Xbox 360 Game Review: Dragonball Z Burst Limit

Game Details

Title: Dragonball Z Burst Limit 

Developer: Namco Bandai Games

Released (UK): 06/6/2008

Typical Price (UK) : £40

Age Rating: 12

Game Type: Fighting

Online Multiplayer: 2 player Versus Combat

One Sentence Summary

Fairly Average Fighting Game based on Dragonball Z

Overview

Graphics

I thought that the graphics for the game were very good and are probably the stand out feature of the game. All of the character models were as close as possible in design to those seen in the anime.

Sound

On the whole the sound is of a high quality, and the music suits the game though it does start to get repetitive after a while. It also appears that they have got the voice actors from an English Dub as most of the characters sound like their anime counterparts something which is sometimes not done in licensed titles. 

Gameplay

Fairly standard versus fighting game (Street Fighter, Mortal Combat etc) with a Pseudo 3-D arena, in that while you can dodge attacks by going around the characters, for the most part it feels like an old school 2D fighting game. There is a story mode which IMO is too short, a versus mode with an online component and various trial modes.

Learning Curve

There is a fairly short learning curve and the tutorial mode should allow even the most inept versus fighting gamer (I am fairly inept) to get to grips with the game

Difficulty

There are a range of difficulty levels from Very Easy up to Z (VV Hard) so it should be possible to tailor the difficulty to suit your level of gaming and the challenge level you are after.

Replayability

Unless you are addicted to Versus fighting games and are likely to play online then I suspect that DBZ Burst Limit will have a limited life span of 5-10 hours. This is mainly due to the story mode being too short and there being little meaningful variation in the other modes

Flaws

The main flaw of Burst Limit is that it has a very limited lifespan and this is mainly due to the shortness of the story mode which only covers the major battles of DBZ up to the end of the cell saga with a few of the specials/movies (Bardock and Broly) thrown in for good measure. Other weaknesses of the story mode are firstly it is easy to get mixed up as to what character you are playing as, since for several battles you are fighting as the villian. The story mode is also very disjointed and will leave people who are not familiar with the anime confused as their is little background information shown, the method used to progress the story mode (individual chapters/battles) would have been better employed as a replay option rather than as the main method, the only way it would work as the main part of the game is if it was not the main part of the game! but a secondary part linked to a better choreographed story mode. 

Overall

While DBZ Burst Limit is a very nice looking game and the game mechanics are smooth and highly polished, it is cripilled by a too short story mode which is in itself disjointed. Hopefully the inevitable sequal will address these concerns as it has been stated there will not be any DLC to increase the lifespan of the game. If you are a fan of Dragnball Z or Verus fighting games it is probably worth renting however as the core mechanics of the game are good

Rating 

2.5/5 – Worth Renting or possible picking up cheaply second hand not worth its full price though