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  • Y’know, I don’t even think this counts asStrangeAnime License Friday today.

  • This is a freakinDragon Ball Z game. Strikes me, all things being equal, asPerfectly

  • Reasonable Anime License Friday.” Youve got an astoundingly-popular franchise, you

  • make games. But consider that this game, released in 1993 in Japan, already details the Cell

  • Games and subsequent events. Heck, back here we were watching the same pre-Namek episodes

  • over and over again, because that’s all they translated until Toonami happened. Looking

  • at this game through 1993 TJ’s eyes, the immediate questions would be, “Why the heck

  • is everyone blond?” andWho the hell names a guyTrunks?’” andWhy can’t

  • Cell only move diagonally?” (Awright, maybe I still ponder that last one.)

  • One of the problems I tend to have with ridiculously long-running anime is that, barring the occasional

  • full reset (a la Pokémon), they inevitably Shonen Jump the shark and become just painful

  • to watch, padding out the time between manga releases by shouting a lot and extending one

  • three-minute battle for a month and a half. But if you make a video game version, you

  • can’t really do any of those things that annoy me so. You get very active fights, minimal,

  • skippable text in between, and the occasional series of options that allow you to travel

  • the world and interact with the now-familiar cast of characters (and the occasional horrifying

  • racial stereotype). But it’s mostly 2D fighting, featuring the kind of high-flying, energy-projectile-throwing,

  • sometimes split-screen action that, frankly, feels a world ahead of other Strange Anime

  • Licenses I’ve played before. (First two Ranma ½ games, I’m looking at you.)

  • So, yes. It is kind of a crime that we got the second Ranma game - which, for all intents

  • and purposes, sucked - and not something like this. But despite the decent mechanics, branching

  • story mode, and... wait. FRENCH AND SPANISH RELEASES? Man. I don’t even think Europe

  • can complain anymore. Oh yeah, downsides. Um... This win animation is a bit ridiculous,

  • what with magically-appearing clothes. Despite my not really liking Dragon Ball - anymore,

  • anyway - I could play this game for hours, based solely on its existence as a decent,

  • if unorthodox, fighter. Naturally, there’s a two-player head-to-head mode, featuring

  • the eight combatants of the main cast (plus two hidden characters) and a bevy of customization

  • options. Dragon Ball Z: Super Butouden 2 sets a fairly high mark in the world of pugilism,

  • especially as far as Super Famicom games go. But for the real conclusion to this review,

  • youll have to wait for another three weeks, while I grunt at Derek between bouts of expository

  • dialogue.

Y’know, I don’t even think this counts asStrangeAnime License Friday today.

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