Well, on with Part 9: DS Games Part 1!
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| Incidentally, I still think the original DS looks way cooler than the Lite. |
DS
games are, refreshingly, less of a mixed bag when it comes to Dragon
Ball games. None of the ones I've played are outright terrible games
and some of them are even stand-outs in their respective genres.
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| Erm, Puar? What are you looking at? |
Origins
This is one of those stand-outs. Dragon Ball Origins is similar to
the DS Legend of Zelda titles in that it is controlled (or can be
controlled) entirely with the touch screen. I've always liked this
idea and never understood those who don't (seriously, why would you
want games developed in such a way that totally subverts the entire
point of being on their respective system?). Anyway, Origins is a
pretty good game, and one of the best-looking games the DS has to
offer. It is one of very few games on the DS that uses 3D graphics
and doesn't look awful.
The game is hard to categorize into a specific genre since it blends
the action adventure elements of the aforementioned Zeldas with
straight-up platforming style progression. You do traverse somewhat
open environments in all directions, obtain skills and upgrades and
battle enemies in real-time combat. The game is also separated into
stages and boss battles.
All there really is to say about it is it controls well, it looks
good, it has a well-put-together difficulty curve and it's fun to
play. Check it out if you get the chance.
My only slight disappointment with the game is that it only covers up
to the first World Tournament saga, meanwhile a Dragon Ball title on
the previous generation handheld (Advanced Adventure) covered far
more.
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| Now with 50% less upskirt-looking cats and 50% more blackface! |
Origins 2
I've only played a demo of Dragon Ball Origins 2 but all in all, it
seems like more of the same. That's not a bad thing and there were
some minor tweaks that made the controls a little better and added
variety to the attacks. If you care about having the whole story and
are a fan of the first Origins, I'd say go ahead and pick up Origins
2. Keep in mind that you are almost buying the same game again, just
with a story mode that covers the Red Ribbon Army saga to the King
Piccolo saga, along with some minor control tweaks. That doesn't
make it a bad game, but it does make it an underwhelming sequel.
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| The American boxart is very lame in comparison so I'm using the Japanese here |
Supersonic Warriors 2
The sequel to one of my favourites of the Dragon Ball fighting games.
I have mixed feelings about this title as it adds a lot but also
drops some of the things that were strong points in the first game.
The character roster is more diverse and the character select is more
streamlined. However, as mentioned in Part 8, even the game's Free
Play mode lacks the feature of being able to build teams that have
multiples of the same character. In fact, it even locks you out from
having multiples of a character even if they show as separate
characters on the character select. For instance, if you have one of
Kid Gohan or “Teen” Gohan (quotation marks used as he is not a
teenager) or Adult Gohan on a team, you can't have either of the
other two. Come on, game, I want a team of all 3 Gohans!
One of my favourite things to do in the first game was to face 3 of
the strongest Vegetas with a team of 1 base-form Goku. It was a
great way to create some challenges for yourself and it's gone from
the sequel.
The graphics are 'theoretically' improved. The sprites of returning
characters are the same and the new introductions keep in consistent
style. The backgrounds are actually 3D rendered environments this
time, but I actually find myself preferring the backgrounds of the
previous title. It might be because the 3D backgrounds occasionally
showcase the DS's limitations with jagged geometry and low-resolution
textures, but I also find the backgrounds of the first game just a
lot more appealing to look at; they seemed more colourful and lively. Honestly, I find several of the graphics, especially character portraits, to be...'over-streamlined' if there can be such a thing; much of the charm they had in the first game isn't really there anymore.
The story mode feels very uninspired. Once again, every character
has their own, unique, 'What-If' story, however this time around very
few of the villains get a story where they win. The stories just
barely stray from the actual canon and often times will tell you that
your character lost a battle regardless of whether or not you
actually lost the preceding fight. Compared to the predecessor, this
story mode severely lacks originality.
The controls, thanks to the additional buttons on the DS, are a bit
more efficient. It isn't a huge improvement but certain things
like special moves take less awkward button inputs now. In the first
game, special moves were performed by holding R and pressing A+B;
holding R was sort of a toggle into energy attack mode. Now, special
attacks are a simple press of A+X.
Additionally, there are Team Attacks now. If you have your energy
maxed out and you have a pair characters on your team that have a
team attack, you can do so by a button on the touch screen. Some of
these attacks are really cool, Cell's and Frieza's being my personal
favourite.
Supersonic Warriors 2 improves upon the first game but also
downgrades and does so in such a way that it ends up being just as
good of a game. On the whole it's not an improvement nor is it
worse. It's just somewhat different.
Still, both are good games. Go for either one of the two.
Next Time: The Finale! The remaining DS title and Wii games.
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