Dragon Ball: Raging Blast

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast

Despite ending in 1996, Dragon Ball continues to be as popular as ever, with a seemingly infinite amount of DVDs, toys, and games. Dragon Ball: Raging Blast is the newest game released in the long running franchise that allows players to put the hurt on each other while playing as any one of their favorite characters.

Let’s look at the content. There is a lot to like here as players have several options to choose from. The first is the Dragon Battle Collection which allows you to play through the various sagas from the original TV series as well as a variety of “what-if” scenarios. The stories are recreated faithfully with many of the cut-scenes inspired by the show.

Super Battle Trial is a medley of challenges that gives players the option to compete in ranked battles to attain different goals. An example of this would be survival which, as its name implies, requires that you survive playing against 50 consecutive opponents.

World Tournament should be familiar to anyone who has played a Dragon Ball game. Up to 16 players can challenge one another in a single-elimination tournament. You can also compete online in ranked and unranked bouts against players from all over the world.

Versus mode is the standard pick-a-character-and-battle, allowing you to choose the characters and settings for a quick match.

As the years have gone by, every Dragon Ball game has improved upon its predecessor in both game mechanics and graphics. Both are important and factor heavily into the decision of whether it’s worth it to purchase yet another Dragon Ball game.

First let’s talk about the graphics, which are truly remarkable to behold. The cell-shading lends itself well to the series, giving the characters the look and feel of their animated counterparts. This is definitely the best looking Dragon Ball game released.

As far as controls go, the game is similar to those of the Tenkaichi Budokai series. Players can fight using an assortment of melee attacks which produce fast paced battles reminiscent of those seen on the show. I didn’t notice any vast improvements over them, which is fine considering I didn’t encounter any issues either.

Considering how many Dragon Ball games have been released in the past, Raging Blast may be the closest to combining the look and feel of the original series. With tons of content to play through as well as stunning graphics and fun game-play that matches the series style, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast provides the franchise with another hit.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast – B+