DBZ: Hyper Dimension

System: Super Famicom
Release Date: March 29, 1996

The final DBZ fighting game for the Super Famicom. Featuring Goku, Gohan, Gotenks, Vegito, Piccolo, Freeza, Mr. Boo, Boo, Perfect Cell, and Majin Vegita, this game features an all new combat style. Now you can knock your opponents up, down, left, or right off the screen and into a new fighting arena, and regain your strength just by powering up.

Wow. This is a very different Super Famicom DBZ game. To start with, your life bar is the same as your special move power. This means that battles could last forever, but this also means that your life goes down when you use special techniques. Lots of careful strategy is needed to master this new system. Also, players can avoid special attacks by dodging into the background.

Stealing an idea from Mortal Kombat 3 and improving on it, you can knock your opponent off the screen to the left or right, top or bottom, and end up in a new battle field! Because of this, some battle fields are totally in the air and some are totally on the ground.

There is a very good story mode as well (unless you bought the French version, in which the story mode has been removed). In the story mode, losing a battle doesn't necessarily mean the game is over. Some story mode battles can be lost without losing the game, but the ending is not as good. When you do have to continue, however, you are limited by the number of Senzu beans that Kuririn is carrying. That's kind of clever.

The music is miles above the other DBZ Super Famicom games, and all the characters are drawn very well. In fact, all the graphics, music, and special attack effects look as if they were done by the Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger team. Speaking of special attacks, there are some BIG meteo moves. For example, SonGoku's starts out with a flurry of quick punches. Then, turning into Super Saiyajin Level 3, he knocks his opponent into the air. As they are falling he then turns back into normal Goku (black hair), floats up, raises his arms, and summons a Genki-Dama that takes up half of the screen. After throwing it, the battle field is consumed with a huge explosion. In another Meteo move, Boo can actually turn opponents into candy. He sucks them in, chews on them for a while, then spits them out.

I just wish that there were more characters. 10 is a lot for a Super Famicom game, but I've been spoiled by the 32 bit ones. Another downside is that fighting in the air is more than a little awkward. You are free to fly all over the screen, and the motion is kind of slow. When I am fighting in the air, I find myself desperately trying to knock my opponent to a battle field with ground combat before he kills me.

Although I was able to beat Hyper Dimension pretty easily, the computer seems to get the really painful moves pulled off whenever it needs them. You might think this is a good thing, but when you have full health and your computer opponent who is about dead suddenly destroys you before you know what hit you, you might think otherwise.

These are really minor gripes, and nothing to get into a fuss over. This is definitely the best Dragon Ball Z game for the Super Famicom. If you have an opportunity to buy it, don't pass it up.

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hyper1.rm (1 Meg file): A 27 second RealMedia clip of Goku kicking Freeza around for a while, and then performing his meteo attack on him.