Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu (Super Famicom)

Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu (Legend of the Super Saiyan) is an RPG/Card Battling Game Hybrid that was originally released in 1992 for the Super Famicom. It is the first ever Dragon Ball game for the console, but is actually just a remake that combines two older Famicom games. Namely Dragon Ball Z: Kyoshu Saiyan and Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza.

Besides the obvious visual and audio improvements that came from the move from 8-bit to 16-bit, Super Saiya Densetsu also added some characters from the movie and the anime fillers, making for a game that is better than the sum of its parts.

Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu tackles the story starting from Raditz’ arrival on Earth, all the way to Goku – as Super Saiyan – defeating Freeza during the twilight of Planet Namek.

The player will be taking control of various characters in the series, such as Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Yamcha, Tienshinhan, Chiaotzu, Dende, Vegeta, Nail, and some minor characters (two Namek warriors and Captain Ginyu). The player will have a little bit of freedom when it comes to choosing which characters to bring along, but the game will force the use of characters that are required for the story. For instance, you can’t use Goku to fight Dabura, because the former is currently traveling by the time Vegeta faced the latter. The game will take that character out of your options by default if needed. There are also times when you can’t allow specific characters to die, in order to be faithful to the source material.

Dragonball Z Tenkaichi Tag Team (PSP)

Dragonball Z Tenkaichi Tag Team is basically Budokai Tenkaichi 3 in portable form, with one major change: as the title implies, it now features true tag team action wherein 4 players can fight in the arena at the same time. BT3 only has 1 vs. 1, with the ability to switch to different characters.

Graphics-wise, they chose to forego cel-shading and just went with the traditional textured polygons, which sadly made the game look rough and less anime-like, especially when compared to the other series of Dragonball games on the PSP, the Shin Budokai series. It still looks good so it’s not a dealbreaker. It just feels like a step down visually.

Gameplay remains largely the same. You fly around a large stage and have the option to use ki blasts, gigantic beams, or melee the heck out of your opponents. All of the combat features that you would expect from a Dragonball game are there – in-game transformations, beam struggles, teleports, meteo attacks, etc. You won’t miss anything if you’re approaching this game straight from Budokai Tenkaichi 3. However, there’s one minor change that kind of breaks combat a bit: your opponent can now move while you’re in the middle of launching a super attack.

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 (PSP)

At first glance, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 looks like it’s a significant upgrade to its predecessors, Ultimate Ninja Heroes and Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2. The graphics and presentation look sleeker, it’s got an updated roster, and it finally has 4-way free for alls. Unfortunately, all of the improvements are superficial at best, and once you actually get around to playing the game, you’ll get the feeling that Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 is a step backwards for the franchise.

The character models in UNH 3 is indeed smoother and there’s less jaggies noticeable, but the character animation is jerky, like it was made with less frames. Most PSP games run at 30fps, but UNH 3 looks jerky even when compared to other PSP games (worse still is the fact that its predecessors ran at 60fps). We’re assuming that similar to the latter Bleach Heat the Soul games, the FPS was cut down in order to accommodate more complex visual effects. Except that’s not the case here.

UNH 3 seems to have skimped down on the use of transparencies and FBO effects, resulting in some effects – particularly Kakashi Hatake’s Mangekyo Sharingan super – looking a little bit rough around the edges.

But gameplay is still king, right?

Japan Will Get a New Naruto Mobile Social Game Soon

Social game publisher GREE is planning to shut down the Naruto: Shinobi Masters social game this spring, but fans of the game should not despair, because GREE is already working on a replacement, alongside developer ForGroove.

The new Naruto mobile social game is still untitled for now (or at least, the official name has not been announced to the public), but there’s been word that existing players of Naruto: Shinobi Masters don’t need to worry about losing all of their hard work, as their existing items will be transferable to the new game, or will be converted to the equivalent items. More details will be announced by March.

Pokemon Battle Trozei Coming to the 3DS

If you thought the recent problems over the Pokemon Bank Launch and Nintendo’s current money troubles is a sign that we won’t be getting an experimental new Pokemon game soon, you’d be wrong, because Nintendo has recently announced a new installment in the Pokemon game franchise, this time around it’s a puzzle game titled “Pokemon Battle Trozei.”

You can check out the video below to see what Pokemon Battle Trozei looks like in action:



Pokemon Battle Trozei is scheduled for a March 20, 2014 release via the 3DS eShop.

Bleach: Versus Crusade (Wii)

Bleach: Versus Crusade is a 3D fighting game based on Tite Kubo’s long-running and extremely popular shonen franchise. It features 25 playable characters taken straight out of the Bleach manga and the anime as well as several of their alternate forms/transformations.

The game primarily uses the Wiimote and nunchuk for its controls, with the nunchuk’s joystick controlling the movement while the shoulder buttons and the wii mote buttons control the jumps, teleports (sonido and flash steps, actually), and special attacks. Normal sword attacks are handled by the wiimote’s motion controls, with the direction of the attacks corresponding with the direction of your wiimote slash.

The controls in Bleach: Versus Crusade is a significant step up from Bleach: Shattered Blade, as matches will no longer devolve into wagfests, mainly because the game now rewards strategic use of the attacks instead of being dependent on how fast you can shake the wiimote. However, being a fighting game, it’s still not as intuitive when compared to a gamepad setup, which is why it’s a good thing that the developers included support for the gamecube and the classic controller. I don’t use numbers to rate games but if I did, that move alone should be worth a point or two.

Visually, Versus Crusade had the right idea when it went with cel-shading – not just because it provided anime-like visuals, but also because it meant that the visuals aren’t hindered by the Wii’s hardware limitations. Versus Crusade looks as good as you would expect a Bleach game to look on a seventh generation console.

Bleach: the 3rd Phantom (Nintendo DS)

Bleach: the 3rd Phantom is odd in the sense that it’s both a side story for Bleach’s story during present time (right after the Soul Society arc, at the time of release) and a flashback to Soul Society’s past, back when Urahara Kisuke was still a captain and *SPOILERS* Aizen still hasn’t shown his true colors.

The flashback delves into the story of three characters that are made specifically for the game – a pair of twins, male and female, one of which will be controlled by the player (you can choose which one to play before starting a NEW GAME), and a shinigami captain. After the flashback, the story will skip straight to the series’ current timeline and follow Ichigo and crew at Kurakura town, where they will have to deal with the consequences of things that happened during the flashback.

If you’ve played any installment from the Super Robot Wars series of turn-based strategy role playing games (particularly the 32-bit ones), Bleach: the 3rd Phantom will be very familiar. In the interest of simplifying things, Bleach: the 3rd Phantom is basically Super Robot Wars, but instead of various mechas from a wide variety of anime and manga franchises, the game puts you in control of Bleach characters. Like most shonen animes, the power levels and fight scenes lend themselves well to turn based combat, because now you can use numbers, affinity, and a bunch of other stats to decide how powerful one character is compared to the other, while still making sense.

New Character Videos for J-Stars Victory Vs.: Naruto, Yuusuke, and Kenshiro

A new batch of character videos has just been released for the upcoming inter-franchise 3D brawler, J-Stars Victory Vs., which is designed to commemorate Shonen Jump magazine’s 45th anniversary. The new videos feature Naruto Uzumaki from Naruto, Yuusuke Urameshi from Yu Yu Hakusho, and Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken.

You can watch the videos below:

Bleach Shattered Blade (Wii)

If you’ve ever played Bleach GC: Tasogare ni mamieru shinigami on the Gamecube, Bleach Shattered Blade for the Wii will be very familiar. Barring a few graphical polishes and higher resolution, Shattered Blade looks like it was made on the same engine. The presentation is sleeker, and the supers no longer come in the form of crappy FMVs. In fact, they finally went ahead and added transformations (or power-ups, in the case of most of the characters). Unfortunately, all the updates and tweaks to the game are for naught because Bleach Shattered Blade for the Wii is significantly less enjoyable than its Gamecube predecessor.

The main culprit, and why it’s not even worth reviewing any other aspect of Shattered Blade, is the controls. Like many third party Wii games, Bleach Shattered Blade suffers from a forced attempt to use motion controls. There’s no option to use a classic or Gamecube controller (even though fighters tend to play better with buttons than waggle).

Super Dragonball Z (PS2)

Super Dragonball Z is a fighting game on the PS2 that was developed by people who were part of the original team responsible for Capcom’s Street Fighter II, which explains why the game does not feel like a Dragon Ball game, but more of a 3D fighter that uses Dragon Ball skins. Don’t take that to mean that this is a bad game, though – it’s perfectly playable and enjoyable enough. It’s a very good fighting game, it’s just not a good Dragon Ball game. There is a difference.

Graphics-wise, Super Dragonball Z is a treat. Using the manga as inspiration instead of the anime, the visuals are crisp, bright, and do a good job of bringing the Dragon Ball manga to life. The beam attacks are a disappointment though, as they look like crude mode 7 effects from the SNES era, which is inexcusable considering that the PS2 is perfectly capable of producing decent looking beams using the framebuffer, as proven by other Dragon Ball games like the Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi series.

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan Saisen (PSP)

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan Saisen is a 2D cel-shaded fighting game for the PSP based on Nobuhiro Watsuki’s popular manga and anime franchise. It’s Japanese only, and the menus are all in Japanese so you either need to have a FAQ or translation at the ready, or you need to spend a little time exploring just to find out what the menu items are.

Thankfully, like any fighting game there really is no need to find out the story. Once you get into the matches, you’ll have access to the meat and bones of the game. If you’re really interested in the story, the anime and manga are already out there. Besides, you’re probably not going to seek out this game unless you’re already familiar with the source material.

Dragon Ball Kai Ultimate Butouden (Nintendo DS)

When the Nintendo DS got Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2, gamers were willing to cut it some slack even though the overall quality of the game was way below the PSP’s Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai, citing the Nintendo DS’ underpowered hardware as the reason why a decent Dragon Ball fighting game wasn’t possible.

And then came Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butouden, which proved that it had nothing to do with the hardware - the Nintendo DS was perfectly capable of carrying a bonafide 3D fighting game that can at least come close to the PSP’s admittedly superior offerings.

Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butouden is the spiritual successor to the Super Butouden series on the Super Famicom back in the 90s. While not made by the same developers, majority of the gameplay mechanics from the original Butouden series found their way to the DS, with some minor tweaks and polish, of course.

New J-Stars Victory VS. Video Features Fist of the North Star’s Kenshiro

Namco Bandai has just posted a new promotional video for their upcoming 3D brawler, J-Stars Victory Vs. This time around, it focuses on a bunch of its playable characters facing off against their respective adversaries. One of the more interesting parts here is the sequence featuring the characters Kenshiro and Raoh, the protagonist and main antagonist from Fist of the North Star.

You can check out the video below:

Bleach Heat the Soul 7 (PSP)

Bleach: Heat the Soul 7, as the name indicates, is the 7th (and possibly the last) installment in the ‘Heat the Soul’ line of Bleach fighting games on the PSP. There’s no need to do an introduction of the earlier installments of the series as the games have mostly stayed the same except for additional content (in order to keep them up to date with the manga/anime) and a few tweaks to the combat mechanics. All-in-all, it’s still a 3D cel-shaded fighting game featuring your favorite characters from Bleach (also, Sado.)

Changes, in a Nutshell

If you’re already familiar with the series and just want a quick rundown of what you can expect with HTS 7 compared to its predecessor, there are minor tweaks to the combat that, sadly, tend to slow down the pacing of the matches a bit. But it’s still enjoyable so don’t fret. It still runs in 30 frames per second - if you want smooth as butter 60 fps, you have to go back to Heat the Soul 4 and older, back when the games still lacked in-game transformations. Speaking of transformations, Ulquiorra now has one, so does Harribel and Ichigo can now turn into full Hollow. Additionally, there are now 4-way free for all (as opposed to 2 vs 2 tag) matches and special matches against giants, namely Allon and Yammy’s ressurecion.

Dragon Ball Z Taiketsu (Gameboy Advance)

I’m going to break form a little bit in here. I’m not going to waste any more words building things up only to tell you this one simple truth: Dragonball Z Taiketsu for the Gameboy Advance is a really crappy game with no redeeming value whatsoever. Even if you’re a very big fan of the franchise and only have a Gameboy Advance to your name, there are better Dragon Ball games for your device and your money is much better spent buying those.

Dragonball Advanced Adventure (GBA)

Dragonball Advanced Adventure is a 2D side-scrolling action game for the Gameboy Advance that is based on the exploits of the series’ protagonist, Son Goku, when he was still a young boy. It follows the events since the start of the anime all the way to Goku’s first defeat of King Piccolo – along the way he’ll meet Bulma, Krillin, Oolong, Yamcha, Tienshinhan, Puar, Hermit Turtle – and fight against the Red Ribbon Army, Pilaf, and the aforementioned Piccolo.

Advanced Adventure is easily one of the best games you’ll find on the Gameboy Advance (it’s probably right up there with Astro Boy: Omega Factor) even if you don’t like anime games. Both presentation and execution are top notch, and it’s got extra game content up the wazoo.

Visually, Dragonball Advanced Adventure takes its cue from the anime, and does a good job with it, at least as far as the Gameboy Hardware can offer. The colors are bright and crisp, and the sprites are well-detailed. The sounds are well-done, with the intro theme perfectly mimic-ing the show’s intro, while the voices are spot-on for the characters.

Gameplay, as mentioned above, is 2D sidescrolling action. Goku can walk, run, block, jump, and punch, but also has access to a variety of special attacks such as his trademark Kame Hame Wave and his power pole, which has the power to extend all the way to the moon if the user wills it, but only manages to reach across the screen for this game. Advanced Adventure also has shades of MetroidVania, as paths can branch and some destinations can be reached through different paths. However, the player is not required to stick to one path and those who have no patience for exploration can take the shortest path – the game knows that it’s a beat ‘em up and doesn’t try to force you into playing a different game, except for those stages where you have to play a SHMUP.

The enemies in the game are varied, but not varied enough to not require palette swaps. Thankfully, the pace moves fast enough and you are not forced to kill enemies except in some cases, so if you find yourself getting bored hitting the same dog-guy over and over, you can choose to jump over his head and skip the fight. Or heck, you can bust out one of the two screen-filling supermoves to clear everything.

Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo (Wii)

Let’s get this out of the way first. Unless you’re a REALLY, REALLY big fan of the Dragon Ball series – the one with Goku as a young boy with exceptional martial arts abilities, not the one where he’s a blonde man who can punch cities into dust – you’d best stay away from this title. That’s not to say that Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo doesn’t have any redeeming value. It’s a actually a decent game, Dragon Ball fan or not, and has extra content that would put other games to shame. It’s just that even with all the polish, graphical and content-wise, it still only comes off as a mediocre game.

Adding insult to injury, the Gameboy Advance’s Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure manages to do everything that Revenge of King Piccolo aspired to do and more, for a fraction of the hardware power. Which means Revenge of King Piccolo is further demoted from being a mediocre game to being an unnecessary one.

Bleach GC: Tasogare Ni Mamieru Shinigami (Gamecube)

Don’t ask me what “Tasogare Ni Mamieru Shinigami” means. I don’t know either, but it doesn’t matter because Bleach GC Tasogare Ni Mamieru Shinigami is a 1 vs 1 fighting game based on Tite Kubo’s extremely popular shonen franchise. This means that A.) you don’t really need to know the reason why they’re hitting each other with swords and B.) even if you did, there’s already a wealth of backstory available via the manga, the anime, and all the websites on the Internet dedicated to the franchise.

As for the game itself, sadly, this is not one of the better Bleach games out there. Sure, it looks really impressive visually (taking full advantage of the Gamecube’s capabilities as you get smooth, buttery 60FPS and crisp cel-shaded visuals), but as a Bleach fighting game, it’s not very enjoyable. Even as a straight fighting game, it falls flat.

The gameplay itself is sound in concept – you get to control your choice of character, out of a bunch of choices available (well, you technically need to unlock majority of them first, but they can be unlocked via passwords or simply by going through the single player mode so it’s not a dealbreaker). Each character stays somewhat true to the series when it comes to the powersets, but only on the surface level. They all move as fast, hit as hard, and move like each other. It makes for a balanced game, but also a boring one. There’s also no transformations in the game, which is a mortal sin because one of the main selling points of the series are the various power-ups and transformations (such as shikai, bankai, etc.)

New Screenies for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution

Namco Bandai has recently posted a new batch of screenshots for the upcoming update to the Ultimate Ninja Storm franchise, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution. Judging by the screenshots, graphics-wise it’s not going to offer much in the way of upgrades compared to Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst, especially since Full Burst didn’t offer any visual upgrades to UNS 3 and UNS2 (save for a few bug fixes and tweaks pertaining to the frame rate.)

However, we all know that people are already satisfied with the graphics engine of the Ultimate Ninja Storm franchise and don’t really mind not having extra bells and whistles. The true selling point of Revolution is gameplay tweaks and additional characters. There’s no concrete details about the gameplay tweaks yet, but info about additional characters have already been provided by Namco Bandai.

Naruto Shippuden Gekitou Ninja Taisen Special (Wii)

Naruto Shippuden: Gekito Ninja Taisen Special is the fourth Naruto fighting game on the Nintendo Wii (7th, actually, if you consider the changes between the English and Japanese releases to warrant separate mentions). It’s a Japanese-only release, but it’s a fighting game so there’s really no need to understand the story in order to enjoy the game, especially considering that anybody who’s interested in the story of Naruto Shippuden already has the anime and the mangas.

The menus in Naruto Shippuden: Gekito Ninja Taisen Special are in Japanese, but a little bit of exploring and looking at the icons will allow anyone to memorize how to navigate the game and get into fights. So basically, if you have a Wii that can play Japanese imports (remember that the Wii is region-locked), you’ll be able to enjoy the game to its fullest.

Battle Stadium D.O.N. (PS2)

Battle Stadium D.O.N. is basically Super Smash Bros. with anime characters. What makes it special is the franchises that were included in this crossover fighting game – D.O.N. stands for Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto.

Don’t expect accurate representations of power levels, as the game is balanced so that no single character will be overwhelmingly stronger than the rest (which is what would happen if they stayed true to the power levels in their respective franchises – characters from Dragon Ball will destroy everyone else). But the visuals do look like they came out of the series (though they are modeled more after the manga than the anime), as the characters use their trademark screen-filling attacks and all have transformations. The stages may be constrained but they do capture the look and feel of their respective franchises.

Mobile Suit Gundam vs. Gundam Next Plus (PSP)

Mobile Suit Gundam vs. Gundam Next Plus is a 3rd person arena shooter that takes several dozen gundams from the franchise’s long, storied history, and pits them against each other in deathmatches (anywhere from 1 vs. 1 to 2 vs. 2) in large expansive battlegrounds set on various locations ranging from urban city landscapes to outer space.

The Game and the Story

This is more of a commemorative game for the Gundam franchise’s 40th anniversary, so you won’t find much in the way of story. It just takes two to 4 mobile suits/armors from each series and gives you a chance to pit them against each other. The lack of a story isn’t much of a problem, as this is all about action-packed fights between some of the best-looking mechas in the history of ever.

The controls are fairly easy. You just use the analogue or digital pad to move, the face buttons for various long range and melee attacks, and the shoulder buttons can be used for super moves and assists. Some characters have screen filling attacks or transformed modes (e.g. the Unicorn Gundam’s awakened state) that provide damage or speed bonuses.