Review: Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden

Another day, another console and another Dragon Ball game. This time, it’s Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden, a portable brawler now available on the Nintendo 3DS.

I readily admit that I’m not the biggest of Dragon Ball Z fans (though I do appreciate the hair), so I tackled this title more as a fighting game than the newest DBZ property. That’s okay though – apart from Super Smash Bros., the poor ol’ 3DS doesn’t have a lot of fighters at the ready.

Extreme Butoden has a Story mode that’s required playing. Literally. You’ll need to work through the game’s story in order to unlock Adventure mode. Story mode assumedly follows some epic DBZ tale – I feel like I’ve played through the same plot about ten times now – and delivers most exposition via screens of text that are flashed up between battles. At the very least, the text is easy to skip so you can get back to the actual action. Completing the Story also opens up alternate storylines, but it’s at this time you should jump ship and head on over to Adventure Time mode.

Dragon Ball Z offers up a cast of crazy, colourful characters, and you’ll find them inside Extreme Butoden in some fashion. Adventure mode offers the most challenging of fights and is used to unlock myriad Assist characters. Characters are easy enough to unlock at the start of the mode, but it does get quite difficult near the end of the run.

No matter who you play as, special attacks are generally pulled off in the same ways, though each character does have a bit of variety when it comes to combos. While it’s generally a bit same-ish, the genericness of the title does mean it’s fairly balanced. Veteran fighters will be able to pull of some impressive offensive and defensive moves with some practice and good timing.

The simple fact of the matter is this: Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden is a competent 2D fighter on a portable system desperate for more games in the genre. Fans of brawlers who’re a little tired of Smash will find great fun with the title, as will DBZ fans in general. Those looking for an experience equal to Smash, however, will be disappointed — local multiplayer is the only chance you’ll have to fight against other gamers.

Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden was reviewed using a promotional code on 3DS, as provided by the publisher.