A new developer gets their chance at a Dragon Ball game, with class-based fighting and eight-player battles – but is it just for anime fans? It may not be one of the most obvious licences to complain about, as far as most Western gamers are concerned, but how the video games industry has managed to get this far without a definitive Dragon Ball Z game we don’t know. But it seems Japanese developers are just as inept as their Western counterparts at making superhero games, especially in this vapid new adaptation of the classic anime.
The odd thing about how Dragon Ball has been treated over the years is how much the quality has varied – from the unspeakably awful to the generally decent. That’s no doubt due to the wide array of developers that have worked on the franchise, with the best games so far being Crafts & Meister’s Super Dragon Ball Z and the Budokai Tenkaichi series from Spike.
Battle Of Z is by ArtDink, who have little experience with beat ‘em-ups and are best known for the Railroad Tycoon-esque A-Train and oddities like Carnage Heart. The game still has quite a bit in common with Budokai Tenkaichi though, in that unlike most fighting games you have a full 3D arena to fly around in, but it feels like it’s had all of that game’s depth and nuance sucked out of it. And to be honest it’s not like it had that much to begin with.
The game’s sprawling levels are very much larger than usual for a fighting game and allow for full 3D movement and exploration. Although not that there is anything to find apart from a new vantage point or somewhere to hide, but it’s still a fun novelty and the cel-shaded graphics have never looked more authentic to the source material.
There’s obviously mountains of fan service to enjoy here but because Budokai Tenkaichi was actually a pretty good game you didn’t necessarily need to be a fan to enjoy it. But as fighting games go Battle Of Z is about as technical as Mortal Kombat on autoplay, and with half the buttons broken.
Battle Of Z features a grand total of one button for basic combo attacks, which together with the energy blasts for distance attacks makes it immediately obvious that this is designed to be a button masher and little else. You can vary the two basic attacks with a few modifiers but it never approaches the complexity of even Capcom’s more purposefully simplistic fighters.
But it didn’t have to be this way, and not only because it’s just a dumbed down version of Budokai Tenkaichi. Each of the 67 characters has their own special attacks and these can vary quite a bit from simply dealing the maximum amount of damage, to pushing an opponent away, or healing an ally. It’s essentially a class-based fighting game, especially as you often fight in teams instead of the usual one-on-one, but despite being a great idea the game never makes the most of the concept.
In fact it doesn’t even bother to have a split screen multiplayer mode. Instead everything’s online, and as enticing as eight-player battles sound the almost complete lack of tactics means they’re just chaotic free-for-alls. And given how bad the camera is at keeping up with the action that’s very chaotic indeed.
The best fun is usually had with the modes that deviate the furthest from being an actual fighting game, including a fun variant on Capture the Flag where you’re all trying to collect dragon balls and steal them from other people.
It’s a shame that Battle Of Z goes to such effort to sabotage its own potential but we’ve not once managed to get into a game where anyone made any pretence of playing it properly. Instead it all just devolves into a sort of anime-themed version of Battlefield, except with a smaller map and everyone running around just bashing the same buttons repeatedly to build up a special attack.
There is plenty to build on here for a sequel, and considering how many there were for the other games we’d assume that’s almost a certainty. But why it’s decided to ignore all the hard won lessons of its predecessors is as great a mystery as whoever thought the subtitle Battle Of Z was a good idea.
In Short: A disappointing evolution of the Budokai Tenkaichi template, which despite some interesting ideas seems intent on making itself as shallow and simplistic as possible.
Pros: The cel-shaded graphics are fantastic and there’s plenty of expertly craft fan service. The class-based battles are a great idea and the 3D arenas still a fun novelty.
Cons: Extremely shallow compared to both rival fighting games and previous Dragon Ball games. Lethargic camera struggles to keep up. No local multiplayer.
Score: 5/10
