It provides enough of a good experience on any front to warrant a rental for those looking for a fighter or a DBZ game.
The large portion of DBZ fans have been treated with over the top character selections recently, and so its almost like as a group, the fans have been desensitized to it. It almost comes as a requirement for a Dragon Ball Z game to be good nowadays, thus why instantly at the sight of the small character selection, some may back away saying that Super DBZ has nothing to offer for them. However, doing so would be most unwise as Super DBZ has so much more to do with those characters than any of the other games could do.
Gameplay:
As said before, Super DBZ uses a traditional fighter engine. This means that previous engines do not pose any influence on the game. Attacks are executed by chaining long and intricate combos to damage your opponent. They are usually strung together by a miriad of physical attacks, in which the square button is used for weak attacks, and the triangle button used for strong attacks. The directional pad is used to modify the attacks, and depending on the character it may produce and energy or ki attack. At the bottom of the screen there is an Action Gauge, which allows the player to execute quick manuevers throughout the battlefield.
Those quick manuevers often turn the tide in a battle, as conserving the gauge is the key to catching the opponent off guard and stringing together a combo. Below the health bar there is the Ultimate Gauge. As your character receives and delivers damage, it gradually fills up. When at least one of the bars is filled up (it is seperated into 3 parts) an ultimate attack can be used.
Above is the basic premise and meat of the battles. Once a battle gets going, there is a sort of hectic rush to try and take out your opponent quickly. A sense of heightened tension appears due to the small health bars, which deplete rapidly. This further enhances the vicious nature of the fights, which at any one point can seem rather ludicrous. Overall, the gameplay is excellent, and well thought out, with some of the combos being difficult to understand how to do.
Graphics
Super DBZ is naturally based on a little used area of the DBZ universe: the manga. It reproduces a hand drawn look, which is rather unusual to be seen in a PS2 game. The colors however, are not as vibrant, and the environments aren't as aesthically pleasing as one would hope. Some of the models used for the buildings, trees look almost like "off." It's really painful to see things like simply gradient skies also.
The character models however, are superb. The small number of characters ensured that each model is intricately detailed, and move naturally even in the most insane moments. With the stronger attacks the small "zwang" and "pow" manga style effects add another dimension to immerse the player into a manga environment.
Overall, if the stages were better modeled, the graphics would be very well rounded, but they still seem sub-par to those seen in comparable games, especially in the PS2 range.
Sound
Sound was another disappointment. The music used was not quite the general rock music heard in most other DBZ games recently. Virtually all of it was brand new, created for the game. That is both good and bad, since its refreshing change from the over-used tunes of Bruce Falconer, but it lacks its DBZ "spirit" by lack thereof.
The voice acting was acceptable, but not spectacular. Overall, sound was a weakpoint in this game.
Replayability
Unfortunately, the lack of a solid story mood REALLY hurts this game. Only an "Original" mode is placed in its place, which is basically a quick run through of some opponents leading up to Cell. There is also a survival mode, but thats especially difficult.
However, what makes up for it are the cards. You can create up to 30 custom character cards which you can use to customize a fighter's clothes colors, their name, and especially their skills and powers. As they gain experience with battles, you gain skills to use in battle. These range from actual attacks to support techniques like extending the Action Gauge or increasing attack power when health reaches are certain point.
You can literally spend countless hours creating a large number of powerful warriors, but really its almost somewhat ill-fated trend. The game makes up for your more powerful warriors by spiking the difficulty. The game uses a collecting Dragon Ball scheme for its unlockables, which range from skills to new stages and characters, to menu voices etc. Overall, apart from the cards there isn't a whole lot to do in this game, besides the Versus mode.
Conclusion
Super DBZ combines a traditional fighter with a manga styled DBZ game. That is essentially what it is, and whether or not it fits the tastes of either group, no one knows exactly. Either way, it provides enough of a good experience on either front to warrant a rental for anyone interested in a fighter.