Dragon Ball Raging Blast
Dragon Ball Raging Blast is the fourth instalment in the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series which was originally published as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! It is developed by Spike and published by Atari, Bandai and Namco Bandai Games under the genre of fighting game. The game was first officially announced in the May 2009 issue of V Jump magazine, containing several screenshots showing that the game included gameplay elements from the previous Sparking games, polished Sparking character models, and revealed the official title. It was first mentioned in the Namco Bandai 2009 fiscal report, and is scheduled for release in the second quarter of the 2009-2010 fiscal year. On June 2009, Namco Bandai mentioned that the game would feature new interactive and destructible environments as well as a new special attack system called “Super Rising”. Ryo Mito, the producer of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast also confirmed that there will be 43 characters without transformations and over 70 characters with transformations, including costumes for over 120 playable character variants and ten playable stages. Gameplay includes the ability to play through the original events of the Dragon Ball Z story, with the exception that their actions in battle will be able to change the story in many different ways. There are over 100 “Battle Frames” which can be selected at any time, regardless of chronological order to which they appear in the series, all which include “What-if” scenarios that never occurred in the series. When all of them are completed, a special ending will be unlocked. In addition to that, there are also costumes to be unlocked during the story mode. As for the online mode, it will feature a 16-player “Budokai Tournament”, single or team battle mode, and a spectator mode where players can rate the fighters. Not only that, the game will also include two exclusive characters including Super Saiyan 3 Broly and Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta.
Reviews
Although Dragon Ball Raging Blast only has over 70 characters including transformations as compared to Tenkaichi 3’s 150, they also include never-before-seen additions designed by developer spike in collaboration with artists involved with the manga and anime. There was also a Super Saiyan Level 3 version of Broley who has never appeared in the animation or the movies. Not only that, players can also collect costumes for all of them during the Story mode by meeting the small QTE prompts which occasionally appear on the screen. Other new additional features include environmental damage. Dragon Ball Raging Blast has 10 stages, all of which are huge in scale, vertically as well as horizontally, with the possibility of mountains, towers, buildings and anything else toppling over when you throw your opponent into them. There is also a possibility to tear a stage up with a Super Saiyan special attack as they are big enough to support all the destruction you can throw at them. Not only that, there is also a volcano stage that is full of magma waterfalls and teetering cliffs of igneous rock to fall onto, into or through. In terms its fighting system, Dragon Ball Raging Blast still maintains the requirement to make full use of three-dimensional space and intercepting attacks, with the small addition of the Super Rising special attack system that sends characters soaring upward through the entirety of the stage, looking absolutely wonderful especially the special attack cutaways. In terms of the graphics, the game runs at a consistent 60 fps as compared to previous titles’ 30, providing very noticeable smoothness in the action and facial animations, resulting in consistent change in the characters’ faces even in the midst of battle.
“Even though we had only eight characters to play with, we enjoyed the ease with which we could pick up the game and wreak impressive-looking havoc within seconds. We also liked the small touches–such as characters visibly starting to pant and grabbing hurt appendages as battles wore on. We can only imagine the depth the full 70-character roster will bring, so stay tuned for more previews of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast soon.” (GameSpot, 2009)
