Reviewed: August 18, 2006
Reviewed by: Ken Hutchinson

Publisher
Atari

Developer
Crafts & Meister

Released: July 18, 2006
Genre: Fighting
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Teen

7
7
8
6
7.1

Supported Features:

Super Dragon Ball Z has the following features:

• An all-new DBZ fighting system, with more intense combos that cause more damage than any DBZ game ever created
• Unique fighting moves and styles for all 18 characters
• Super-fast combination moves and battle scenes
• Ability to strategically use the terrain to fight
• 3D fighting on the ground and in the air
• All new version of Mecha Frieza to unlock

Original and Z Survivor pit you against computer-controlled fighters. In Original, you take on seven opponents, with each giving you a Dragon Ball. Z Survivor puts you up against nine fighters with a catch: you only have one life bar. After each match, you can select an option from a roulette wheel, ranging from Dragon Balls to regaining health. Each character is progressively stronger than the previous. Beating all nine will prove to be rather difficult if your character isn’t very strong. Also, as you win battles, you will gain battle power, becoming stronger. You’ll also gain points towards unlocking new skills.

Once you collect all seven Dragon Balls, you can summon Shenron to grant you a wish. Many of the wishes are geared towards customizing your character. However, every so often you will be given the chance to wish for something unique, such as unlocking a character. There are plenty of wishes to be granted, so you’ll be spending a lot of time to get all of them.

Customize allows you to do just that, customize your character. You can change his or her outfit or skills, assuming you’ve unlocked them already. You need to be careful choosing your skills, though. Once you choose one, you can’t go back and change it. Well, you can, but you need to wish for your character to start fresh with no skills.

Training allows you to practice your moves. You can have your opponent be controlled by a person or the computer. The biggest downside to this mode is that fact that there wasn’t a way to get the computer to attack me without being attacked first. You’re also limited to the capsule stage for training mode.

The Action Bar adds a new element to Super Dragon Ball Z. It shows how much energy you have for flying or dash attacks. Dash attacks are very useful in this game, so having a large Action Bar can oftentimes determine whether you’ll in or lose.

Like most fighters, the button layout consists of a weak and strong attack, guard, dash attacks, and throws. Certain button combinations allow you to perform special attacks, such as launching Krillin’s Destructo-Disk. Unlike Budokai, Super Dragon Ball Z allows you to fly and jump. However, it doesn’t possess the split-screen action that Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 did. The environments aren’t large enough to make it necessary. The large battlefields gave a bore a huge resemblance to the series. Thus, it’s a sorely missed feature. However, that doesn’t make Super Dragon Ball Z a failure. It still possesses a decent fun factor for a fighter.

The movements of the characters are pretty fluid. There really aren’t any glitches to worry about. The layout of the HUD is also very similar to the majority of fighting games out there. You have your standard life bar and energy bar at the top and an action bar at the bottom. Even being a 3-D fighter, the camera’s rotation isn’t jerky. It’s simple to keep up with all the movement.

You won’t really see any spectacular energy blasts like in the show, though. Granted, some ultimate moves wield awesome power. Yet they just don’t have the same punch you’d expect of fighters with multi-million B.P. levels.

The only drawback to the sound is the music. It just doesn’t sound like something that fits with Dragon Ball Z. After watching tons of episodes, you develop a feel and expectation of the music style. Super Dragon Ball Z just doesn’t hit the right note. However, the music is not really that distracting, so it isn’t much of a flaw.

Super Dragon Ball Z is lacking in the online department. Sure, you can dominate your friends with your beefed-up customized Majin Vegeta, but you can’t go online and be ruler of the world. Building a character up to 80,000,000 B.P. seems so lonely when he doesn’t have a worthy opponent to fight against.

There also isn’t an in-depth story mode that you can play through. Other fighters like Mortal Kombat at least have entwined stories that you can immerse yourself in to add to the game’s replay value. Super Dragon Ball Z, though, is basically just one battle after another. The retail price for Super Dragon Ball Z sits at $39.99. Like most Dragon Ball Z games, the price will likely be dropping down to the $19.99 mark.