But hey, it’s DBZ after all, a show comprised of 500 punches, kicks and blocks in the span of ten seconds and six frames of animation. There doesn’t seem to be any ranking system to speak of, so the newbies are thrown in with the experienced pros, which can leave even advanced players overwhelmed by the pace. Action is fluid, even when it does feel like things are lagging some, and the major energy attacks allow for a little leeway here and there when necessary. It’s easy to imagine the online play, given a game that’s as fast as this one can be, to lag right when you’re trying to pull off that major energy wave, but thankfully that’s not the case. Multiplayer battles are the bread and butter here, with local four-player and online eight-player battle modes to fiddle with. Over 60 characters are jammed onto the disc, and thankfully they all feel like you would expect them to feel: Gohan’s an in-your-face brawler, Vegeta likes throwing lots of energy attacks, Goku has a Kamehameha, and nobody plays Tien or Yamcha on purpose.

The rest of the cast comes back with them, including just about everybody worth mentioning in the DBZ universe like Cell, Trunks, Buu, and everyone’s favorite loveable weakling, Jeice from the Ginyu Squad (from Space Australia). The most noteworthy of those characters are Lord Beeru and Saiyan God Goku (or as I like to call him, “The Skinny Ginger”) from the first DBZ movie in over a decade, Battle of Gods. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z is the result, providing a few new playable characters for the first time. The big change this time is the taking away of the one-on-one fight to the death, instead allowing a bunch of people into the fight… so long as they don’t all Yamcha things up, which they will. Like, an Eternal Dragon that grants wishes (who disappears every time Piccolo or Kami die, which is often enough to consider renaming this so-called “Eternal” Dragon).

Did I say testicles? Sorry, I meant balls.

Dragon ball z battle of z for xbox 360