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Known for outstanding anime action - and unbelievable time dilation effects that turn a five minute battle into three weeks of episodes - Dragon Ball Z has enjoyed a rather tumultuous relationship with video games. The first DBZ games were mere legends, Japan-only titles spoken of only in hardcore importer circles. As the series gained traction in the US (turning Cartoon Network into a destination for teens and college students), Westernized video games followed, morphing Goku's famous trials into RPGs, card battlers but yes, mostly fighters. Burst Limit may be the first HD generation DBZ release, but it stands atop a long line of uneven, nearly identical fighting games. With the fan heyday long behind it, does Dragon Ball Z still have the star power to waltz into game stores just a few months before the latest iterations of genre monsters Soulcalibur and Street Fighter?
The answer to that is probably a big fat No, but that doesn't stop Burst Limit from being a fun game.
The single-player mode of Burst Limit is presented in a series of one-on-one matches, loosely following the story from the cartoon (if you're a fan, it's from the Saiyan Saga to the Cell Saga, plus some bonus levels featuring Broly and Bardock). Each match begins right before dudes start punchin' each other; most of the operatic nature of DBZ has been jettisoned.
After years of drama-heavy DBZ games, this at first seems like a welcome relief. But you have to wonder, who does this really serve? The hardcore DBZ fans are going to feel cheated of the complete, "true" story. The casual fans are going to be utterly confused as characters who died five levels back suddenly return with no explanation. And pure fighting game fans aren't going to be thrilled because the game does not lose all the storyline elements, just most. In fact, the game works to actively include cutscenes inside the battles anyway (more on this later)... so it's not like this is a return to the story-free fighting games of yesterday.
It is a very strange decision. You are literally whisked through a Greatest Hits of the DBZ universe, as if you grabbed the entire series on blu-ray and only watched every fifteenth chapter stop. Even more unexplainably, some of the unlockable bonuses are music video montages that include CG footage from those missing chapters. So somebody at the developer rendered all of that, they just chose not to do anything with it.
Even if it doesn't make much sense, it looks great. The stages are beautiful, pastoral venues... like watercolor backgrounds from the anime, fully realized in 3D. Of course, this being a fighting game, you can't travel through the scene or do much to interact with it, but it looks great. On certain levels, unleashing a really powerful attack will transform the entire stage into a burned-out, hellish version of itself. Plus, given that the entire fighting roster can fly (yes, that means no playable Bulma!), every stage allows you to take the match to the air. This either places you high above the level for another impressive view, or sometimes you go as far as outer space to clash among the stars.
The characters themselves are cel-shaded, as you would expect for a licensed anime game. It's intended to look like the cartoon and it does, particularly with the bright, colorful characters set against the sumptuous, soft backgrounds. The animated DBZ is so primitive by today's standards (it ran on Japanese TV from 1989 to 1996) that duplicating that look seems almost too easy for modern game developers. Burst Limit is not reinventing the cel-shaded style, as you see in the screens for the upcoming Street Fighter IV, but it is very true to the characters... even as they approach their twentieth animated anniversary.
But the core of Dragon Ball Z is fighting. Characters throwing multiple hits at ridiculous speeds, tossing each other into the clouds, teleporting behind opponents to deliver deadly sucker punches, and engaging in energy-based power struggles. On this count, Burst Limit delivers. The combat is fast, packed with all the leaps, launches and screams a DBZ fan would expect. The rapid pace leads to an inexact panic of button mashing, but the result looks more choreographed than you would expect, thanks to the ballet of anime action. Fancy motion blurs and lighting effects make the animated clashes look even better than the source material. This, to me, is pure Dragon Ball. It's not particularly strategic like some fighting games, nor is it gory. It's just fast and smooth and silly. Burst Limit is a family-friendly fighter well-suited for quick pickup matches.
Here's a Goku vs. Vegeta battle, so you can see the game in action. Note that the onscreen HUD gauges have been turned off for this video, which is not actually an available feature. Although you can also shift them around a bit. Looks quite a bit cooler without all the screen debris; I wish some games would actually include this as an option.
You have the typical choices of jabs and punches, a knockback attack that will send your opponent flying, plenty of combo moves, and the classic DBZ energy blasts. It's a solid experience. The energy ball tug-of-war events, the teleporting, the giant planet-scouring attacks, and the ability to transform into character-specific supreme versions... they all show up with pleasant regularity. There's even minigame-esque digressions in the midst of battle, where players must furiously hammer buttons to launch or deflect multiple super-fast hits in a few seconds. It is a hoot, packed with plenty of "Aw yeah!" and "Did you see that!" bits.
Although most characters have unique attacks pulled directly from the cartoon (Goku's Kamehameha, Yamcha's Wolf Fang Fist, etc), there is also a depressing amount of re-used animation... especially in the pre-battle movie scenes and the mid-battle setpiece attacks. That means you will see the same motion capture (for lack of a better term) with different characters over and over again. In the storyline mode, this turns the drama into a joke... because every time a character gut-punches another character, the poses are identical, even the punchee's close-up reaction shot where his pupils vibrate in pain. I think even a non-fan will find this approach lazy, but it will definitely drive any DBZ-head nuts with rage.
Inside the battle, you'll see duped animation as well. One classic bit of DBZ combat is when Character A throws B into the air, and then outraces the victim's flight path so as to punch him even further into the sky. This occasionally happens in your matches, if certain conditions are met. It looks insanely cool - a real DBZ moment - but the animation for that sequence is identical, no matter what fighters are participating in it. Even if the game offered up slightly different camera angles for the same animation, that would help the event from feeling so scripted.
Another bit of strangeness is the Drama Pieces, little snippets of cutscenes that are integrated into each match. Before each battle, you select three Drama Pieces from a lengthy list that differs from character to character. You start with only a few generic Drama Pieces (Partner Taunt! Protection #1!) but unlock plenty more by advancing through single-player mode. Then, during the match, if certain conditions arise, the Drama Piece will kick in, offering a brief movie that somehow affects the battle. For example, if your character is down to half-damage and is about to suffer a crippling blow, that might trigger a Drama Piece where a "partner" character jumps in to deflect the hit. Some Drama Pieces are more intense, incorporating signature DBZ flashpoints, like Goku going Kaioken x20, or Frieza stopping the battle to announce that he's finally achieved full power.
Each Drama Piece can only be used once. They make a lot of sense inside single-player, where they keep the battle feeling like part of the plot rather than a video gamey bit that happens between the plot elements, but they quickly become a burden in multi-player when they interrupt the flow. With six Drama Pieces between two players, that's a lot of stoppage to watch little cartoons play out. You're going to want to turn those off for your multi.
And surprisingly, overall the game just needs more toys. The previous DBZ fighting game franchise, the venerable Budokai series (six games in six years!), boasted over 160 selectable characters by the final installment. With only 21 in Burst Limit's roster - and a paltry five stages - it's a step backward. I suppose that's why this game is called Burst Limit rather than Budokai 7. That said, the Budokai series was getting seriously bloated with confusing and boring RPG elements, so Burst Limit does do gamers everywhere a service by reducing things back to basics. I just hate that I can't play as Chiaotzu. $1 DLC, please!
There is worldwide online play, which seemed to run fine for me, but was sparsely attended. Some ancillary objective-based modes, like playing through ten consecutive themed matches, round out the package. And while I beat the single-player mode on Normal in well under ten hours - which unlocked all the characters and stages - the extra modes, advanced difficulties and huge pile of hidden Drama Pieces provide some worthy replay value. As if a good fighting game isn't solid on replay all by itself!
Burst Limit looks great and plays great, but the reused sequences and limited selections indicate a rushed product... or at least a product that is planned to become an annual event with more character / stage / saga additions for each successive version. And as the history of Budokai suggests, there's good odds that this is the case.
For easy-to-play fighting mechanics, decent fan service and nice graphics, but hampered by a choppy presentation and sense of inevitable obsolescence, Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit on PS3 gets 2.5 out of 5 Aeropausonauts. If you're already a DBZ fan, feel free to front that another half-a-'naut.
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit was released June 2008 (NA) for PS3 and 360.
A two-level demo is available on PSN and XBox Live.
