Given that Dragon Ball Z originated in Japan, it should come as no surprise that it has had a presence in the video games market for many generations of consoles. With the latest release, Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, the famed anime series makes its debut on the Xbox 360. The Z-Chronicles mode consists of the Saiyan, Frieza and Cell sagas. This is the main story mode, where 21 characters can be unlocked to use in other modes such as online versus. There doesn't seem to be much of a main storyline to explain here, before each fight there will be an exchange of insults in some strange sounding English voice-overs and some boasting of power levels.

Gameplay:

After the opening dialog, it's straight into the fighting. A lot of gamers will notice that the game is very fast paced when compared to most other fighting games, moves are executed at the blink of an eye. Seeing that the game is based on a cartoon series, there is also a handful of gameplay elements which may at first seem out of place. The drama pieces are cards which are unlocked as the game progresses and they are used during fights, each with various benefits. For example a certain event may trigger one being used which will save the player from a special attack or relieve them of some fatigue. When these are called into play, the fight will stop and the game will switch to a cutscene which seems as if it is taken directly from the cartoon, thanks in part to the visuals it has to be said. There may also be a few more on-screen bars than the traditional beat em' up but they all have a purpose and they wont confuse anybody. There is a health bar, a fatigue bar which will fill up when blocking and once full leaves you open to attacks for a moment and there is a 'Ki power' bar which is used for special attacks and transformations. The game uses the trigger and shoulder buttons as well as the face buttons, although that may seem a lot DBZ: Burst Limit is actually a fairly simple game to pick up and play. The tutorials introduce the controls nicely and whilst the counter moves require extremely quick reactions, most moves should be easy to pick up for even the youngest of players. It's always tempting to button bash, especially when games have long lists of combo attacks, different for each character that need a dozen or so buttons to be pressed but with Dragon Ball Z there are no character specific attacks, what goes for one character goes for them all. Some of the more spectacular looking punches only need the press of the right trigger and the Y button which can be quickly followed up by another but remember your opponent can be just as quick so good reactions are needed. The relatively easy to pull off special moves may appeal to some gamers and widen the target audience in that respect, but those who love the satisfaction of learning unique combos may be disappointed, it also means that only Dragon Ball Z fans will appreciate the the different characters as it is only their looks and style which makes them different. As well as the Z-Chronicles and the tutorial mode which speaks for itself, there is also a trial mode and a training section. The trial mode will give your fingers a fair workout as one of the challenges involves 100 opponents that need to be beaten, with only a little health restored after each round. It will help if players have at least completed the Z-Chronicles before entering the trial mode as it will mean more unlocked characters and drama pieces which gives the player more options if a certain strategy just isn't working. The training mode helps with learning some of the bigger moves which is worth it, not just damage wise but they also look awesome. The storyline is around 50 fights but to unlock the extras and the higher difficulty levels it will need another play through. The versus mode allows two human or computer AI players to fight it out, offline and online. Every gamer knows how fun it is to beat someone up on screen when they are sitting next to you, but playing over Xbox Live will probably be a little more competitive. Ranked matches store your stats so you can play against players of similar skill level, however finding an opponent with a good enough connection can be a problem. Fighting someone in Japan from the UK will almost definitely mean lag and it can get pretty bad and almost unplayable.

Graphics:

The games visual style is brilliant, its obvious the game is based on a Japanese animated series. The in-game graphics are bright and colourful and the cut scenes also look the part. The characters are sharp and movement is smooth and fast, there is never any slowdown or frame rate issues which is impressive given the speed and sudden outbursts of environment changes. It will almost feel as if you are watching the cartoon itself, the transition between cut-scenes and the fight are very fluid. The stages where you fight in are basic but again look like they have been taken directly from the show, some of the fighting will of course be done above the clouds as well. There is also some nice attention to detail when fighting, for example the force from a powerful punch to the chest of an opponent will send loose clothing on their back flying out.

Sound:

The heavy metal soundtrack feels just as fast paced as the fighting but some gamers will no doubt find it slightly irritating, its definitely not something you would listen to on its own. The English voice overs are laughable at times, but again fans might be used to that, however there is the option to have it in Japanese with subtitles. The sounds that go with the moves are what you would expect, roaring bursts of lighting to that whistling noise when you go flying through the clouds or indeed falling back down.

Longevity:

The 50 plus fights in the story mode may sound a lot, but most wont take over a couple of minutes to finish and only a handful of them have lengthy dialog parts. For those who like a challenge then playing through on a harder difficulty will bag you some more unlockables which can be used in other areas of the game. Online is great and could add a lot of time to the game if you like the competitiveness of Xbox Live and if you have the patience to search for lag free games. It would be wrong to expect a beat em' up to have a lengthy single player experience, part of the fun is the challenge of going through the game or the survival mode with different characters but some of that is lost here. The story mode is set scenarios, you don't select a fighter from the start and take him all the way and with all the moves the same for each character, things might get a little repetitive.

Overall:

If you have avoided anime like Dragon Ball Z for specific reasons, like the sometimes name calling dialog that the characters come out with, then you might get annoyed at Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit. Although it is a solid fighting game, if you don't appreciate the style of the cartoons then it could get old fast, for example you might have just nailed a complicated combo only to have it interrupted and ended by a drama card which is totally out of your control. The best bet is of course to try out the demo on the marketplace if you are unsure, but there is definitely a strong relation to the animated series that fans of Dragon Ball Z will appreciate.