DBZ Burst Limit review

Dragonball Z: Burst Limit
Xbox 360 review
Made by: Namco and Ban Dai
Genre: Fighting Game

I'll admit right from the start, I used to be a fan of the Dragonball franchise, mainly in the Z series. But I quickly dropped off the fanbase when the series was belittled with repetetive plots, corny dilouge about power levels and the idea that it's okay if everyone dies; we can just wish them back with these 7 balls with stars on. With concepts like that, is it wrong to accuse this show and most animes like it of being mentaly retarded?

When it comes to the video game world. Dragonball Z is about as tiresome as the show itself. As practically ALL of the Dragonball Z games retell the same stories over and over again. And Burst Limit is no exception.

Story
Burst Limit offers shortened retellings of the most memorable parts of the 1st 3 sagas in the shows history. The Sayian Saga, The Frieza Saga and The Cell Saga. What I mean by shorted is, the entire saga has been stripped away of all those useless talking segments, pointless plot exposistion and all the secondaries characters standing around like they're watching Leeds play away to Liverpool. As great as it is. It does faulter in terms of how it presents the remaining segments. For example, all of Frieza and Cell's transformations happen off screen, or neither Android is seen being absorbed. It shows a little lack of quality in presentation, and it couldn't have hurt to showcase those seens. Another issue with the chosen segments, is some of the decent fights in those sagas have been left out. Such as Trunk's battle with Frieza. Goku's pitiful battle with Android 19 or Hercule's even more pitiful fight against Cell. The entire story mode could have been done with being made longer, considering how many times Goku and Frieza battled on Namek. Could have house at least 8 fights in that story arc. The game does offer some newer story concepts, in the form of Bardock and Brolly from the movies. I was out of the fanbase by this point to know who they were. But Brolly is about as big as the Hulk... and a bout half as smart.

Why the devolpers want to keep revisiting the same stories over and over again is beyond me. It's like imagine Mario did nothing but rescue the princess....oh wait hang on.

The games cut scenes are hilarious...in terms of "laughing at them" due to the poor dilouge and even cashing in on recent Internet memes (It's over 9000)

Gamplay
Over looking DBZ's hilariously awful storyline, the game does make for a few good hours of gameplay. The fighting is very much like most 2d fighting games that came before it. But with the added bonus of flying and fireing huge apocolypting fireballs of death. You choose your character for either Versus mode, challenge mode, Time attack or online fights. The combat is pretty decent and is easily learned due to the simplistic controls. Most fighting games have a ridiculous button combonation to press to fire a special attack. But in Burst limit, just hold up and b and thats it... It does feel too easy when considering that all the characters special moves can be activated in the same way. All of the characters special moves and transformations can be accessed once unlocked in storymode and once your energy bar reaches a certain limit. Just like in most DBZ games, you can use your inviroment to full effect. Such as knocking people into objects or send them rocketing into the sky. Akin to Marvel vs Capcom. You can call upon a partner to provide health or a nice sneak attack on your opponent. Dodging can be a game of hit and miss. You press A or using A while moving in a certain direction to dodge or teleport behind your opponent. But it's a bit tricky to dodge when your being hit with a Laser.

Design
Burst Limit has pushed the limits of what Cell shading can do. This game looks gorgious, it maintains the cartoony look and style of the show, without selling out using full CGI type nonesense. Alot of the characters begin a battle with very stereotypical anime-esque sequences. Which can become very repetetive the more you see them. But then again Anime is the king of stock footage so I can't really complain about that! The sound effects when punches connect or explosions increase are handled very well. Adding to the chaotic type battles. Plus I can't help but think of Willie E Cyotoe when a character plummits from the sky causing a huge impact on arrival.

Features
You will be given achivements by completing various challenges during the game. The game does come with a training mode if you need to brush up on your skills. The lack of a tourniment mode and more story arcs such as Buu, or even Dragonball GT does make me wanting more from it. Like most games these days.

Final Verdict
To be fair to Burst Limit, the combat and the fact it mimmicks the show perfectly are top quality. But once again, it's a case of "Same old story" in the story mode, I'd like to see a Dragonball Z game with a NEW story mode instead of retreading the same old ground in every new game. If your a fan of the show, it's a most for you. Casual fighting game fans might enjoy it.

But if you don't know what a Sayian is.....better stay away from it.

But I seriously think we need to get over DBZ now. How many more times will we see a retelling of the same old stuff? Imagine Dragonball Z Burst Limit 3, going over the same 3 stories....On the Playstation 9.