Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai: Another Road
- February 07, 2007 00:00 AM PST
The animated brawler keeps on ticking vicious ticks.
Here's a little know fact that your history teacher never told you: Dragon Ball Z has been around since the beginning of human civilization. Scientists have uncovered cave drawings done by our cavemen ancestors depicting a fight between Goku and a woolly mammoth. Okay, we're joking, but it feels as though DBZ has been around for a couple thousand years, doesn't it?
And it doesn't help that pretty much every single DBZ game ever released has recycled the storylines from the animated series and manga books. We can only relive the DBZ gang's battle with Cell or Majin Buu so many times before it starts to feel tired. So what's an aging franchise to do? Fall back on the classic "What If" scenario, of course.
Back to the Future
A follow-up to the similarly named PSP title, DBZ: Shin Budokai, Another Road's storyline follows an alternate future scenario in which Trunks takes on Majin Buu and his cronies. From our brief time with the game, we weren't able to determine whether or not this "What if" scenario truly took things on a different path or if it just was Majin Buu storyline with Trunks in the starring role, but it was nice to see that the developers were willing to try something new.
The other thing that we noticed is that the game still features a strong graphics engine. The character models were nicely rendered and had that classic animated style that has become a hallmark of the video game series. The voice actors from the Americanized version of the animated show also lent their talents to the game, which gives it an authentic feel. We personally prefer the original Japanese voices and have our fingers crossed that they'll make that an option someday.
Aside from that, playing the game should be like slipping into an old pair of sneakers. The fighting system seemed relatively untouched from previous installments and it remains to be seen whether or not the developers throw in a couple of interesting new wrinkles to keep things fresh. Either way, the title seems like a no-brainer for DBZ fanatics, though the average gamer may want to take a wait and see attitude.
