Dragon ball Z Burst Limit is probably not the game that fans of the franchise were expecting from the first leap to high definition consoles. After Budokai Tenkaichi 3 stretched the limits of fighters ranging almost the full breadth of the series, at first glances Burst Limit seems a bit tepid by comparison. However, if Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was a love song to fans of Dragon Ball Z, Burst limit has taken a different approach and is instead trying to get the attention of fighting game fans first and Dragon Ball Z fans second. It is a risky proposal for a licensed fighter, but the efforts of DIMPS and Atari/Namco Bandai are not unappreciated here. Even in a freshmen effort on the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, with Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit the franchise is finally making its first steps to fighting game maturity.
Despite all of the love that Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is given from fans of the series, the game was a lot of fat that was bloated by a clone syndrome among most of the fighters. Yes, the game allowed for people to fight as pretty much every one of the full cast created by Akira Toriyama. But if the number of unique fighters could really be broken down to a fifth of the game's total cast, it's a bit hard to get excited about sheer amounts.
Burst Limit has taken this fat and has trimmed it down to its bare essentials. While the cast of characters may be small, in Burst Limit, the fighters have their own set of characteristics and abilities matched with moves that better reflect the character's identity in the show. Even if some people may mourn the loss of their favorite random X fighter from random episode Y, Burst Limit's smaller cast means that each individual character can have a chance to shine on its own techniques rather than on fan love alone.
It may be a bit of a turn off for some Dragon Ball Z fans to see characters balanced more like a traditional fighting game rather than in respect to their show-based levels, but the balance was necessary to allow for a more competitive environment. It's not perfect (no fighting game is), but Burst Limit has more variety in its tiers than most of the previous Dragon Ball Z games. Of course there are a handful of standouts (Krillin for example is surprisingly abusive while Broly is sitting pretty on the top tier with his incredible damage output).
As I stated in my demo impressions post a couple of weeks back, Burst Limit is building off the Shin Budokai PSP releases. While the return to a 2D-centric plane may be a bit disappointing to some people who appreciate Tenkaichi's over the shoulder view, the choice does allow for more refining to be done by DIMPs to the game's core system. The perspective is also a lot more comfortable for traditional fighting game fans as it is instantly comfortable to anyone who has grown accustom to 3D-esque fighting games over the last ten years. While it's not as recognizably different as Spike's engine, in this case, the return to familiarity by DIMPs will probably work out more to the favor of Burst Limit to a tournament crowd.
Burst Limit plays like a tug of war match between opponents. Your fighter's health may be the core, but management of Ki levels is vitally important to success in the game since the use of Ki allows your character to perform maneuvers to save against combos and some of the more aggressive (and damaging) attacks. However, due to a faster recharge rate on the Ki meter, draining your opponent's Ki level is not always an easy path to victory like it was in Budokai 3.
In Burst Limit, it is far more necessary to focus on draining Ki and building fatigue, which in turn should open your opponent up to more powerful attacks and potentially devastating combo chains (which can mix in some of the game's Ultimate attacks). Another change to the Ki system from Budokai 3 is that the Ki level now doesn't build up as you are taking damage, meaning that a wise use of your teleport escapes are necessary to avoid getting stuck without an escape to an opponent's combo.
Timing in Burst Limit is probably the most difficult thing to master early on as it is slightly different than other fighting games and is entwined with nearly every aspect of the game from basic techniques to advanced canceling. Burst Limit is an incredibly easy game to pick up and play, but it is also very deceptive at face value as the game rewards you based on the amount of time you are willing to put into it. Everything from teleporting, to Ki canceling, to smash canceling, to the teleport counter moves all rely on timed button presses in reaction to either your own character animation or to your opponent's moves. Discovering the appropriate animation sequences and being able to use them in a practical manner are keys to success in Burst Limit. The timing on some techniques (such as canceling in a combo) are easy offline, but once you take the fight online it becomes necessary to 'relearn' your timing due to a finicky online set up. Even with all of the advanced defensive and offensive tricks that are now a part of Burst Limit, the game suffers a bit from an online mode that doesn't acclimate well with the game's strict timing.
The game's story mode is a pretty basic affair, but will probably be the high point for Dragon Ball Z fans. Even though it doesn't tread on new grounds, the strong animation and graphical flair should be enough for those wanting a high definition Dragon Ball experience. The general presentation is as sharp as it has ever been with the franchise, but despite all of this, I did find it a bit difficult to sit through all of the matches to unlock all of the characters in game.
The set pieces (Drama Pieces) are at first nifty little additions to the game's 1 on 1 affair, but after seeing the repetitive scenes pop up randomly (and sometimes not so randomly) in a fight will tend to make you wish that there was a way to skip them. The basic Versus mode also uses a version of these Drama pieces that provides assists to your characters and while that is a bit more tolerable, I am glad that most opponents online tend to want to play with these off. It's a neat concept, but it's just not as fleshed out as it should be.
Like most fighting games, the bread and butter of Burst Limit is the Versus mode both online and off. I have no complaints about the offline versus mode. Picking up Burst Limit with a friend is a satisfying fighting game that is well worth the price of admission. However, if you have to rely on the online mode, you may come away with a little disappointment. Burst Limit is a step above the Wii's online component featured in Budokai Tenkaichi 3, but even with this step up, Burst Limit's online mode never really gets off the ground.
The most aggravating part of the online mode is the seemingly random lag. I've had perfect matches against someone across the world only to have a mess with someone basically down the street. It's truly a shame that with all of the impressive combos and techniques that can be performed, the online play will often times devolve into a spamming fest of random button mashing. I believe that this may leave a bad taste in some gamers' mouths who may be unwilling to look past these faults to see the promise just underneath the surface. And as just a side question – is it really necessary for everyone to pick Vegeta online? It seems like he is the 'shoto' of the Dragon Ball Z world...
Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit is a slight change to the franchise. Even with some issues with the game's online mode and a bit of Dragon Ball overload over the last decade or so of releases, Burst Limit is the most refined Dragon Ball experience and warrants a look from fighting game fans who are wanting a fast and furious game to spend some time with prior to the deluge of releases later this year. If it was given a chance, I would think that a community could easily be built around Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit, but whether or not gamers are willing to give it a chance is the bigger issue.
With a lot of feedback on the game focusing on whether or not it is more of the same, Burst Limit may end up prejudged for its license rather than on its own merits as it ideally should be. It has its issues of course, but even with those issues, Burst Limit is what happens when DIMPs and Atari/Namco Bandai finally get the core game right. If only the online mode offered more support and the story mode was more interesting, Burst Limit may have been a lot more than it turned out being. But even in its current state, Burst Limit does have enough to stand alone, separate from what its Dragon Ball name may represent.
[Review copy based on the Playstation 3 version of the game]
