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Trailer Review: Dragon Ball Z: Evolution

Posted by Cole Stryker

 

I reviewed the last Dragon Ball Z fighting game for Popmatters.com. Here's an excerpt: 

Budokai Tenkaichi, which roughly translates to “Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament” captures the feel of the cartoon exactly, with seizure-inducing speed, cornball dialogue, and outrageously grandiose battle scenes. The swooping camera, responsive remote gestures and intricate animations make for an intensely cinematic experience. This is the closest that gamers have come to being inside a cartoon, so far, anyway.

So the game's comittment to the source material is one of the few things that I liked about the game, even though I am not the least bit interested in the Dragon Ball cartoon. The cartoon graphics sparkled, and the designers did everything they could to make every punch, slap, and, er, kai blast sound like the cartoon. And that's the reason I think that Dragon Ball Z: Evolution will fail. It's basically another Dragon Ball fighter, only this time it lacks the charming cel-saded look. Here the characters look drab and samey. 

 

 

Maybe they'll prove me wrong, but it looks like the game's shaping up to as be as mediocre as the film on which it's based. 

Related Links:

Trailer Review: Mightier

Trailer Review: Sugar

Trailer Review: Tokyo!


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

Derrick Sanskrit said:

I played it for a bit at New York Comic Con last weekend (there's a clip at :48 in the video montage here: hooksexup.com/.../nycc-2009-a-brief-overview-of-games.aspx ).

It plays exactly like the previous games, only it feels significantly slower, much of which has to do with the static talking head story sequences and the UNBEARABLY long load times. Seriously, I was able to watch the entire Splatterhouse trailer while waiting for a fight to load. The least they could have done was verrrrrrrrrrry slowly panned across your character's eyes during this load sequence.

February 17, 2009 3:17 PM

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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