Ah yes, DBZ, the anime everyone loves to hate. Well at least the story, but these games do all right because it focuses on the one thing anyone cared about - the fighting. To be fairly honest, I hadn’t realized they still made DBZ games, but apparently that’s why they released this small demo before its release.

Now, I want to place emphasis on the word small, because you only get to choose two fights, and neither of them allowed me to turn into a blond killing machine. You get one fight with Goku facing off against Raditz, which I can only assume is the very first fight of the story. The second is Yamcha squaring off against 4 Saibamen (not at the same time, unfortunately). Well that’s just great, I can’t go Kaioken, Super Saiyan, or turn into a monkey, gg Burst Limit way to screw me.

Okay, so I suppose we can talk about the fighting, since that’s all you’ll be doing in this game anyways. If you’ve played any of the previous DBZ games you’ll feel relatively at home with this one (except I had to get used to playing with a 360 controller). Afterward, I can’t tell that they’ve added or removed anything from the core combat, except that your kai will recharge over time and after laying a hurting on the enemy. Which is nice, because it’s a lot better than having to charge up every time you do a teleport counter. The only other obvious addition is the Drama Sequences that arise due to certain conditions in battle - which raise or lower stats. The other are Battle Objectives which effect your rating at the end of the fight; that, I assume, has some point other than making yourself feel good.

In the short time I played the game, I considered putting the volume on mute, because I was already tired of hearing Goku say, “take this!” Though graphically, the cell shading and fast paced combat looks pretty freaking sweet. Oddly this game is rated “T” (for teen - in case you didn’t know) but there was an abundant lack of blood, mild swearing (darn it), or gore (three people died in the demo and it looked like their clothes just needed a wash) which leads me to believe they were shooting for an “E” rating .

Fans of previous DBZ games or DBZ in general will probably want to pick this up if only for the slew of characters available and online play. However, the changes I’ve seen made to the game will likely not distinctly effect the familiar flow of gameplay.

Regrettably, after having played the demo, I’m sure I’ll be having it sent to me via GameFly on June 10th (I’ve always been a closet DBZ fan).