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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: Unknown Game 2470
When I downloaded this game, I was literally asking for a mediocre fangame. I dislike all things Dragon Ball Z with a passion, and knew that this wouldn't be much different. I was, however, pleasantly surprised. My first impression upon starting this game was one of disgust. Right on the company's logo, the first thing you see is, "Csar Creations -Play it, and your in for it!" I immediately noticed the misspelling of "you're." It took me a while to catch that the company's name is misspelled (unless it's something not in English or made up.) I looked up csar on dictionary.com, and only found several acronyms, including Channel System Address Register, Component Stress Analysis Review, and Critical Safety Analysis Report, where the intended word is likely czar, a ruler typically associated with pre-Stalin Russia. These spelling errors are consistent throughout; words are even skipped in the screens between levels explaining the story. Of course, The Daily Click is a place where people from many countries come to participate in a community, so this may very well be a result of unfamiliarity with the English language, which would be a bit understandable. Whatever the case, though, the problem is still nagging. Speaking of story, there isn't much of one here. I've seen enough of the show to be able to piece together what happens, but anyone who hasn't (and probably a lot of people who have) probably won't be able to understand what's going on. A little bit more explanation would help. As it is, the whole game seems like nothing but a bunch of fighting minigames that just happen to involve the same character and have no relation to each other in any other way. For anyone who has seen the show, several inconsistencies are noticeable. The main one is that you are able to become a SSJ 3 right from the start. For those uninitiated, the characters of the TV series only learn how to become SSJ 1 (short for Super-Saiyan, level one, though I think it might be spelled Saijun or something like that) during the fight with Freiza. The others are minor, such as the settings of the battles. For example, when Goku is fighting Buu, the landscape should be ravaged and rocky, not grassy with trees and graceful rocky outcroppings. Not much is sacrificed in these, however. The ability to become SSJ 3 from the very beginning actually adds to the strategic depth: "Will I take the time to become this ultra-powerful warrior, or should I just fight as I am?" As far as gameplay goes, this game excels in the beginning, but decreases in quality as the game progresses. In the first level, I was truly enjoying myself. I had a number of options for how I could defeat Vegeta, my first opponent: staying with my original state and fighting him using hit-and-run tactics, still staying in the original state and remaining stationary while waiting for a good shot with the Kamehameha wave, or powering up to one of the three higher levels, which gives more speed as well as more powerful attacks at the cost of vulnerability. Strategy is augmented slightly by the power meter, which decreases every time you attack and must be increased by "powering up," which makes your character (Goku, the star of the series) vulnerable for a short time. This same formula is used through all of the battles, and does become slightly repetitive. The only truly fun stages of the game are the first two. The first, as I just said, possesses the initial feeling of awe. In the second, you are double-teamed by two enemies, one slow and specializing in ranged attacks, such as a homing attack, and the other fast and only using the kick attack. After that, all of the battles are pretty much the same, only differing in the backgrounds and the rapidity at which enemies launch attacks at you. When the game begins, it is challenging enough that inattentiveness will get you killed, but not so difficult that it is anywhere near aggravating. As the game progresses, levels get slightly harder as more powerful opponents are thrown at you. The last two levels, however are thoroughly disappointing. In these, Goku "powers-up" far faster than in previous battles, allowing you to reach the most powerful state more quickly than it may have taken to reach the second, making them far too easy. If how quickly your power would increase had stayed the same, some strategy may have been retained, but as it is, the last battle is by far the easiest, and is a simple matter of evading attacks, powering-up, and attacking. The destructable scenery adds to the game's quality and depth. Instead of hiding eternally behind one rock while powering-up for a blitzkrieg-type attack, the player is forced to move to stay safe, though they will quickly find that charred bushes and trees offer far more effective and permanent cover, almost nullifying the purpose of having destuctable scenery gameplay-wise, making the only purpose of having it to keep the feel of the show. Two minigame-type levels are present, apparently to relieve the redundancy of the fights, but are pointless and just waste time. While repetitive, the fighting levels can be fun, and these levels do little more than waste time. The graphics are decent. The four shades of color for all object shading lend a cartoony feel to the game. Rocks are reminiscent of those in the TV series, the exaggerated effects for exploding rocks, burnt trees, and the strange electrical energy created when SSJ 2 give DBZ Clash more of the show's feel. There isn't much variation among scenery; all of the rocks and trees for one level are the same exact thing, and the ground is very repetitive, just the same small (32x32) tiled all through the background. Sound effects are not of the best quality, but seem to blend perfectly with the game. I don't know if it's just because I have my sound too low, but the exaggerated swipes made when Goku kicks work well with the cartoony style of the graphics. Although the author admits that he didn't make it, the peppy, techno-ish music also blends seamlessly with the rest of the game. DBZ Clash possesses very little replay value. The level progression is very linear: if you win, you always continue on the same path. If you loose, you always either start over or resume from a point close to where you left off using a password. The only reason I've played it more than the time it took to beat it was because I'm writing this review. There are a few noticeable bugs. Three are annoying and sometimes result in death: Goku sometimes slows down for no apparent reason, leaving him open to attacks; the Kamehameha wave sometimes only fires a few short blasts; the Kamahameha wave propels Goku back, sometimes landing him on the water, where he is able to move freely but cannot get out of without using another wave to propel him out. Another requires the player to restart the game: when powering-up to SSJ 3, Goku becomes invisible and none of the controls work to any extent, as though your character is deleted entirely. All of these are most noticeable during the fight with Cell. Perhaps my favorite parts of this game are the first level, the nice feeling you get when launching a big beam or orange energy at an opponent resulting in an explosion of smoke (many large attacks in the series do result in large clouds of dust) and instant death, and the nice MIDI of "When I Come Around" that's played during the food-eating level. The bottom line is that, while there are spelling errors abound, the graphics are redundant, gameplay can be repetitive, and some bugs do slightly aggravate and detract from DBZ Clash's quality, this game is still strangely fun. The mix of light strategy and action is effective, the control scheme is fitting, and the entire game largely reflects the feel of the show. It's not diamond, but it is a gem.
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