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The demo for Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, the lastest videogame entry in the long running manga/anime Dragon Ball franchise, has hit the Xbox Live Marketplace at a very nice 250mb download. Hit the jump for full impressions on the demo.
Last year's Dragon Ball: Burst Limit for the Xbox 360 and PS3 took a departure from the last Tenkaichi styled gameplay and returned to the series Budokai roots as a more traditional fighter with the usual Dragon Ball gameplay quirks. The game was fast, had a decent amount of depth to it's fight system, and was button-mash friendly for those new to the game but it was seriously lacking in the content department. With a paltry amount of characters to choose from limited to the Cell Saga and an online mode light on features, Burst Limit felt like a hollow shell compared to the last-gen games on the PS2.
So back again for this entry is the Tenkaichi arena styled gameplay, complete with a huge roster of 40 characters to choose from, not counting character transformations. To help keep the series feeling fresh, non-canon characters like Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta will also be making their debut. It's probably unlikely the famed Super Saiyan 3 Raditz from the late 90's internet hoax, Dragon Ball AF, will be there but hey, we can dream!
The demo starts off with a snazzy run by of the Eternal Dragon, with Versus Mode being the only selectable mode. At the character select screen, there are three characters to choose from (Goku, Raditz, and Piccolo) along and with 2 alternate costumes. One interesting little tidbit I picked up as the fight is about to start was that character dialogue will follow the storyline depending on who's fighting so Goku fighting Raditz will lead to Saiyan Saga intro dialogue.
Those new to the Tenkaichi series like myself will probably be instantly confused by the gameplay starting off. The gameplay takes place similar to something like in an open arena and with the camera placed over the shoulder, than the traditional fighting game side-view. Controls are also not what you'd expect from a other fighters as well. Being in an open stage, your free to fly and dash using the RT and RB buttons to ascend and descend, while using the A button to dash toward or away from your enemy. This allows you to move around to avoid taking a beating, play cat and mouse, and charge your Ki.
Getting use to the button mapping will take time for newcomers, while fans of the last-gen games should feel more at home. Standard button inputs include X and Y being your primary punch and light Ki attacks for combos and B focusing on grabs. The right thumbstick controls your super attacks ranging from special Ki attacks like a Kamehameha or strong grab attack that will knock opponent across the level. Super attacks can be easily dodged from the distance though, so planning on when to set them up plays into a nice strategy.
From what it looks like, Raging Blast runs on a different engine than Burst Limit and results in new look. The game takes a departure from Burst Limit's saturated watercolor-esqye cel shading and goes for a more HD, clean line look with bright crisp colors and textures all running together at a smooth 60FPS. Throughout the demo, I uncovered no slow down even with the big super attacks and backgrounds crushing. Environments are large and have destructible elements when you send your opponent crashing against a wall but they can can feel a bit empty and lifeless sometimes.
And with the large environment comes camera problems. Many times, your enemy will go out of view when they fly too far or too high, hitting you with an attack of out nowhere. Another instance had the camera wacked out jerking back forth because it had gotten caught up on the environment. While not a complete gamebreaker, these were definite annoyances, especially when you take online play into account.
By my third playthrough of the game, having used all the characters, I was beating down Super Saiyan Goku with a moderate understanding of the controls and using the large environments to my advantage. Newcomers to the series will need some practice to get the hang of the buttons mapping and gameplay mechanics, but oldbies should be fine. The large character roster making it's return in the HD should please the fans, along with it's updated stages. Aside from the learning curve and frequent camera issues, the demo felt like a fun, enoyable fighter that takes the Dragon Ball mechanics and turns it into it's own.
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this game is awsome!