Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Spike
Genre: Fighting
Release date: Available now

Spike’s latest Dragonball Z-based fighter, Dragonball: Raging Blast, takes place in a world where tall hair and exaggerated yelling reign supreme. Fast battles and tight clothes are commonplace in this world, and you’ll be experiencing plenty of both as you play through the game.

Dragonball: Raging Blast tells most of the story of the “Dragonball Z” anime. Goku is an alien living as a human who joins his friends in a fight to save the planet from bad guys. Once Earth is saved, they will have to save it again from another bad guy. Repeat as desired until the end of the series. Raging Blast covers several of those fights, ranging from the Saiyan Saga at the beginning to the Buu Saga at the end. There’s also a “What if?” section featuring encounters that wouldn’t have happened during the anime.

Aside from Raging Blast’s single-player campaign, there are also a number of other play modes. Among them are a World Tournament mode, VS battles (offline or on Xbox Live), and a training dojo. The game includes 43 characters from the anime, many of whom can transform during battle. There are lots of unlockables, such as secret conversations between characters, and an encyclopedia that can be viewed in the Museum.

Raging Blast’s visuals are great. The character designs and actions mirror the anime very well. The voice work also takes you back to the anime. The stages are large and interactive, allowing you to throw your opponent through a mountain or deep underwater. The game has a lot of replay value with all of the unlockable extras and online battles, even though the online play is marred by people who quit matches early to preserve their ratings.

The biggest problem I have with this game is the control scheme. Everything feels like it’s been dumbed down from previous entries in the long-running series. Fantastic special moves that used to take precise button combos are reduced to merely moving the analog stick in a certain direction. Almost everything feels automatic, and once you get the hang of it, it hardly feels like you’re playing at all. Another problem is the huge decrease in the amount of playable characters. Recent Dragonball fighting games have had as many as 150 playable characters, but Raging Blast features only 43. The camera, while fine most of the time, is utterly useless when you are up against a wall. You and your opponent completely disappear from the screen and it feels like it takes forever to get things back to normal. But my biggest concern with this and any future Dragonball fighting game is the story. We’ve played the same stuff over and over again. It’s time to either come up with something new or move on to something else.

I’ve been playing Dragonball games since DragonBall Z: Ultimate Battle 22 on the first PlayStation. Since then I’ve seen the games improve and grow in many areas. This was the first one I’ve played in which I felt some things have taken a step back. For the diehard fans that must play everything associated with the brand, have at it; you’ll have a good time with Dragonball: Raging Blast for a little while. For more casual fans looking for a trip down memory lane, stick with the later Budokai Tenkaichi games.

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