Dragon Ball games are for Dragon Ball fans. Fighting games are for fighting game fans. Dragon Ball FighterZ is both of those things, and it’s for everybody.
This piece originally appeared 1/30/18. We’re bumping it today for the game’s release on Switch.
Combining a beloved series spanning 34 years of manga volumes and anime episodes with a game genre known for complex maneuvers and mechanics, developer Arc System Works had plenty of opportunities to make its first non-portable Dragon Ball game an over-complicated mess. It could have flooded the game with same-y characters like 2007's Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, or saddled it with convoluted controls (also like Budokai Tenkaichi 3).
But Arc System Works kept it simple. Dragon Ball FighterZ is a 2D fighting game with only 24 characters at launch and a fighting system where the most complicated move is a quarter-circle forward or back. It’s easy to find a favorite character or three to participate in the game’s three-on-three tag team battles. And it’s easy to make them perform the spectacular special moves fans have been drooling over since the game was announced last June.