[Playing…] Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension

Recently I have been watching videos of Dragon Ball Fighter Z, the game developed by Arc System Works (responsible for wonders like the Guilty Gear) that has lately caught the attention of fans of Dragon Ball Z.

The public's reaction to this game seems to be divided between those who know that Arc System Works are capable of making the best game of Dragon Ball Z of history and those who complain because it is not played like the DBZ Budokai of PlayStation 2.

That situation shocked me, but at the same time it reminded me of a slightly similar case that occurred at the end of the 16-bit console generation.

At that time Super Nintendo had three games of Dragon Ball Z from the saga Super Butoden and Mega Drive/Genesis had one that was based on that same saga both visually and playable. The split screen to separate from the rival, the Kame Hame Ha stopping the combat and the commands to counter the attack, as well as the two bars of each character (energy and life) were so implanted in the minds of the players that It was hard to imagine a game of Dragon Ball Z different.

In 1995 a couple of games appeared for 32-bit consoles: The DBZ Shin Butoden for Sega Saturn was based entirely on the Super Butoden and the DBZ Ultimate Battle 22 from Playstation, which was a different type of game, but we were still able to fly away from the rival (without a split screen) and it continued to maintain the two bars per character.

A year later it appeared by surprise Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension for Super Nintendo, which, far from being a Super Butoden 4, completely changed the game style (from graphics to playability), getting closer to a common fighting game than to the combat of previous games.

At the time this game came out, the reception was somewhat cold because the game was no longer “so Dragon Ball Z like the Super Butoden“. Even today there are people who do not consider it a good game of Dragon Ball Z when comparing it to other more popular ones like the great Dragon Ball Z Super Butoden 2. However, anyone who loves fighting games and dedicates time to Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension You will find a fun game with some very successful new features.

Perhaps the first thing that strikes you when you see this game is the graphic style, more elaborate but less striking than the previous ones due to the use of color with less contrast, moving away from the style of previous games, to adopt a more sober or serious style (within how serious a game based on this series can be).

In total we have 10 fighters to choose from: Son Goku; Vegeta (possessed by Babidi); Piccolo; Gotenks (the fusion of Goten and Trunks); They are Gohan (adult, after releasing his power at the end of DBZ); Frieza (in his final form); Cell (in his perfect form); Vegetto (the fusion of Goku and Vegeta with the earrings); Mr Boo (Fat Boo); and Majin Boo (the little Boo who is also the original).

The roster is short, but it summarizes in the best way Dragon Ball Z, although it would have been incredible to have a few more characters that did appear in other games (adult Trunks, child Gohan, Broly, Krillin, Androids...).

Going into what the gameplay is, we find that each character has a punch button (Y), kick (B), energy attack (A) and a strong blows button (X), for quick movements to the left and right we have the L and R buttons. Some commands and functions are maintained from the Super Butoden (such as charging energy by pressing B+Y or the commands to perform Kame Hame Ha and similar attacks) but the similarity ends there.

The main difference between this game and the others is that you cannot fly freely, both characters are “anchored” to the same screen, as in most fighting games.

However, we can make a special attack with the Using the special attack of the

Playably, the game is faster than the previous ones and much deeper, since you can make combos relatively easily (and with a little training). It is also common to see counterattacks or for both characters to collide when hit with a physical attack and end up in a lightning fight that will end with the loser receiving an energy attack. Another interesting element is the possibility of moving towards the back of the stage to dodge an attack and hit the opponent by surprise (it is done by pressing L or R and then a punch or kick button).

One of the biggest differences in this game is that we only have one bar which in turn is life and energy, so if we go crazy and abuse Kame Hame Ha and other energy attacks we will reduce our life and energy at the same time. At first this can be somewhat confusing, especially because we have a yellow bar and some numbers next to it, well, the numbers always represent our energy/life and the bar also, but this only represents the final part of your life/energy so it will only decrease when we are low, as a visual resource (and alert) for the player. Charging energy with the Y+B buttons will also increase the numbers/yellow bar.

When we have little energy our character can execute a Meteor Attack, which will take a good handful of life from our rival. All characters have 1 Meteor Attack, except Perfect Cell who has two (was he the developers' favorite?).

Thus, the fights are risky, fast, much more direct and aggressive than in other Dragon Ball Z, it is a delight to play this game… as long as we are not in an aerial scenario.

Porque si, la peor parte de este juego se la llevan los escenarios donde ambos luchadores vuelan. Las peleas se vuelven más extrañas y lentas (eso de que algunos golpes te hagan desplazarte hasta el final de la pantalla parece bueno, pero no lo es tanto) incluso el choque que provoca las peleas relámpago se cambia por un combate a turnos donde un personaje lanza ataques de energía y el otro los ha de esquivar.

Debido al odio común hacia los escenarios voladores (porque si, no soy el único) os recomiendo que si jugáis a este juego, no hagáis los golpes que os mandan volando hacia arriba para evitar pelear en esas condiciones, pero es posible que aun así pase sin querer, de manera que la manera más rápida y efectiva de mejorar los combates en este juego es ir al menú de opciones y quitar la opción Hyper Dimension, que hará que solo juguemos en un escenario fijo, como en cualquier juego de lucha.

Si, es bastante cutre que haya que quitar uno de los elementos novedosos del juego para disfrutarlo plenamente, pero desde mi experiencia, es recomendable hacerlo salvo que os gusten los combates aéreos. Es curioso, pero ese es el único punto negativo grave de este juego, al menos si jugamos en su versión japonesa, porque la versión europea tiene un segundo punto negativo bastante particular.

Cuando este juego llegó a Europa (o mejor dicho a Francia y España) en 1997, decidieron que no tenían ganas de traducir una sola línea de texto y quitaron el modo historia. Es curioso que años atrás tradujesen el modo historia de Dragon Ball Z Super Butoden 2 que estaba lleno de texto y en este juego se negasen a traducir unas pocas frases, pero claro, supongo que pensaron que bastante hacían con traer el juego a Europa. A día de hoy es bastante habitual ver Roms de este juego traducido al inglés o español, con modo historia incluido.

El modo historia en sí es tremendamente sencillo y resume de manera radical el argumento de Dragon Ball Z a unos pocos combates. No es que sea algo del otro mundo, pero siempre da rabia que quiten algo que ya está hecho. Si juegas en la versión Europea tienes el resto de modos de juego disponibles (Combate VS CPU o un amigo, Torneo, Entrenamiento y Opciones) de manera que puedes jugar combates sueltos contra la CPU, pero se pierde la gracia de jugar un número concreto de combates seguidos contra la consola bajo condiciones determinadas y luego ver un final a modo de recompensa.

Resumiendo, Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension es un buen juego de lucha. Puede que pierda parte de la esencia y espectacularidad de los juegos anteriores, pero al mismo tiempo gana en profundidad jugable, haciendo los combates mucho más intensos. Además, ha envejecido mucho mejor que otros juegos de lucha de Dragon Ball Z.

Es cierto que tiene cosas mejorables (como las batallas aéreas) y que la plantilla se antoja algo corta, pero esa clase de cosas son las que se suelen corregir en las secuelas, aunque en este particular caso no sucedió pues nunca hubo un Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension 2.