Like MvC3, each player selects three fighters from a roster of 24, who they can rotate in and out of the fight at will. Capcom franchise, specifically, Marvel vs. Anime fighters: Not just for fanboys anymoreįighterZ takes more than its fair share of cues from Capcom’s Marvel vs. Even without lobby wait times and connection issues, you will spend a good amount of time waiting for fights to start and end. On Xbox One, it takes more than 30 seconds to load in and out of local and story mode matches. Those impressive visuals don’t come without a cost, though. It’s difficult to balance flash with function, but FighterZ has done it. Though the fights are 3-on-3, which means there can technically be as many as six characters on-screen at once, it’s never hard to keep track of what’s going on in the fight.
Every match is chock full of giant colorful energy beams and exploding auras. The game makes the most of its aesthetic by piling on crazy visual effects. Not every fighter can do every move in DBZ history, but each one has a look and feel that’s distinct, and conveys personality. The characters all use many of their signature moves from the show. The game features a roster of 24 fighters from Dragon Ball Z and Super, 21 of whom are available right away - with two more currently available as downloadable content. Though its animation is not the technical marvel that Cuphead was, there’s something even more surreal about the fact that these are characters you’ve seen elsewhere. We can’t understate how cool it is to press a button, and watch a cartoon to come to life. In combat, the game is incredibly smooth, the graphics look sharp and crisp. Anime you can playīefore you play Dragon Ball FighterZ, you might want to just look at it for a while.
Though it may lack the mechanical diversity found in some of its peers, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better brawler to simply pick up and play. It helps that FighterZ is one of the easiest fighting games to pick up and play. FighterZ genuinely looks and feels like an epic fight from the show that inspired it. (Actually, having gone back to watch some old episodes, I can confirm the game looks much better than Dragon Ball Z ever did). When it was first shown at E3 2017, FighterZ dropped jaws with its 3D cel-shaded visuals, which look nearly identical to the anime that inspired them. The series has also adopted a familiar format - 3-on-3 swap-in, swap-out team-fights, like those found in the Marvel vs.
Publisher Bandai Namco handed the license to developer Arc System Works, makers of the niche, but well respected, Guilty Gear franchise. Though only the latest in a long line of licensed fighting games based on the beloved anime franchise, FighterZ is a cut above those that came before. Fitbit Versa 3ĭragon Ball FighterZ may be the flashiest fighting game of 2018.