Since the release of the first Dragon Ball Z Budokai game, Atari has found the franchise to be its saving grace, as the game's continue to perform exceptionally well with every release. Through collaborative efforts with Bandai, Atari has continued to release one DBZ game after another. And now that we're in an all new generation, it's time to release one in high-def. We've got our first sampling of the game, and we think DBZ fans should find the game rather enjoyable, if a bit simplistic.
Admittedly, it's been quite a long time since I've played a DBZ game, so I'll refrain from making any comparisons to past games. The control scheme of Burst Limit is pretty simple, you have two attack buttons, a Rush Attack and Smash Attack which you'll use to perform combos with. The Ki Blast is what you'll use to let-off fireballs and perform other special attacks. And, of course, you'll be able to guard attacks that come your way. When you move to the shoulder buttons, there you'll have access to the Blow-Away Attack, Transform, Aura Spark, and Pursuit actions.
Playing Burst Limit is pretty straightforward, but even though it's simplistic, you're still able to dish out some pretty solid combos on your opponents. Like all fighters these days, you can pop open a command list by pausing the game and there you'll see what moves and combos can be executed. Like I said earlier on, you'll primarily use the two attack buttons to dish out combos, but you'll also be able to mix up the mayhem with special moves, teleports, grapples, and other actions to mimic the fury of the anime.
If you let the game run on its own and watch the A.I. fight, it demonstrates that the game can do a pretty convincing job of mimicking the cartoon. It also encourages you to try and learn these moves in order to get more creative with your technique. While I wouldn't brand Burst Limit as a pick-up-and-play kind of game, the learning curve is relatively easy to overcome. Your first round may feel clunky, until you get used to the controls, learn some of the more basic combos and moves, and only then will things begin to click. The story presentation is well done, so trekking through the story mode should be pretty enjoyable if only to watch the tale unfold through the in-game cutscenes. Even during fights the game will trigger cut-scenes, again, to make the fights feel more like the anime. Completing fights also yields a ranking that spans a number of letter grades from D to Z (Z being the best, S being the second best, followed by A, B, C, and D).
Visually, there's no doubt about it that this is the best looking DBZ game we've seen to date. It's also the closest we've ever been to the cartoon from a purely aesthetic point. Even though the characters are three-dimensional, they still retain the anime's signature look down to a tee. Fighters are brimming with all the details that their anime counterparts boast, so DBZ fanatics can rest at ease. Environments are large and very expansive, allowing you to fight on an enormous terrain on either the ground, or in the skies.
The one crippling aspect to Burst Limit may be its online gameplay. Developer DIMPS hasn't been able to properly familiarize itself with next-gen hardware just yet, so online matches are limited to one-vs-one affairs, and that's it. Look for Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit to hit June 10th. Fans of the series may want to take a look at this one.
I played the demo on the 360, and honestly I didn't care for it very much. The graphics and design are definately true to the series, the story it tosses out is also pretty much on par… Actually to the point where I was saying the lines by memory from watching the show side by side with the game. So yes, I can say it was pretty accurate. As you say, the controls are simple… Perhaps too simple, and I think that's where it falls short. Granted, it's far better than the combat system found in Naruto: Rise of The Ninja on the xbox360 (which outright horrible!), but I can see beyond with RoTN that as it is much more than just a fighting game. Burst Limit I found was also troublesome with the inability to really say grounded if you wanted. OK, so the show took place in the air alot, but with the vast amount of space to move around and the SLOW (since when did Goku move slower than grandma?!?) movement of getting to your opponent once he's across the screen… I feel it just fell short of what could have been decent.
As far as my DBZ fan status… There's almost never a day when I'm not wearing a DBZ shirt, I have more DBZ wall scrolls than I know what to do with, a collection of original figures still in the box, sountracks, all the DVDs through Cell Saga (I don't own Buu Saga, which I didn't care for), paid $100 for the old PS1 DBGT fighting game, could probably tell you almost every detail of the show through Cell Saga, and one of the few people who can go to an anime gathering and openly say "I like DBZ" knowing that it is often taboo to speak of such things! lol To say I'm a fan is an understatement. Personally I'm still waiting for Toriyama to call me to confirm facts about DBZ. Lastly… To this day I have still been unable to sucessfully reproduce the Kamehameha wave, muchless figure out how to fly… >.> I'm starting to think I'm a real life Yajirobi.
Last edited by Zapix on 5/29/2008 9:41:05 PM
man i agree with you 100% on your review and i too am a huge fan of the series. I got all of the games(including handheld) and episodes etc.