While this game is definitely not what Atari's misleading marketing ploy would have you believe, it's still quite fun.
Yeah.... what the **** ever Atari. Alright people, gather 'round and let Rockman once again bestow his ever omniscient truth upon you.
What you have here in Super Dragon Ball Z is a PS2 port of a Japanese DBZ Arcade fighting game with a few extra's thrown in for kicks.
That's it.
Atari would have you believe that Super DBZ contains what they call "Hardcore Fighting Game" mechanics. Well, let Rockman tell you he could fertilize the entirety of his back and front yards with the amount of **** in that statement.
The game does use traditional fighting game controller inputs for the characters special moves, such as QCF+P for a Kamehameha (by the way, if you have NO IDEA what "QCF+P" means, stop reading this review immediately and never think about this game again. Really, put it out of your mind and wait on Tenkaichi 2.) but that's where the similarity between Super DBZ and say Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, Samurai Showdown, and King of Fighter's ends.
Your melee options are Light Attack and Hard Attack. Each character has about 2 to 4 combo's already pre-set with different combinations of Light and Hard. That's all you can do. For example, Freeza has the following combos.
Light, Hard, Hard
Light, Hard, Light
Light, Light, Hard, Hard
That's it. No really, that's all you can do where Melee is concerned. You can't string any of these combos togather either. You can break them up and say combo one of Freeza's moves into one such as Light, Light, and instead of hitting Hard, combo his Death Ball Ultimate into it.
That out of the way let me tell you about Super DBZ's combat and what makes it unique when compared to Budokai or Tenkaichi.
Battles in Super DBZ take place in large multi-level 3D arenas. You've got complete 8 way movement available to you at all times Up moves your character into the background and Down moves them into the foreground unlike Budokai which required you to hit either up or down while Guarding to preform quick hops in either of those directions in Super DBZ you can just move around freely, but rather slowly.
Quick movements are governed by your character's Action Gauge which is at the lower part of the screen. Quick dashes into the fore or backgrounds, toward or away from your opponent, faster homing dash attacks, and flying all require a certain amount of Action Gauge to preform. Once empty the gauge restores itself automatically and rather quickly if you stand still.... but standing still is the last thing you're going to want to do so you'd better fight smart to keep it from draining down to 0.
Most characters have 4 bars on this guage while the slow Android 16 only has 3, the quick Videl has 5. Alright, if that last sentence made you think anything remotely like "Android 16 CANT be slower than Videl his power level is like SO MUCH higher than hers!" You obviously didn't stop reading at QCF+P and you really need to stop reading now, because this game just isn't for you.
Now, if you were thinking something along the lines of "How am I supposed to fight smart Rockman when my character's melee arsenal consists of just 2 damn combos!?" Well first off, bravo for you, and secondly, that's where you characters special moves come in. Take Freeza for example.
His Flex Laser is a three hit projectile that travels directly toward the opponent, now they'll have to either block or sidestep this attack because if they jump, it will travel directly upwards and hit them.
Got them used to sidestepping to avoid attacks? Throw out a Freeza Cutter, a large Destructo Disk type attack that while it only hits once, travels directly to the opponent and if they sidestep, into the fore or background it turns and follows them.
Freeza can also raise a group of rocks from the ground with his Psychokinesis ability and throw them at the opponent. These rocks will travel directly toward the opponent and they won't track them either horizontally or vertically. However, when he raises these rocks they float infront of him for a moment and act as a shield that can block a projectile. A projectile attack would have to hit more than 5 times to break through the group of rocks he raises.
Also if you use Light Attack to raise these rocks, they hover in the air for an extended period of time allowing Freeza to sidestep around them and assualt the opponent with something else before the the rocks even move.
Freeza's staple Ultimate, the Death Ball, travels directly to the opponent and hits 8 times causing very decent damage. You can also charge the Death Ball so that it roughly takes up your entire screen due to it's size. This isn't a good idea if you're planning to throw it however, because all the moves are done in real time and by the time you're done charging that sucker chances are your opponent has already killed you.
So what good is that option? Well, the Death Ball still causes damage to anyone touching it while it's charging. So if someone happens to end up over Freeza's head in the air you can start of the Death Ball which Freeza holds over his head while he charges it and it will combo your opponent while it's charging and then after he throws it for up to 20 hits. There is no useless move in this game, you just have to know when and how to use them.
Flex Laser, Freeza Cutter, Psychokinesis, and the Death Ball. That's just 3 moves and an Ultimate. I know you're thinking that's not much more than what Budokai or Tenkaichi offers but that's not where it ends.
One battle option for those stinky monkey types is the ability to go, you know... Super Saiyan. That state is now more of a temporary battle power up which might tick off certain people that should have already stopped reading by now. While you're in this state however your other special moves are REALLY powered up. It may only last for a little while, but the damage you can do while in these states is extreme.
All of the characters play rather differently except for some of the characters included specifically for the home version of the game. Cyborg Freeza, Majin Vegeta, and King Piccolo share some moves with Freeza, Vegeta, and Piccolo respectively. Videl shares a lot of 17 and 18's moves for some reason, but Majin Buu is QUITE unique and all of his moves have that "over the top" flair that most people associate with DBZ.
Super Dragon Ball Z also allows you to make a character card. You pick a character to put on a card and then you can earn experience everytime you fight and level them up to gain new moves to attack with and support skills that are always active. While you only get 1 character per card you can store 30 cards at once.
When a character levels up you go into the customization menu and access their skill tree so you can pick a new skill for them to learn. The tree branches downward for about 5 levels but varies with each character. You can pick 1 skill per level and you CANNOT learn all the skill for character at once.
Let's say I've leveled Freeza (and I have) and now i have to choose between two skills. I can either have him learn Red Sphere which is a command throw that has decent range and does almost as much damage as an Ultimate attack, or I can have him learn the Fissure Cutter (Energy Cutter in Tenkaichi, Death Wave in Budokai) which is his other Ultimate move and causes him to slash either horizontally, hitting everything infront of or beside him or vertically, hitting everything above and below him with an exceedingly fast energy wave.
When it comes to support skills that are always active they can range from adding a little to the characters attack or defense, giving them 1 bar on their Ultimate Gauge already filled at the start of a match, adding an extra bar onto their Action Gauge, reviving them with a small amount of energy after they are KO'd, and so on.
Here's the neat part. Either by wishing for them from Shenron (more on that in a minute) or by taking them from another character card you have, you can have a character learn 1 Battle Skill and 1 Action Skill from any other character. Each character has a move that they can pass on to any of the others. Signature attacks mostly, Kamehameha for Goku, Destructo Disk (Kienzan) for Krillin that sort of thing.
Alright, now onto that wishing thing. For each battle in the games Arcade Mode that you win you get a Dragon Ball. You'll always get one and it will always be one you don't have. And since there are 7 battles in Arcade mode you need only complete it once to summon Shenron from the main menu.
Wishes from Shenron are how you can acquire special Support Skills for your character, additional colors for them and maybe an additional costume altogather, reset their skill trees but keep all their experience to try out different builds, unlock new characters, levels, and game options.
Those kinds of things.
Visually the game is great. While the special moves don't really look all that exceptional the Manga-inspired character designs and backgrounds are beautiful. The soundtrack is pretty nice too. The American and European versions are missing the opening theme song Head Cha La and one of the other battle tracks however.
The European version uses the original Japanese voice actors and contains subtitles, while the American version has the cast of the English Dub doing the voices.
So while it's definitely not a "Hardcore Fighter" like Atari would desperately want you to believe, Super Dragon Ball Z is still a pretty fun fighting game, especially for the more mature Dragon Ball Z fan.