Button mashing mayhem
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is the latest in a string of Dragon Ball Z games, and the first in the series to come to the Xbox 360. Most people will have heard of the DBZ anime series, but in case you’re like me and don’t care much for anime, the story revolves around a warrior race called the Saiyans and a bunch of aliens who are all after some magical “Dragon Balls”.
First thing’s first – if you know nothing of the story in advance, then don’t expect to have a clue what’s going on in the story mode. The game assumes you are a fan of the series and know all about the history of the sagas, and lets you replay “famous” battles. What this means to someone like me with no prior knowledge of the series is you get a bunch of battles strung together with brief cutscenes in between that only serve to confuse. Sadly the story mode (or Z-Chronicles) are really a must-play as working your way through the story unlocks characters and special moves to use in other modes. The other modes available to you are; versus mode – where you can play side by side with a friend or on the internet, training mode – where you can test your skills on customisable opponents, and trial mode – where you can choose from survival, time attack or battle point trials. There is also a very good tutorial mode which although starting off painfully slowly is well worth working through. I was able to complete most of the first saga with pure button mashing but I soon found that this simply wasn’t enough, and only a run through of the tutorial allowed me to figure out what I was doing enough to progress.
As I already mentioned, to get the most out of Burst Limit you will need to play through the Z-Chronicles and start unlocking stuff. It’s not as bad as I made it sound though – although confusing to the uninitiated, the battles are solid enough and there are some short cutscenes that do at least feel like you’re progressing through a story
In true anime style it is bursting with vibrant colours and fast paced action that will really impress.
even if you’re not quite sure what that story might be. During the chronicles get to play three sagas comprising of around 50 battles so there’s plenty to do. Apart from characters and moves, the main things you will be unlocking are “drama pieces”. Basically, a drama piece is a short cutscene triggered by a specific event during a fight. The effects vary, but can include a buddy jumping into the fight to give you a quick hand, or changes to your attributes like faster regeneration. You can’t choose what drama pieces you get to use in the story mode, but in the other modes you can equip up to three different ones and thus customise your character to your style. The only downsides to them are that there is not much variation in the cutscenes themselves and as they can’t be skipped they can be quite annoying. It’s also worth noting that you won’t be able to unlock them all on your first play-through. Another frustration with the drama pieces is that they can often trigger just as you perform a special move, and negate that move and lose the “Ki” that you’d been saving for it.
Graphically, Burst Limit looks great. In true anime style it is bursting with vibrant colours and fast paced action that will really impress. The cutscenes and drama pieces look good, especially the brief cutscenes when you unleash an ultimate attack. One minor complaint is the lack of variation in the backgrounds, but you probably won’t be looking at them all that much anyway. As for controls, you’ll be using just about every button on your 360 controller. While button-mashing is the order of the day, there is a fairly easy to use control system there if you take a moment to familiarise yourself with it. Using the A,B,X & Y buttons you have your basic block button, 2 melee attack buttons, and a ranged “Ki” attack button. The shoulder buttons then add a few more options such as dodges and “charging up” your attacks for extra damage. One complaint I have with the controls is how precisely you have to time your dodges – the only part of the tutorial I had any trouble with was when I was asked to dodge. This is especially frustrating as there are a bunch of counter-attack style moves available if you can successfully dodge but I rarely bother to use them as they’re so hard to time.
In conclusion, Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is an enjoyable fighter with some fantastic looking graphics, but I’d probably categorise it as a “5 minute fun” sort of game. It’s great to pick up and have a quick blast on but it gets frustrating quickly, particularly with the drama pieces that can’t skip through and will see again and again and again and….
The Bad: Story mode assumes you already know the story, Can’t skip drama pieces, Gets tedious and repetitive quite quickly
Bronze Y Award