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Dragonball Z: Taiketsu Review - GBA

Dragonball Z has of late become the new Pokemon. There's millions of Caucasian 14-yearolds running round screaming "Kamehameha!" and "Masenko wa!" but do they have any idea of the depth of the stories that are portrayed in the show? The latest GBA installment Taiketsu offers just a small part of the massive storyline that makes up the Dragonball series, but it is still enough to satisfy the die-hard Dragonball Z fan.

Gameplay

People unfamiliar with the Dragonball scene may take a look at this game and not have any idea what's going on. You've got special moves such as the Special Beam Cannon and the Destruco Disc that have been made infamous by characters such as Piccolo and Klillin, but if you've never heard of these characters, then the moves are most likely not going to mean much to you at all. For those of you that are in to DBZ, this game offers a very realistic fighting style that has been taken from the cartoon. You can now step into the arena as Gokou, and fight your own way through a tournament any way you choose.

The game consists of a few gameplay modes: Tournament, Endurance, Time Challenge and Sparring. Your sparring is your basic practice room where you can fight for as long as you want against a moving or non-moving computer. Tournament and Time Challenge are similar in which you face 6 opponents, then a sub boss, then a final boss. Time Challenge is the arcade approach, whereas Tournament is your basic career mode, where at the end you may be fortunate enough to unlock new characters. Endurance is another arcade type challenge, and it's your basic survival game mode. How many enemies can you destroy before they level you out?

Given the GBA only has 4 buttons for controls, there isn't really much to learn in the way of techniques. You've got your soft and hard punches and kicks, and your combos. In order to perform such combos and special moves, you need to power yourself up by pressing L and R together! Powering up is a big part of the Dragonball inclination, as some episodes revolve entirely around the main characters powering up to get ready for battle.

The in-game status bar is a very simple one to follow. Each player has 3 bars. The one on the top is your health, and the one on the bottom is your power-up bar. The power-up bar can be powered up 3 times to receive maximum power for full-throttle special moves. The yellow bar between the other 2 bars is your block bar. Blocking is a big part of Dragonball Z, so therefore they've emphasized it in this game. Eventually your block bar runs out and you can no longer block, so you can't hide forever. Fortunately it regenerates very quickly.

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