Super Dragon Ball Z (PlayStation 2)

From its outset, Super Dragon Ball Z has been touted as the first "serious" Dragon Ball Z fighting game, and there's a certain amount of pedigree to back that up, with Street Fighter II producer Noritaka Funamizu providing design input. Plus, it originally appeared in Japanese arcades, one of the rare places where fighting games still get played competitively. The action has a real traditional feel to it, and if you've played a Tekken, a Street Fighter, or a Virtua Fighter, Super Dragon Ball Z will feel extremely familiar. Unfortunately, Super Dragon Ball Z doesn't have the depth of the serious fighting games it patterns itself after, providing an experience that is hardly any more technical than certain past DBZ fighters, and without the exceedingly over-the-top charm that has been a series hallmark.

Super Dragon Ball Z's arcade roots are apparent from the main menu, which features a stock set of fairly standard features. There's an original arcade mode that pits you against a series of seven increasingly tough artificial intelligence opponents, and a survival mode that also pits you against a series of seven increasingly tough AI opponents, though the survival mode only gives you a single life bar to do it with. A versus mode lets you and a friend go at it in a one-off fight, and a training mode is provided to help you get familiar with each character's unique set of moves.

You can jump into any of the game's modes of play right from the get-go, but if you want to get the most out of Super Dragon Ball Z, you'll first want to create your own unique character card. Here you'll select a character from one of the 18 playables, give it a custom name, and choose from a few sets of unique color palettes. The character cards add a persistent character-building element to the game. Every time you finish a fight, regardless of which mode you're playing in, you're awarded battle points. Accruing enough battle points will give you access to a skill tree, where you can enhance certain character properties and assign new moves to your character. Additionally, playing through the original arcade mode, as well as the survival mode, can net you Dragon Balls. Once you collect all seven Dragon Balls on your character card, you can summon the dragon Shenron, who will grant you a wish, which can range from giving you an additional color palette for your character to unlocking a whole new character. On its own, the selection of gameplay modes available would feel a little too standard for its own good, but the implementation of unique character cards, while not the deepest we've seen, certainly makes it more appealing to keep coming back.

It shouldn't take long to get accustomed to the fighting mechanics, especially if you've played any other modern, conventional fighting games, though Super Dragon Ball Z isn't without a few unique twists. The face buttons on the PS2 controller give you two attacks, a block and a jump, and you can also use the shoulder buttons to pull off throws and dash attacks, though those are basically just shortcuts for moves that are accessible with certain face-button combos. There's a move list on tap for each character, though it doesn't take much feeling around to get the hang of things, especially since each character starts off with around eight moves, a lot of which are shared between different characters.

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