Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans

 DS
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 47 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 47
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 47
  3. Negative: 5 out of 47
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  1. ZangBang
    Oct 24, 2022
    4
    47/100
    Dragon Ball Z Attack of the Saiyans is, like most turn-based RPGs, plagued by an extremely repetitive, slow-paced gameplay with an excessive random enemy encounter rate, but manages to make it significantly more bearable thanks to the active guard feature, which rewards a precisely-timed input when attacked to halve the damage taken. This adds a really exciting, pleasantly    47/100
    Dragon Ball Z Attack of the Saiyans is, like most turn-based RPGs, plagued by an extremely repetitive, slow-paced gameplay with an excessive random enemy encounter rate, but manages to make it significantly more bearable thanks to the active guard feature, which rewards a precisely-timed input when attacked to halve the damage taken. This adds a really exciting, pleasantly challenging action twist to gameplay, with particularly small reaction times. On the other hand, as a turn-based game Attack of the Saiyans gives the player a lot of freedom with the building of characters, allowing for custom stat distribution upon level up and unlocking/upgrading of different abilities. Sadly, abilities are severely lacklustre, mostly differentiated by their damage outputs, since there is a remarkable shortage of stat buff and debuffs abilities. This leads to an extremely linear and pretty dull progression system that most of the time boils down to the usage of the latest, most powerful ability and not much else. Esthetically, level design is delightful, with detailed and lively environments that perfectly capture the tone and atmosphere of the source material. Structurally it's just decent, perfectly functional with a couple of hidden secrets and small branching paths, nothing impressive. With its narrative, the game adapts the Saiyan Arc of the original story, and does so with great care for its characters and its world. However, approximately halfway through the game, the developers made a bold change to the original plot to accomodate the gameplay, but it's an extremely awkward alteration that severely spoils the dramatic tension and emotional impact of the entire third act of the story.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

49
#49 Best DS Game of 2009
13
#13 Most Discussed DS Game of 2009
67
#67 Most Shared DS Game of 2009

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Nintendo Power
    80
    What it is, though, is about as good a Dragon Ball Z game as anyone's going to make. [Dec 2009, p.87]
  2. Vandal
    72
    The last installment of Dragon Ball in the portable market is a notorious RPG game of classic style... maybe too classic for the times.
    Read full review
  3. 1UP
    58
    Not exactly what fans would call "Super Saiyan," but certainly good enough.
    Read full review
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