle 22 on the original Playstation) and some are down right horrible. So, how does Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit stack up against today’s modern fighting games?

The biggest part of the game is the Z Chronicles which takes you through a very condensed history of Dragon Ball Z pitting you in fight after fight with lots of cut-scenes to advance the mediocre story along. You'll play as both heroes guys and villians in this mode to complete a majority of Dragon Ball Z saga (Z Chronicals goes as far as the Cell saga). Once you complete each saga there are these really nifty music videos that actually summarize most major events in the DBZ history (some of which are played in the game and some of which are not). Seeing these scenes re-animated using the in-game engine is really breath taking and will no doubt make you wish they would someday re-animate the entire show. As you play through the Z Chronicles mode you’ll also unlock characters, stages, moves and extras. When it’s all said and done there are over 20 playable characters.

FINALLY you can play using the original Japanese voice cast or the English dub cast. There's no doubt that just like the show, the dub voices are horrible. The Japanese voice acting adds so much to the game it's unreal; and fans like myself who have been angry with dub-only Dragon Ball games of the past will no longer complain.

As for the gameplay, characters all play alike but have different animations for their moves and special attacks. It can take some time to get adjusted to the play mechanics but once you do, you really do feel like you're a Super Saiya-jin, transforming with ease, powering up and pulling off tons of Kamehamehas! Drama pieces add to the gameplay, allowing you to call characters to save you if you’re in trouble or throw you a senzu seed. Later characters such as Super Saija-jin Gokou, Vegeta and Gohan have several transformations adding an insane amount of power. But it all manages to balance out because the more you power up the lower your defense will become.

The online mode on the XBox 360 version is quite good and lets you take on other Dragon Ball Z players from around the globe. As great as this is, if you’re in America playing a guy in Japan the action is going to indeed slow down. Still, most of the time online matches are fast and furious just like the in-game and provide hours and hours of fighting mayhem, not to mention replay value.

DBZ Burst Limit will please fans of the Dragon Ball Z anime and manga. The game itself looks amazing! The sounds and music are great, and drama pieces are an overall nice touch (even though they do sometimes slow the action down a bit too much). Alone Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit holds its own weight and is easy and fun to play. It doesn't have depth of a Tekken or Virtua Fighters but for fans of the show it's no doubt worth the money. For fans of fighting games in general, it's also worth a rental.

-Extreme Blade of Rare Drop Radio (www.raredrop.com)