Demo : Dragon Ball Z Extreme Butoden

 'Nother year, 'nother Dragon Ball Z game.

  I've followed the Butoden series ever since the first SNES game. Sadly, all of them have aged terribly, but Hyper Butoden on the DS, and even then, Hyper Butoden was a bit of a reboot for the series.... and Extreme Butoden is a reboot of sorts as well!

 What I didn't like:

 - Dragon Power system: I hate it when licensed fighting games do this. I want all characters to be equally viable, but nope, the DP system ensures that Teen Gohan VS Buu, 1 on 1, heavily favors Buu. Sure, the better player will win in the end, but when it comes to two players with the same skill level, the Buu player will win. I understand 1 on 1 battles are not the focus of this game, but I still dislike it when characters are balanced around 1 on 1. Even if it's an anime game, it's still a fighting game, g'dammit.

- Too simple: Yeah, the game seems simple to a fault. There's all these little combos that can be strung together by cancelling certain with the R button, and that's fine and dandy, but the Super Combo Attack( Y Y Y Y X A) seems so good by itself that I yet to see why I should bother wasting my energy gauge on anything else.

 What I did like:

- Graphics: The game is beautiful. Character sprites are big, and very well animated. I like the coloring, very reminiscent of the manga, just look a Vegeta's hair! A+

- Simple, but flashy: Being simple also has a plus... it's very easy to pull off very flashy stuff, which is sure to appeal even to people that don't like fighting games. And the attacks are very, very flashy.

- Doesn't feel like other ArkSys games: ArkSys' fighting games tend to feel very, very samey. Mechanics might differ from game to game, but you can't deny the similarities between Blazblue, Guilty Gear, Hokuto no Ken, Sengoku Basara X and Persona 4 Arena. Dragon Ball Z Extreme Butoden feels unlike any of them.

- The Character Roster: Well, the Demo only has 4 playable characters, but everyone knows the full roster by now... and for a new Fighting game, the roster is top-notch, hitting all the important characters.... although I could've done without Beerus, Bardock(Why the hell did he become so popular?!) and/or Super Saiyan God Goku, and on their stead get Videl. Because Videl is awesome. Still, my most favorite characters are in(Mystic Gohan and Mirai Trunks(Jacket), so I can't really complain.


 All in all, I feel its simplicity and DP system will hold it back from attracting hardcore, competitive gamers, and maybe, maybe, the fact that it's more of a traditional 2D Fighting Game, it may also disappoint a few Dragon Ball Z fans. The fantastic Budokai series and the excellent Super DBZ caught a lot of flak for being like that, particularly when compared to the Tenkaichi series(And fans will compare them with the Tenkaichi series, sadly). Regardless, the game is pretty much sound, and at a casual level, it's fun to play, despite the DP system. 'sides, every fighting game has to start somewhere, once Dragon Ball Z Extreme Butoden Extend rolls in, we may finally get a deeper game, ridden of the DP system. And with a playable Videl!