Dragon Ball Z is arguably the most popular Japanese-made animated series worldwide. The anime follows an exclusively strong group of martial artists called Z-Warriors and boasts some of the most intensifying and amazing fight scenes in all of animation. This cult hit has made millions of dollars with merchandise here in the U.S., and Atari has only begun taking advantage of the license about three years ago. The first U.S. published Dragon Ball Z fighting game was entitled Budokai and was released on the PlayStation 2 and after a year went onto the GameCube. The success followed with a sequel for the PlayStation 2, and hoping for some success, Atari brought Taiketsu (the first DBZ GBA fighting game) to the GBA. Taiketsu featured unsatisfactory control, graphics, and sound. Realizing their mistake, Atari and developer Banpresto, known for DBZ coin-ops and Japan-exclusive DBZ fighters on the Super Nintendo and PlayStation, has brought us Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors—another fighting game based on the popular series. With this, Atari hoped to bring the intense of classic DBZ battles to GBA players. Did they succeed? Supersonic Warriors is a lot deeper than Taiketsu and features a lot more modes of play and a handful of secrets to unlock. There’s a Story Mode, which allows you to play as any one of the six default characters through a sequence of events that happened in the animated series and even see some alternate endings you weren’t thought possible. Other modes include Team Battle—a series of bouts where the highlight is 2 vs. 2 matches, Challenge—where you choose any three characters to take on all the teams in 3 vs. 3 matches to go up a huge latter of opponents with Z-points on the line, and Link Battle—where you can go head to head with a friend fighting 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3, or any possible handicap. The variety of playable modes is just the beginning for DBZ fans anxious to see how much depth the game has, and they can get used to the fights by trying out the Practice Mode. The fighting system used in Supersonic Warriors is among the best of all fighting systems used in any GBA fighting game. The combat is easy to learn, tough to master, and its pace rivals that of the animated show and the Guilty Gear games. The first important thing is to understand the screen. The top part of the screen shows your health bar, partner’s health bar (if you have a partner), and your power level percentage—which we’ll go into more detail with later. The basis of the gameplay revolves around how good your skill of flying is. Most of the fights will take place in the air, so players will have to have quick thumbs and fingers to take out their opponent. Double-tapping the D-pad to the left or right will let your character dash to, respectively, the left and right sides of the screen. While tilting the D-pad up will allow your character to float into the air. When airborne, attacks are a lot quicker, but you still have the ability to dodge left and right while in the air. While dodging, you can hold the right shoulder button to move around more quickly. At any position, airborne or on land, you can tap the B button for quick, weak kicks on the opponent. Tapping the A button will allow your character to execute strong, arm strikes at the opponent. This kind of strike is a lot more powerful when striking down while in the air. At any rate, pressing on the D-pad at any direction will add more strength to both kicks and punches. You can guard attacks by holding the punch and kick buttons simultaneously. While the basic element of combat relies on your skills in the air and hand-to-hand action, most of the damage dealt is caused by signature energy blasts that each character possesses. For example - Goku has the Kamemeha technique, Piccolo has the energy beam, Krillin has the Destructo Disc, and so on. To execute a long-range blast attack, your character’s power level has to be at least 35%. You can up your power level percentage by landing consecutive hits with combos or charging up with the right shoulder button held while having your character still. If it’s all up and ready, you can tap and hold the left and right shoulder buttons along with the kick and buttons—i.e. every action button. If your character’s power level is at 100%, you can unleash your signature blast and cause massive damage on your opponent. You’ll know it’s a signature blast if the screen suddenly shows an animation of your character, and only your character, about to blast the opponent. It’s a nice added touch that adds to the DBZ charm the game has. Another crucial technique that beginners need to learn is combinations of moves. While veterans can perform such flawless combos in just seconds, beginners often find themselves button mashing to do their damage. Most of the combos require seven button pressings, mostly one blast, five kicks, and a strike. When executing a deadly combo, your opponent will fly out of the camera’s view and hit a cliff if it was done flawlessly. Again, it’s another added touch that makes you think you’re actually watching an intense episode of the ongoing saga. Team battles aren’t just an excuse to have an extra life during a fight. They can be used for strategy as well. Charge up to 100% but don’t want Gohan to execute his Kamemeha because you want to unleash the power of Piccolo’s energy beam? Just hit the left shoulder button while still (air or ground, it doesn’t matter), and perform the devastating move. You can discover your own uses during the tag team fights like new ways of dodging, unorthodox combos, and a whole lot of other tactics. The possibilities are endless with this combat system. When starting the game, you’re limited to six characters. Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Trunks, Piccolo, and Krillin all have each of their own special abilities, fighting style, and plot to get through in Story Mode. After getting through various modes of play, you’ll earn Z-points for use at the shop located in the Options menu. The shop has all sorts of goods to enhance your gameplay. You can buy more characters like mature Gohan, Gotenks, Fat or Buff Majin Buu, different versions of Cell, Androids 17 and 18, and a whole lot of other Z-Warriors and villains. You can also buy sagas for Story Mode, character stories for Story Mode, difficulty settings, and a whole lot of others. The beauty of it all is that you don’t have to keep playing the same mode to get points because you can get some Z-points almost anywhere. The sprites used in Supersonic Warriors really look detailed enough to resemble their respective DBZ characters, and their moves on the screen look extremely well done. Along with that, the stage sceneries look great and, again, look a lot like their DBZ surroundings. On a Game Boy Player, the backgrounds look good, but the moves themselves look a little grainy on the texture side of things. Other than that, the visuals have a lot of polish, and Supersonic Warriors looks like a winner on the GBA. The sound is one of this game’s strongest areas. The sounds made during hand-to-hand combat sound just like they do on TV, and from the way they sound, you can tell which shots are more brutal. The sound made in charging up sounds like a Super Saiyan getting ready for battle. With that, all the music comes from the hit show. If at all you’re a fan of the ongoing anime, you won’t be disappointed with both the visuals and sound. Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors is arguably the best fighting game available on the Game Boy Advance and is worth every penny. It’s better than the Budokai series, leaps and bounds over Taiketsu, and the game is a great tribute to the spectacular fight scenes in the animated series. All DBZ fans and or fighter fans that own a GBA should definitely pick this up. Even if you have the slightest interest in the game, get it because this is probably the best fighting game to come out since Virtua Fighter 4, and therefore, it’s worth the $30.
Other Helpful Reviews for Dragon Ball Z: Bukuu Tougeki
Dragonball Z Supersonic Warriors is a great game. Even if you're not a fan of the series, this game is great. You get to pick between many of the DBZ characters. Each battle consists of teams. You pick three, or two ... Read Full Review
This game i bought in end of August 2004 in New York few days before the end of my trip after i already had my GBA-SP but i opened it only when we returned home... The sound is good but well...it's not like we can exp... Read Full Review
