DragonBall: Revenge of King Piccolo
Video games based on anime franchises are notorious for being anything but fun. They more often than not consist of decent graphics and quickly cobbled together levels. Its almost as if the game developers know that the game will sell based on the franchises popularity, so why bother putting any effort in? Just last week, Bandai released DragonBall: Revenge of King Piccolo for the Nintendo Wii and its clear that while the game isn’t ground breaking in any way, great pains were taken toward making this a game that fans of the series can enjoy.
Based on the immensely popular DragonBall franchise, DragonBall: Revenge of King Piccolo is an action adventure game with elements of fighting and RPG games mixed in. The player plays as Goku, exploring levels and beating up thugs on your way to collecting Dragonballs. The game starts just before Goku’s encounter with the Red Ribbon Army, gradually building toward his climatic battle with King Piccolo.
The combat system lacks depth. Fighting is simplistic as it really only requires you to hit the A button repeatedly making the game feel more like a button masher. Building up enough energy allows you to perform a special attack, which isn’t uncommon for games of this genre.
Right off the bat, the level of detail is obvious as the graphics are above average in quality. The cell shading is truly outstanding and gives the impression that you are playing a cartoon.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the game play. There are several issues I had with the game, the first being its length. It is just too short. I managed to complete the story mode in two days, leaving the unlockables for a third.
After playing through the game and determining it to be too easy, I navigated back to the main menu in order to switch the difficulty setting. Imagine my surprise when there was none. This wouldn’t be a problem if the game was challenging but alas.
The versus mode felt rushed and almost thrown together so as to give the fans something to do after they finished with the game. I have no problem with the idea, but the execution could use a little work. It just wasn’t that deep though I would love to see this developed further in future games.
All in all, I have to admit that I did enjoy the game. It was never a chore to play and I even had fun, considering I was a fan of the franchise to begin with. My main criticisms stem from the fact that I just wish it could have been better. If these were to be improved upon, I believe the game would have a much wider appeal.
As it stands, Dragonball: Revenge of King Piccolo is a game that will most likely appeal to those who are familiar to the franchise. Serious gamers looking for a deep story and advanced combat system should look elsewhere. For anyone seeking a way to alleviate their boredom, Dragonball serves as a quick fix.
No comments:
Post a Comment