There have been many Dragon Ball fighting games over the years, but the newly released Dragon Ball FighterZ is likely to top that list.

Essentially a regular 3-characters-versus-3-characters fighting game (not dissimilar to the popular Marvel vs. Capcom series),FighterZ is the closest a Dragon Ball game has come to actually transporting that sense of excitement from the popular manga series’ panels onto the screen.

On the surface, this comes from the fact that FighterZ’s 2D graphics (most of the recent games have been in 3D) is the first to truly capture the simple-yet-spirited approach of the original manga and anime.

Fans will delight in how closely their on-screen characters mimic the popular movements and attacks from the comic book.

Everything feels so much more fluid and dynamic than it ever has, with the battles going down easy on the eyes and fingers. The detailed background — crushed canyons and neo-futuristic landscapes — completes that familiarity that fans, old and new, will be happy to fight in front of.

FighterZ (Arc System Works) — out now on Playstation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows – also offers up a relatively simple gameplay that should make it accessible to gamers wanting to dive into the Dragon Ball universe for the first time.

More experienced gamers may wish the tactical aspects were a little more complex, but the simple mechanics truly does not take away from the game — even if it lets novice players catch up with their more experienced peers a little easier than the latter may wish.

Automatic light and heavy combo attacks are ingrained within the gameplay, with a decidedly questionable button-mashing method of triggering auto combos.

Alongside the usual, easy-to-trigger special attacks (a quarter circular motion), this doesn’t really leave much room for “better” players to distance themselves from new ones.

In essence, anyone can simply spam the attack buttons to trigger a constant barrage of powerful attacks that makes some fights less exciting than they could have been. (It should be noted that skilled players will still be able to defend themselves from those attacks for an easy rebound, however, and more combos will be discovered as more experienced players purchase it).

The best battles happen when players are matched with those at a similar level of skill.

The fights are then fast-paced, with the kind of dramatic explosiveness that Dragon Ball is famous for — characters do a close quarters lightning-speed punch-up, lurch each other high up in the air and smash each other to smithereens, blow each other up with Kamehames (energy fireballs), teleport like gods for some additional pain-causing and essentially just cause a godly ruckus that is brilliant in its absurdity.

So far, I’ve encountered few problems with playing online, except for some failed pairing-ups that caused disconnection just a few more times than I would have liked.

Those who want to play offline, can of course do so in the single-player mode. The game revolves around the new character of Android 21, who has created an army of clones that, of course, endanger the existence of planet Earth — as is the wont of a Dragon Ball villain.

There really isn’t anything especially intriguing about the story, but it does act as an effective — if overlong — tutorial for all the playable characters. (It also unlocks a few skills and characters). There’s also some fun to be had in the way the characters interact in the cut scenes, which are often humorous and built with in-jokes.

One of the most entertaining elements of FighterZ is found on its lobby, where players’ chibi versions (basically cute and tiny versions of characters) run around and interact with other players online through the use of emotes and stickers.

There are those dreaded loot boxes too, which really isn’t that horrible here, since they don’t require any real money to be opened (they contain stickers and avatars, among other collectible gimmicks).

A major part of Dragon Ball FighterZ’s prowess certainly comes from the fact that it looks the way it does. But its simplicity and mechanics is another strong factor that rears its strength in less obvious manners. An almost perfect fighting game, Dragon Ball FighterZ will be hard to top.

— Photos courtesy of Bandai Namco

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