Hyper Dimension Review

This is perhaps the most well known DBZ game on the market, and most people would have at least considered either purchasing or downloading it at one point in time. This fighting game is highly regarded by many computer game gurus, and rightly so.

The game itself takes place from the midpoint of the Frieza fight, where the player controls Piccolo, with it ending upon the player defeating Buu's final form. A little story aspect is an interesting addition, with the characters exchanging words in a street fighter style ending to each battle. The fact that there is generally more than one opportunity to destroy your opponent is a nice extra, with the player taking on a more powerful fighter after their first loss, giving lesser games players a better chance, and the most experienced players a chance to strive to win with a demeaning fighter.

The story mode may be cool and exciting, but once it's over it's unlikely the player will really want to play it again, unless they want to win with all the minor characters (Piccolo vs. Frieza, Majin Vegeta vs. Buu) which would be quite a feat to achieve. Unfortunately though, the majority wouldn't feel like playing through again, and although it'd only take about half hour to go through it all, no one really wants to do something so repetitive.

Of course there's always the good old versus mode where you can fight a fighter of your choice with anyone you like, testing out your special moves and techniques and getting better all the time. You get to a certain skill level where you can defeat everyone in no time though, making the games lifespan considerably shorter than the others in the genre such as Tekken or Soul Blade. With that said though, it still has a lot of playability due to its difficulty. 

The learning curve is something I'd like to comment on, as it is essential that people know about it. The game can get extremely hard if you haven't mastered most of your characters moves, and a lot of people wouldn't like to spend a lot of their time on this. It would be too hard for the easily frustrated, so I really don't recommend you get this game if you're one of the people who fall into that category. 

One of the other factors that contributes to the enjoyment received from the game is the mouth-watering graphics, with lush backgrounds and incredibly detailed characters. Even by today's standards this game barely looks dated, and for a 2D fighter the graphics are among the best around. Obviously it can't come close to even matching the visuals on some of the more recent 3D games, but it doesn't really need to. This is by far the best eye candy that any DBZ game has to offer, and this is proved further by the way that many people decide to make Animated Gifs out of it.

Of course, Fighter's Destiny proved that great graphics doesn't necessarily mean that it's a great game, as a slow and sluggish fighting system would ruin the whole thing. This is where Hyper Dimension excels, with a huge variety of attacks and techniques, complex button combinations to learn, and different skills for every character. The close proximity fighting is also brilliant, with it being fast and frantic for the most part, with occasional glitches making the fight go slow and dull. This is a rarity though, and usually it doesn't come into play. Once you've learn all your characters moves though, you'll be unstoppable, and become filled with an amazing sense of pride.

One thing that I really didn't notice was the music, which must mean that it couldn't have been all that bad, but not that great either. It may be worth listening to if you're a big fan of ingame music, but otherwise turn it off and listen to Stereophonics or Limp Bizkit instead. 

If you can put up with the occasional inconsistency and get down to some serious gaming, then this will satisfy you for a good few weeks. If you're a perfectionist or critic, then you'll probably notice and become annoyed by some of the little glitches in the game. For the hardcore fighting fan this would be a good purchase, as it is on par with the other great games on the market. If you're a casual gamer then this is an essential buy (Or download if you're into getting illegal ROMs), as you wouldn't notice for slight imperfections, and would enjoy it for the great arcade game it is.

Overall Score: 84%

Pros: Good graphics, lots of attacks.

Cons: May be a bit difficult for some, slightly slow combat at times.