Original Story and Art by Akira Toriyama

In past Dragon Ball Z, they have always tried to have the characters fly easily. In the Tenkaichi Budokai series for the Super Famicom they gave you layers that you could interchange throughout battle, then came the attempt with Legends, where you could easily press up to go towards your enemy, and down to escape. Then it came to the horrible flying in PSOne's Final Bout. Even America took a stab at it with Budokai for PS2, and though it was good, it didn't feel right. Finally, Japanese developer Banpresto found a perfect solution for a flying fighter DBZ game. The game's focus in in mid-air combat, where you can melee hits, smash your opponent across the screen, and fire many "Ki Blasts" at once.  

The game doesn't just feature the closest to a DBZ battle you can get, it also gives you various story modes for each character, unlockable characters, various modes of game play, and even a VS link-up mode. (Once you unlock it.) Much like the Budokai series, the game has a "shop" where you can buy 3 forms of each characters, different story modes, harder difficulties, and a museum.

Like most games made after the series, there is a slight lack of backgrounds to battle in and the graphics are a bit blurry at times. Though, the voice acting and the quick action make up for that ten-fold.

There are also interesting twists to each character - Besides powering up and using giant Ki-Blasts like the Saiya we all know, some of the others word different. Freeza has a move that once used, you have 49 seconds to defeat him or the  world explodes;  Gotenks can only be used for so long before the Fusion wears off; #18 doesn't need "Ki" to fire small blasts, making her deadly at long range.

This game will be enjoyed by most Dragon Ball fans.  If you're not a fan of the series, it may be worth picking up just to add to the GBA fighting game collection.

+Feels like a true DBZ battle

-The control is not as quick to respond as you'd like it to be.