Anime Expo 2015: ‘Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden’ Goes Old School On 3DS
As the years have gone by, Dragon Ball Z games have gotten bigger and fancier, with numerous 3D fighters on nearly every console imaginable. It’s a long time since the days where the only way you could get your Super Saiyan gaming fix was to buy expensive imports and mod your consoles. Still, some of these old games had an undeniable charm that gamers who experienced them still swear upon, but thanks to Namco Bandai, it will be a lot easier to bask in the glory of 2D DBZ this fall with Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden for 3DS. We got our hands on the demo at AX this year, and put our power level to the test.
Promising over 100 characters that serve as both battle and support players, everyone from Baba to Launch was spotted in between your Goku’s and Vegeta’s, showing that it really runs deep with the history. The demo allowed us to put together teams of three after choosing between Goku, Vegeta, Teen Gohan, Piccolo and Fat Buu. Each character had their own value, which is the cost one will have to pay when putting their team together. If you don’t have enough points, you’ll have to replace your stronger fighters with the Krillin’s and Yamcha’s of the world. For this version however, the number was set so high that it didn’t restrict our ability to choose who we wanted.
Once the fights started, it was immediately noticeable that it shares some of its mechanics with its 3D brethren while bringing in the foundation of a 2D fighter. The X and Y buttons are pressed in sequence to set up combos, while the A button shot energy blasts and the shoulder buttons guarded and charged up Ki. If you want to set off your character’s signature moves, certain combos have to connect to activate some flashy looking 2D animations to match up with the gorgeous character sprites, despite being a little pixelated. Tapping the character portraits on the touch screen allowed us to swap characters at will mid battle, helping us mix up the fight when we were backed into a corner. The battle ended once the entire opposing team was defeated, leaving our set of warriors standing tall.
Playing Extreme Butoden really took us back to a simpler time of anime fighters, and it was an exciting (ki?) blast from the past. Promising an updated roster featuring everyone from Golden Frieza and Beerus to Yajirobe and Oolong and everyone in between, there’s sure to be enough content to please DBZ fans both young and young at heart.
Pre-ordering from Amazon will net you a download code for Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden 2, an SNES game that was previously a Japan only release, in addition to six bonus support characters, so if you like what you see, that seems like the place to buy from come October 20th.
