I'll go ahead and say that I own way too many Dragon Ball Z fighting games. I have acquired Budokai 2, Budokai 3, Tenkaichi 3, and now this lulzy piece of work. There is really no reason for all that sweaty anime fighter action to be sitting on my shelves; I am giving way too much of my money to Infogrames (I can't quite justify calling them Atari Inc.). On the bright side, I waited till this one off technical fighter dropped to five bucks at the local EB.

And you know what? I kinda like it. It sure isn't Street Fighter II, but this one's made in the same spirit. No more camping and spamming beam attacks like in the other DBZ games; Super DBZ demands legitimate skill to play and win.

The character list is a lot shorter than the other games, but let's be frank; if this was any other franchise, 18 fighters would sound like a pretty good list. It's not this game's fault that there's 150-plus "stwong guys" in Tenkaichi 3, most of whom you'll never bother with anyway. And it all serves to make Super DBZ a more balanced, polished fighter, with legitimate differences in play style from character to character, while no one fighter is nerfed or overpowered.

Does it really play that well though? For the most part, I think so. Beams and ultimates have been toned way down, so in this game, you're going to have to get up close and personal. This means things you wouldn't usually expect to see in the other DBZ fighters - things such as blocking, combos, and... well, reflexes. There, I said it. This isn't your little brother's DBZ fighter.

An interesting note; this game's aesthetic is drawn from the original manga, not the anime. That means Piccolo only has three fingers, the color palette is more subdued and "painted", and comic-style sound effects permeate the game. Is it a big deal? Not really. But worth pointing out.

Is there anything to complain about? Sure, why else would I wait for this game to go to five bucks? First of all, air combat is totally borked. Collision detection simply ceases to exist above the ground. I prefer to keep my fights on the ground, where the engine doesn't have a seizure deciding whether or not I sucessfuly punched Vegeta in the dragonballs.

Also, if you're used to all the story crap, extra play modes and other bonuses the Budokai and Tenkaichi series are padded with, you'll find Super Dragonball Z to be pretty short on features. There's arcade, survival, vs, training, character customization, and... well that's about it. I hope you have a friend, because you're not going to play this game by yourself for long.

But for what it's worth, I liked this game. I don't think it will ever see a sequel; it didn't sell well at all, and it's ported from an arcade game that was already two years old to begin with. But maybe that's a shame, because amid all the button mashing, over-produced DBZ fighters in the pile, this one manages to be a legitimate fighting game.

7.5/10