DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z, was released on January 26th 2018 and if you remember my previous article then you will know that I was extremely enthusiastic about the release of this game. Not just for my love of the show but I was expressing how much this game seemed to be a revitalization of the classic style of 2D fighting with the obvious new era twists. PC was gifted with a demo or a open beta (as far as I know), so I like most of you had to wait for this release to get my first hand experience. Spite my delay in writing this review, I remain as excited now as I was then and I am very happy to say that DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z did not disappoint. It was everything I expected and more; what were my first impressions ? When playing in 4K, naturally the first thing I noticed was the vibrant colors that this game displayed, and of course the first thing that I did was head for the settings, adjust my setting to ultra and head for my experience. Right away your are greeted with the solid guitar riffs that seem to go hand and hand with the Dragon Ball series, fight sequence; also a brilliant accomplice to the games visual wonder. When you enter the actual game you have a unique style of selection screen, it’s a lobby which I thought was a neat way to give a game but particularly a fighting game a little more depth. Why do I say that ? Well the lobby world feature allows for things that were effecting in games like DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE; mild exploration (limited but still), the ability to interact with the online community directly, and customizable avatar. Aside from run around and change your avatar, DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z boasts several features such as:

• World Match
• Party Match
• Story
• Practice
• Arcade
• Local Battle
• Replay’s
• Arena Match

Story mode takes a good attempt at making a unique plot and something that delivers with consistent engagement but for me that message was lost in translation and I personally did not enjoy the story mode. I found myself playing Arcade mostly, since you can go through various versions of arcade at different difficulty settings. As good as this arcade mode is I found the most enjoyment for this game came from me inviting friends over and going head to head or winner goes on among a room of fun competition. However if you don’t have your friends over and feel the need to play some non AI competition, you can take your need to prove your greatness online both in competitive and non competitive modes. With fighting games, I particularly enjoy something straight forward and direct as far as delivery and user friendliness. DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z provides just that, and on a surface level the controls are just that as well but that isn’t a downside believe it or not as the skill seems to be in how you chain your combos and your timing in assists and obviously how well you know your character. That being said I think one of my only knocks on this game is the inability to block or break being the recipient of a deadly chain combo, which allows you to be pretty much obliterated or what my friends and I call being “corner cheesed”. The second knock is the region player maximum, what is that ? That means if the region you are in for your in game lobby is full then you cannot play really and in the que you go for your turn. So What do I think ? DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z is an excellent fighting game that gives you a tremendous nostalgia of a game like ‘Marvel vs Capcom 2’, has a roster that will be growing with future DLC, beautiful graphics and pleasing sound track (my favorite is the hit sound track). DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z gives you what you want from a fighter game and satisfies that itch for anime enthusiasts and show purists. I think this game has excellent replay value and over the years you will see this game fall right into a cult classic. If you haven’t played this game or were thinking of purchasing DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z, then I would recommend getting it if you are a fan of fighting games (particularly the marvel vs capcom genre) and a fan of Dragon Ball. This game is Nvidia Geforce Experience enabled so I recorded some game play and captured some screen shots of one of my nightly run through’s of DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z. So let me know what your thoughts are on DRAGON BALL FIGHTER Z in the comment section and of course, please like and subscribe so you can stay up to date with the latest from NXL.