Xbox 360 Review - Dragon Ball: Raging Blast

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, from Namco Bandai, has joined the endless list of Dragon Ball games that have come and gone over the past two decades.

Having played several DBZ titles over the past two decades, most fans will agree that DBZ has never been fully realized on a console system. Clunky mechanics, poor animation and weak storytelling have always plagued the series. Yet, DBZ miraculously finds a gaming rebirth every other year as new fans discover DBZ. Most fans buy one DBZ game, and are so saddened by the quality that they never return to check out another. Thanks to next-gen consoles, gamers were finally able to realize the animated beauty of DBZ in a console game. I, for one, immediately fell in love with Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit from Atari. The game brought to life the story and animation of DBZ with powerfully sharp visuals and storytelling. The game also stepped up the mechanics and gameplay of DBZ, allowing gamers to finally feel like they were playing as their favorite Z fighters. Unfortunately, the game lacked the full Z story and was cut short after the Cell Games. That’s right, there was no Majin Buu.

Raging Blast corrects Burst Limit’s Buu-inclusion failure, but ends up failing on all other levels. The game is an overwhelming step back for the Dragon Ball franchise, sacrificing the Anime’s rich story for some flashy graphics and massive environments. The Dragon Battle Collection is the core feature of Raging Blast. This story mode allows you to play through all of your favorite Dragon Ball sagas. Unfortunately, for a story mode there is little story that actually plays out on screen. What you end up with is a lot of scrolling text before each battle. Once the actual characters appear on screen, they will exchange pleasantries and the battle will begin. The cool feature here is that other characters in the story like Bulma or Vegita may be providing fight commentary while Goku fights Piccolo. But, that’s about it. The game doesn’t provide much in the area of story otherwise. There are some “What if” battles, but these also fall under the category of story-less throw-ins.

The graphics and animation in Raging Blast is the major selling point of this game. The animations feel like an Anime series come alive. Gamers will feel the unique speed of being a Z fighter, even if they have no idea what that means from the lack of storytelling. Also, the environments are so massive that you can run or fly around as much as you’d like. However, graphics alone cannot make up for the poor gameplay. If we include camera movement in the animation category, we quickly see that the animation deteriorates in value. Several times you an opponent will fly away. When you try to fly to find them, you may end up with a camera angle only showing you the top of your head and a lot of empty space. Characters disappear more than fifty percent of the time air combat begins. This is even more troublesome in two-player mode where gamers are forced to play in a split screen.

The gameplay is surprisingly rudimentary. We all have seen button mashing fighting games in the past. But, Raging Blast seems to trivialize the fighting down to two moves: melee attacks and a ki blast. Most of the time you will find yourself punching and kicking at random to raise your ki levels. Then you can either use your ki to unleash several quick energy attacks, or a more powerful energy blast. Although you can unlock other attacks and about 70 fighters, all the key attacks simply feel the same. In Burst Limit, the fighting was more rounded out. Gamers could execute throws and engage in mid-air speed fights that included reversals. In Raging Blast, you’ll just punch, kick and fire. It’s really that simple.

Two other modes include World Tournament and Super Battle Trial. World Tournament allows you to create a 16-person tournament in case doing that on your own is too complicated. If you’re willing to suffer through the split screen then you may enjoy this feature. But, finding 16 other people who are willing to do that may be difficult. Super Battle Trial features several challenges from time-attack battles to survival fights. This is good if you don’t want to suffer through a lot of scrolling text in story mode to find some benefit from this game.

Raging Blast has all the graphics and animation you’ll love from DBZ, without a great story or good gameplay mechanics. It’s sad to see that this is such a dramatic step back from the 2008 release of Burst Limit from Atari. If you’re going to pick up a DBZ game, buy Burst Limit or just waiting for a publisher to finally perfect DBZ. Just bear in mind that perfection may never come.