Pure Dragon Ball awesomeness!
While I'm not really a fan of the Dragon Ball franchise, I always liked seeing DB's cast brawl against each other, mixing lightning fast kicks and punches combined with energy attacks presented in a way, You could almost feel their power.
There were tons of Dragon Ball fighting games earlier, but the action was never intense and fast enough to really create a true Sayan brawling experience.
I remember playing DB games with my friend back on the Sony Playstation, and while the graphics themselves where pure Dragon Ball style, the gameplay was slow and sluggish.
That was the main problem with most of the franchise's games – Pacing!
How many games made by the same developer over, and over again can be faulted in the same way?
Well this time, Bandai made things done right!
When I first booted the game I was like, sure the screenshots look cool, but It'll collect dust very quickly, but hey!
I've completed the whole story mode (which is quite long for a fighting game, actually) first time I played it?
I could not believe, I was sucked in for several hours!
The characters were like straight from the cartoon, not only look and sound alike, but also throw punches and kicks fast like hell.
The Special moves are so well presented, I have chills almost
every time I throw a Kamehameha, Final Flash, or any other trademark DB technique.
The power almost bursts out of the screen!
There's like every possible Dragon Ball character, from the original DB, the Z season, GT, complete with special episodes and movies!
The sound is also very well done.
The Rock themed music fits the action perfectly and every scream, voice fits it's character flawlessly.
Controls are quite simple, have A to throw some jabs and B to add some more heavy/ranged attacks.
When You have enough power (I mean KI) You call pull off a special by just holding one of the direction buttons on the D-pad before pulling off simple gestures that are displayed on the edge of the screen.
It's one of those games anyone can pick up and play, but the combat is pretty decent though.
There are blocks, dodges, counter attacks, throws, unblockable attacks, tons of varied combos, You can even smack Your opponent to the ground, mountain, building ect. And If You're quick enough You might get close to him fast enough to keep beating him before he even manages to get up.
Now.. You probably think a once caught enemy is done for, but You're in for a surprise.
A well skilled player may likewise turn the favor by a well timed dodge or counter and return the favor, there's so much maneuvers to master.
The only down side of the game are matches with other players online, it is so hard to get connected with other people, and when it's done the lag is so annoying that I can barely stand playing.
First time I thought it's something wrong with my connection, but I played MOH: Heroes 2 online minutes later to find out, it's running flawlessly …
To sum thing up, I'll say It is the most true Dragon Ball's cartoon to video game transition I've ever played.
I'm sure the game will do justice for all DB/DBZ/DBGT fans out there and will please most of Wii owners looking for a good fighting game.