Geek of Oz

Throughout its storied history of video game adaptations, Dragon Ball  is a franchise that has always had more hits than misses. Handheld offerings like Legacy of Goku  and more full-on platform fighters like the Budokai Tenkaichi  and Xenoverse  games far outweigh the lackluster disappointments in entries like Supersonic Warriors , Sagas  and whatever that Kinect thing was. So it comes as little surprise that Dragonball FighterZ  sticks to the rule rather than the exception, being both a solid fighting game in its own right and a highly successful adaptation of the source material. Mechanically, the game hews close to established fighting game standards with a left-vs-right battle system and reliance on combos, power attacks and dodges (so pretty much Tekken  with more yellow hair and aliens), as opposed to the full 3D movement used by the recent  Xenoverse  entries. Your team of three fighters - chosen from a possible unlockable roster...

As this review is a First Impressions of a game that is still in development, there will be no */10 Geeks score at the end. Any aspects of the game discussed here are subject to change in the final version. --- When I recently interviewed Katsuhiro Harada*, executive producer and franchise custodian of the Tekken series and co-director of Tekken 7 , I asked him what he thought about the impact Tekken 's legacy has had, and will continue to have, on the fighting game genre. Both he and his interpreter, game designer Michael Murray, were a bit thrown; apparently, nobody had ever asked them such a thoughtful question. If no-one was asking that then, they'd have to be asking it now. With the impending release of Tekken 7 and the end of a saga that has spanned more than two decades of gaming history, "legacy" is the word of the day. The plot, which is surprisingly accessible for those who may not have gone through the previous games, concerns consternation ...

THE SHORT VERSION   If you're after a complex, occasionally melodramatic plot with no shortage of beating the snot out of gangsters, then here's the game for you, my friend!     STORY   It's 1988, and the Japanese underworld is battling it out for control of an empty patch of land. This empty patch - ominously titled the Empty Lot - acts as the key to control of a substantial amount of Japanese real estate. Two men each with their own criminal stake in the conflict - young yakuza enforcer Kazuma Kiryu, and cabaret club ooperator Goro Majima - operate separate agendas to in relation to the Lot, while a number of backroom deals, deceptions and unholy alliances play out around them. Against the grand canvas of operatic criminal dealings, Kiryu and Majima also deal with personal struggles; the former is dealing with the fallout after being wrongfully accused of murder, and the latter is tasked to assassinate a young blind woman whom he late...

Battle Arena Melbourne turns 5 this May and what a birthday celebration it's looking to be. In what will undoubtedly be their biggest year yet, CouchWarriors have organised a veritable bevy of events including exhibitions, special events, live entertainment and, of course, THE EVER PRESENT BATTLE FOR GLORY!