Dragonball Z: Burst Limit. (and other Dragonball games)

I remember when Dragonball Z was first shown on TV when I was young. I remember being increasingly intrigued by each and every brightly coloured and mildly violent advert, making me desperate to watch it. I counted down the days until the first episode, before finally watching in awe as aliens and super humans battled it out with lasers from their hands. I. Was. Hooked.

After that I avidly watched every episode of DBZ. Eventually I branched out into the games- primarily consisting of Japanese characters I had never seen. But that didn't matter- I got to play as Goku, Kamehameha-ing my way through all the characters my PSX would let me!

As technology progressed I played DBZ on serval platforms- PSX, Wii, PS2, DS, Gameboy, GBA- you name it!

The Wii version of the game (Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3) (....say that after 10 pints and a mouth full of malteasers) was particularly impressive. It let you play as EVERY character from EVERY saga and EVERY film. It was incredibly impressive, over 160 characters, something like 60 levels, the ability to Kamehameha by actually pulling your hands to your hip yelling
"KAAAA-MEEE-HAAA-MEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
...Hours of fun. Although it did seem overly complex at times and often just became a contest of who could waggle their hands the fastest while yelling furiously at the screen.

So I thought it was fitting to finally buy DRAGONBALL Z: BURST LIMIT for the PS3. I mean, surely this new generation of gaming platforms can finally harbor a game with such huge potential as the Drangonball universe can offer?

Hmmm....

The first thing you noticed about the game was the colour. It was phenomenal, as if my eyes had just made love to a clown's pimp. I played it first on a 42" HD TV and was blown away with how pretty it looked. That's when I looked at my stack of games and realised that it's no surprise I thought that with all the gritty "realistic" games I own.
There's ASSASSINS CREED,
ARMORED CORE 4,
PROTOTYPE,
SKATE 2,
METAL GEAR SOLID 4 which all have amazing graphics (with exception to SKATE 2) but the "real" element means "Grey, Brown and Grayey-Browns". The exceptions in my collection are PRINCE OF PERSIA, which is colourful but seems out of place and childish, and SAINTS ROW 2 which is... Well, brilliant!

The graphics themselves aren't necessarily detailed in DBZ:BL, but I didn't want intense graphics. Instead they mirror the original cartoons- bright colours, flashing lights and blurred speed. And it works. I'm not normally keen on cell shading, but in a game like this all I can say is that it works. Well. Okay, so it's not the most interesting observation to make, but what can I say- it stands out!!

The problem then comes when you try and play the game itself. The flashing colours only distract you for so long before the simplistic, repetitive game play sinks in. The fights, although nostalgic, just aren't up to scratch for long-term gaming. You have the good old Strong Attack and Weak Attack buttons, the Energy Attack for all your blasting needs and a Block button. And..... That's it. You cant get anymore basic really. Oh sure, you can use the trigger buttons to power up or grab, but you can just use combination buttons (eg: X+SQUARE to grab) instead. And if you fancied a piece of that cool looking flying action you see in the cartoons- think again. Oh sure, if you just so happen to get knocked in the air you can hang around there for a bit, maybe have a little scrap, but you'll spend 80% of the time on the ground. Where God intended.

The plot follows the DBZ saga, so if you've watched it there's no surprises- other than the fact they decided to miss out huge chinks entirely. (now is where you can tune out for a bit if you've never seen DBZ before. Try humming a tune and pretend I've written about strippers of something for a sentence or so). They skipped from Raditz straight to Nappa, missed out many battles on namek, we never see Trunks fight Metal Frieza and decided to lose the ENTIRE Majin Buu saga- and all the characters that came from it. So that felt like a swift kick in the bollocks for all us fan-boys out there.

All of this meant that a lot of content and characters you expected from the game are missing, making it feel incomplete. Add this to the overly simplistic game-play, it doesn't sum up to being a lasting game. I wouldn't have even go as far to say that it's even a good game. Although it was addictive... It's strange that a game that is so terrible and frustrating can be confusingly addictive.

So the best way to sum all of this up would be to compare it to what is, in my opinion, the best DBZ game to date- Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3. Or DBZ BT3. Or "That one on the Wii".

(THIS IS THE BIT YOU CAN SCAN TO IF YOU CANT BE ARSED TO READ THE WHOLE THING)

DRAGONBALL Z: BURST LIMIT
vs
DRAGONBALL Z BUDOKAI TENKAICHI 3

GRAPHICS / ENVIRONMENT
DBZ BL has the superior graphics, with its smooth movement and intense colour. The the lack of a interactive or destructible environment however is a major downfall. Although DBZ BT3's graphics aren't quite as nice, the environments, size of levels and range of different fighting plains that are all destructible easily pip DBZ BL pitiful selection.
DBZ BT3 wins it.


CONTROLS
Now anyone that has played DBZ BT3 on the Wii may have found themselves getting incredibly frustrated by the motion control. After a while though you get used to the poor motion sensor and can still play it nice and easy. On top of this the game is also compatible with several different controllers such as the "Wavebird" or even a Gamecube controller, for those who fear technological advancements... Or just prefer "Old Skool" control methods. You know- the ones already proven to work. Wusses.
DBZ BL doesn't have any of these fancy gimmicks. With its limited move options the controls are simplistic. Too simplistic. Although combos and energy attacks can be a bit too complex on DBZ BT3, the move list in DBZ BL is just too small. It could have easily benefited from Street Fighter or Tekken-esque controls; the traditional "Down-Forward-X" for easily performed attacks, adding variety with ease. But they didn't. So no points there DBZ BL.
DBZ BT3 wins again.


LONGEVITY
An important aspect of any game- the difference between rental and purchase. Well I'll just say it up-front, DBZ BL is not a long game. Frustration takes up most of the game rather than challenge. The difficulty curve is practically non existent until the very end when the last 4 fight become ridiculously hard. I spent about 2, 3 days playing (on and off... Mainly off) a total of about 3 hours. After this awful short-fall I decided to crack open DBZ BT3 again to do this comparison, and realised that I still haven't ACTUALLY completed it. There were several blank spots in the vast character selection, many, many fights that I hadn't completed, nor had I even unlocked all of the fighting options. And I remember playing the game constantly for months. I must have racked up well over 50 hours of game play- maybe more if you include all of the multiplayer we've played.
DBZ BT3 wins this one by a long shot.


STORY
This could really fall under "Longevity", but the sheer lack of fights and story in DBZ BL needs highlighting some more. It's terrible. The more I think about it the lazier it seems from the game developers. DBZ BT3 goes through every single fight from the original Dragonball, all the way through Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT. THEN you get to play through key fights from ALL of the films and specials. And once you're done with that there's a special "What if?" scenario with various fights that never happened. AND THEN there are the other modes- different tournaments to fight through, a selection of 100 different set-up fights (eg: You are Goku vs Vegeta, Raditz and Napa) and a survival mode.
To tell you the truth, it's so vast I can't even remember most of the modes.
Both games have internet play and survival modes, but that's where the similarity ends.
DBZ BT3 wins hands down.


GAMEPLAY
More levels, better controls, more levels, destructible environments, more moves, more characters, HUGELY more vast storyline(s), more fights, more fighting options.... All of these things can fall under "game-play" and all of these things are won by DBZ BT3. But one thing I haven't mentioned are team battles. On DBZ BT3 you can fight with up to 5 characters on your team. DBZ BL? Just 1.




CONCLUSION
There's nothing much more I can really say on this. I've written quite a lot and with every stroke of the keys I hate DRAGONBALL Z: BURST LIMIT more and more. Not only that, but now all I want to do is play DRAGONBALL Z BUDOKAI TENKAICHI 3. I hope I've made that pretty clear. Now go my pretties, go forth and buy the right game for you, for everybody-

METAL GEAR SOLID 3: SNAKE EATER