Dragon Ball: Raging Blast

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast is the best game in the saga available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Spectacular combats and the excellent graphics make up for a less than acceptable camera. If you are a fan, you'll love it.

While the game’s got plenty of flaws that will bruise the experience for the average gamer, fans will likely look past the technical issues and enjoy reliving the series again…at least long enough for the next inevitable Dragon Ball game to come along.

Simply put Dragon Ball Raging Blast is a game for fans of the long running anime series. Its does its job not perfectly, but well. The game does make you feel like super saiyan at times, and then turns around and makes you feel like a green blooded Namek instead.

Raging Blast has a lot going for it with 70 playable characters, lots of modes, online play, and a nice presentation. The camera and controls remain the most concerning part of the package, but for any average Dragon Ball or avid fighting fan, it's well worth a look.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast is a good fighting game. You will probably enjoy this game if you're a fan of the franchise. But otherwise, there are a lot of better fighting games available.

Everyone with a soft spot for Dragon Ball Z will embrace the video game. It's not the most complete Dragon Ball game ever, but it does feature all the big characters and storylines you'll remember of the Z universe. The camera is very sloppy and will cause quite a bit of frustration, the music is pretty annoying and last but not least: the game hardly does anything new (again!). Although Dragon Ball: Raging Blast isn't great, it still is entertaining enough to ensure many hours of fun.

At the end of the day, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast just isn't that good of a game. Despite the rich amount of content present, it doesn't seem to have the amount of polish and playability as Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit — or even some of the earlier entries.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast certainly feels and plays differently than your typical brawler, which is a good thing, but the dizzying camera limits its appeal to hardcore enthusiasts of the anime series instead of the general public.

A predictable but satisfying game, but it doesn't bring anything new. It is not a vain attempt because it won't disappoint those looking for a high definition Budokai Tenkaichi, but it's a lost opportunity to evolve the formula making the most of this generation power.

Goku is back, but he's not as powerful as in previous entries. More characters and a new bunch of game modes, but its gameplay doesn't offer any new features. It's not a bad game, but it's neither what we all expected it to be.

Besides having a somewhat basic fighting mechanic, Raging Blast real culprit is a bad camera, and it is something that can not be overlooked. Despite this issue, I would still recommend Raging Blast to fans, and if you are curious to find out what Dragon Ball is all about, this would be a good place to start, just don’t expect miracles.

Sure, there's lots of content, but the stories are poorly told (which alienates people who don't already know them) and the gameplay mechanics have numerous, numerous problems.

Dragon Ball Raging Blast is best when viewed as a nostalgia piece. The sheer amount of Dragon Ball related material in the game is staggering, and for fans, presents a wonderful value. For the uninitiated though, the package isn’t quite as rounded.

Perfect for quick blasts of fun. [Jan 2010, p.112]

I guess what surprised me most about this game is that the controls are not as tight as they should be for a fighter. Delayed responses with an often wacky camera, is in active contrast to a game that should have those in sharp focus.

There is nothing particularly hateful or lovable about Raging Blast, and that is its main problem. The new Dragon Ball is clearly made for fans, but it doesn’t work as a deep and engaging fighting game.

Sure, all the great characters are present and there are enough extras to keep fans wanting to jump into a tournament but the gameplay just falls flat to make the battles too awkward. There have been great Dragon Ball games before but, sadly, this one does not qualify.

The huge assortment of characters, stories, costumes, and other aspects of Dragon Ball lore cannot hide how shallow and uninspired the fighting mechanics are.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast has a lot of things going for it including an interesting story mode, great graphics, and a huge character roster. However, the foundation of the game - the battle system - isn't very fun, and that sinks the whole experience.

While Raging Blast has a likable presentation and lots of options, the stale fighting and infuriating camera are hard to ignore.

It’s a sluggish, unintuitive, stumbling mess of a fighter, with only a handful of redeeming features, none of which raise it much further from the gutter of ineptitude it resides in.

Those willing to experiment and take notes will still be rewarded with powerful techniques, but outsiders will not see a reason to join in. If they’re unfamiliar with Dragon Ball, the complicated controls will only serve to validate their decision to stay away from this game. For that reason, this game is for die hard Dragon Ball fans only. And maybe not even them.

There isn't anything truly innovative brought to the table and the gameplay suffers from poor design.

Alienates gamers to appease the fans and ends up impressing neither party. [Jan 2010, p.75]

When the camera decides to point at nothing its problems are inexcusable. [Issue#53, p.94]

Do yourself a favor and stick to Street Fighter IV. [Jan 2010, p.75]

Still, even with the excessive fan service employed here, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast is a far cry from a good game, or even a good Dragon Ball related game.