Miracle Zenkai Power
RememberDragon Ball AF?
I used to hang out on Yahoo! Chat, the social media hub for anime geeks in the late nineties. It was the coolest thing this side of a GeocitiesSailor Moonfan page, (going to take second to remind everyone about how awesomeNeoCitiesis for anyone feeling nostalgic about the internet) and I used to talk endlessly with internet friends aboutDragon Ball.Dragon Ball AFwas a fake rumoured continuation of the series. It was dumb and looked a little like this.
Yep, it sure lookedDragon Ballas fuck.
It would be another fifteen years until a newDragon Ballseries ever saw the light of day. Sure there wasDragon Ball Kaiwhich was a nice little approximation of the manga, but the actual material was justDragon Ball Zrecut.Dragon Ball Superis the newest thang in theDBuniverse, and it has been generally well received so far.
I have enjoyed it a lot more than I ever likedDragon Ball GT, a post-manga show which is barely canon, and which I had a hard time sitting through.Dragon Ball Superis much better in my opinion even when it feels like it retcons a few things and is a lot more goofy in tone thanDragon Ball Z. There are some pretty damn good fights and it’s a nice love letter to theDBcharacters I love, even if it never hits the same heights of intensity thatZever did. I like that Vegeta has sort of been resigned to the comic relief department in some ways; he was known for doing little else but getting his ass stomped after the Saiyan Saga, always struggling to keep up with Goku.
Remember this?
To put him in a position where he is more or less even keel with Goku, but also play on their buddy cop relationship and the fact that he somehow settled down on Earth with a wife and kid after trying to destroy the entire fucking planet years earlier works really well. I like the new crew, Beerus and Whis in particular, and in recent episodes seeing Freeza come back in a way that worked far better than expected has been a treat. Some of it doesn’t work all of the time, but overall I’m enjoying it a lot more than I ever didGT.
To seeSuperover ninety episodes in and also find out we are getting a newDragon Ballgame based on theGuilty Gearfranchise, also by Arc System Works, has been this pathetic manchild’s wet dream. I have been introducing my wife to the series over the last six months or so and it’s been fun to go back and do it all over again and be able to move right into watchingDragon Ball Super. In the meantime, I ended up buying theDragon Ball Z: Extreme Butodengame on the 3DS, also by Arc System Works, and it was a major disappointment for me. While the pixel art style was nice and the system itself fairly solid, the A.I. was absolutely abysmal, making it no challenge whatsoever unless you found a friend to play with. With no challenge, there was no reason to continue past a few fights and it left me feeling sour.
Unfortunately this has always been something of a trend withDragon Ballvideo games. There are a shit ton out there; dating back to theCassette Visionsystem in Japan, (yeah, I knew that without looking it up on Wikipedia, sure why not fart) a lot of them are in the action and RPG genre. My first introduction to anyDragon Ballgame was this peculiar card-based RPG on the Super Famicom,Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu, where I had little idea what was going on and made it up to the Vegeta fight before getting my ass handed to me and rage quitting. I didn’t realize this was actually a compilation of two original Famicom titles and a pretty common style for earlyDragon Ballgames to be designed in. It wasn’t untilDragon Ball Z: Super Butôdenthat a properDBZfighting game was released, and it was a pretty good first effort.
I played theshitout of this game. It was clunky, frustrating, and had a neat but ultimately unnecessary “split-screen” mechanic when you got too far away from your opponent, but it was the first game I played that felt remotely likeDragon Ball. I loved this game and its sequels, and I would alsonever play themtoday because there are a ton of better options. The first time I was really sold onDragon Ballas a franchise that could have really good games would be much later, in 2004 when we gotDragon Ball Z: Budokai 3for the PlayStation 2. It was mechanically solid and had a ton ofDBZfanservice in it for longtime followers of the franchise. My friend and I played the game at his house a lot while drinking in his basement. We destroyed many controllers this way due to its button-smashing, analog-stick-rotating ultimate attack system. Good times.
Despite my love forBudokai 3, I always felt the game was a little thin in terms of the fighting mechanics. TheDragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichiseries had similar problems, and althoughSuper Dragon Ball Zwould release on the same console in an attempt to createDBZgame that could stand toe to toe with other competitive fighters, it didn’t gain much ground at the time, perhaps releasing too early, without any online features to speak of, so I don’t think it ever garnered much of a community following.
Now we are gettingFighterZ. And it’s hard to believe. The footage has been absolutely gorgeous, not just in terms of the character models, but even the backgrounds are extremely detailed and pretty. Trees sway in the landscape of Namek, the color palette is insanely detailed and rich, and of course the stages are transformable via ultimate attacks which is pretty much a staple ofDBZfighting games.
But more exciting than the flash of pretty graphics is the gameplay. The 3v3 system which has become a familiar staple in competitive fighting games looks brilliant here. We don’t have a full roster of characters, but it seems like Arc System Works is focusing on the heavy hitters; I highly doubt we will see ancillary characters (sorry Yamcha) or “joke” characters filling slots in the roster. I’d like to see cameos from some of the quirkier characters (Arale would be super OP), but I think they’ll save that space for some of theDB Supercast. I would be happy to see Hit and Zamasu in there, as well as the new Saiyans Kale, Caulifla, and Cabba (well maybe not Cabba, he’s sort of lame) but I’m guessing they will probably focus primarily on the more familiar faces for the most part.
There are a lot ofDragon Ballgames, and most of them are nothing to write home about. I recall the announcement ofDragon Ball Z: Budokai. At that time, all we had wasDragon Ball GT: Final Bout, a real clunker of a shitfest that was barely playable, but that I hunted down regardless just to get a taste of something,anythinglocalized. It’s funny to look back now and see how far the series has come and how the popularity of its localization (thanks, Funimation!) drove the games forward and brought us some really fun, if not always good or polished titles to play.
Whatever the case I think it’s safe to predict that this will be the first really mechanically aptDragon Ballfighting game. It’s about time, really. Considering the influence ofDragon Ballon the genre as a whole, and how many games have been released over the years, it is shaping up to be a well-deserved treatment. It’s hard to say for sure until the game launches, but I have pretty high hopes that even Zen-Oh Sama will be blown away by this one.
…that was aDragon Ball Superreference at the end in case you didn’t get it.
