A video created by 38 Studios Producer Rich Gallup and Illegal Aliens screenwriter Ben Coello. The video is intended to promote 38 Studios(the dev house owned by Red Sox Pitcher Curt Shilling) and the sister site they own, called Azeroth Advisor.
Rich and Ben turn an advertisement into something special.

Saw this on Giant Bomb!

Over on Giantbomb.com, where every single game has its own individual forum, I've been spending a lot of time in the Braid forum, inevitably talking about the greater meaning behind the game, as well as debating the nature of the medium as an art form. Discussion their has been absolutely fascinating, with users constantly building and expanding their opinions with each new post. Here are some of the more convoluted thoughts I've had in the forum, re-posted in nonsensical, rank boosting glory.
Obvious Spoiler Warning. Here there be monsters.

Vaxadrin, over in the Braid forum, said:

"I hate to jump on the "games are art" bandwagon, because I feel that ever since there's been pixel sprites in NES games they have been "art", but this is something on a different level entirely, and I wholeheartedly embrace it."

Droll again:

Despite how much I want to embrace gaming as a legitimate art form(if only to prove the medium had some intellectual value to my parents), I'd come to think that almost all games aspire to be entertainment and nothing else. Rarely does this medium offer anything up simply for edification, instead hoping to bedazzle us with sights and sounds before walking away. The reason so few games strive to be something greater than entertainment isn't, as one might think, because of the very early corporatization of the industry (though that obviously plays a factor). Rather, I think that creating a working, relatively bug-free game is such a technical challenge that even getting a program running requires a team of genius programmers to make it go. To finish a game, you need the technical people first and foremost, so very few games ever have the opportunity to aspire to more.

The few other "Art" games over the past 10 years always succeed by putting an increased focus on unique art design, or unconventional mechanics and a great aesthetic, but those almost always comes at the expense of some technical facet of the game design. Rez is an amazing experience that makes your heart swell the second you realize what’s going on, but, from the gameplay perspective, it’s a on-rails shooter in the vein of Panzer Dragoon, Bland at best and boring at worst. It's amazing, but players have to look past the gameplay to enjoy it, which, depending on your tendencies as a player, defeat the purpose of the game as a game.



Same goes for Shadow of the Colossus: few people would deny that game's incredible scope, wonderful design, and dark ending rank among the finest the medium has produced. Again, however, that increased creativity caused other aspects of the game to suffer: the framerate is atrocious throughout, rarely above 20 FPS and in a constant state of flux. The gameplay mechanics are interesting and different from any other "platformer" or any game to feature climbing period. But the controls are wonky, awkward to adjust to, and are even more difficult to manage thanks to the game's unhelpful camera. Its one of the greatest game's of all time....but, really, that could very well occur once you stop playing it.



That’s what makes Braid so remarkable: no one aspect of the game in anyway intrudes or detracts from any other aspect. The luscious art design in Braid doesn't in any way hurt the gameplay: on the contrary, it enhances it, makes the player enjoy exploring each individual environment in the game while never fooling them into thinking that some part of the background is important to solving a puzzle. The gameplay is wonderful, starting with rock-solid platforming mechanics and the time control ability, but slowly evolves and meditates on the gameplay over time, so it never becomes stale. The music is almost too wonderful sometimes, always enhancing the levels while never distracting the player too much. And the story is dark, hallucinatory, laden with more metaphor in a single paragraph than most games dare have in the entirety of the product, leaving the player with masterful, iconic imagery that can, pretty easily, connect to their own lives and play styles. But the story never "interferes" with the gameplay, never gets in the way of solving the puzzle and, indeed, helps the player to understand why the time mechanic changes from level to level.



And, of course, there's that ending, that moment when the world seems to stop, just for an instant, and, in one brilliant flash, the story becomes perfectly clear. But it doesn't become perfectly clear: we know what the ending is, but the player is still left to guess what it means, to try and find some nugget of wisdom, some truth to take with them.

That perfect moment begins when you actually hit a button, when the player tries to exert control over the game's final world. Gameplay and experience combine into a single, mind-melting moment of interactive perfection. This is the ideal, not just of "art games" but of all games: when gameplay and experience come together and enhance each other, rather than one of the two elements trying to "cover up" for the weaknesses of the other.

That is, perhaps, the reason why Braid is the definitive "art game". It sacrifices nothing, and achieves everything. It's more of a game than those "art games" to come before it, and it has a deep resonance that outstrips most game's so-called "technical/gameplay achievements."

Braid doesn't pander to the audience. It trusts players, trusts them to complete the puzzles, to listen to the soundtrack, to enjoy the visuals, to find the deeper meaning in the game. A legion of 360 users, writing the game off as a "bad Mario clone" to go play more Soul Calibur, will never understand that final irony. How quickly they leave a worth wild opportunity, a monumental achievement in the medium, to go play something that doesn't have a shred of intellectual depth, for fear of "insulting" the player.

Droll is not actually trying to boost his Destructoid rank. He's perfectly content being the top wiki points poster on Giant Bomb.

I want to rewind time.
I want to be able to go back to this morning, to forget everything that happened in the past 12 hours.
I want to play Braid again, to have those same revelations, those same discoveries all over again.
I want to find the solutions to those devious puzzles, to see the bizarre creatures, to delve into every unique mechanic the game has to offer. Just once more, from the top.
But I can't.
The least I can do, however, is to help you see those revelations for yourself.

Braid is unlike anything else on the XBLA to date. Quite literally, if fact: in a sea of downloadable omni-directional shooters, dressed-up arcade ports and terrible flash break-dancing games, Braid is a platformer in the classic sense. While many developers can flex some 3-D muscle using the powerful 360 architecture, Indie game supporter Jonathan Blow's game is filled with lush 2-D backdrops and old-school scrolling effects. And while most XBLA games completely ignore any kind of narrative development, Braid is filled with dark, melancholic, oftentimes hallucinatory text descriptions that feature better writing than many full-fledged 360 games. Braid stands above it all, a shining beacon of smart game design, outstanding audiovisual presentation, and powerful, confident story line.

Braid have players step into the unusually well dressed shoes of Tim, a young man with a swath of Red Hair and a mission: to find his princess. Tim's true long has been out of his life for some time, because, as is revealed in the first of many of the shockingly well written expositions that take place before each world, "Tim Made a mistake." You'll help Tim right that mistake over the course of the games 6 ingeniously designed worlds.

The core mechanics of the gameplay don't initially seem to be so complicated: Braid is a platformer of the oldest schools, with nothing but a jump button to help him clear obstacles. Rather than featuring a double jump or a particularly high jump(as you might find in other classic platformers) Tim can gain extra height by bouncing on top of enemies. The more enemies you can land upon at a time, the higher you can fly. The platforming mechanics are sound, though, make no mistake: you have a solid amount of "air control" that will let players fine tune their specific jumps to land them just right.

However, the real meat of the gameplay is Tim's time control mechanic. By pressing the X button at any time, Tim and the world will slowly move backwards in time, rewinding though all the action that has taken place on the level. Though obviously inspired by the Rewind Time mechanics of the “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Trilogy”, Braid makes a few changes to the ability. Most notably, there is no "limit" as to how far you can rewind time: you will literally be able to set up a jump or a puzzle to play out exactly the way you want it to play out. (As Jeff wisely pointed out, the game draws a ton of inspiration from the tool-assisted speed runs" featured all over YouTube, where players will try and complete difficult levels in the fastest amount of time by playing the game and "rewinding" the game if a mistake is made, to ensure the perfect run).

Another change made from The Sands of Time Trilogy: no lives system! If you are killed by falling into a pit or hitting an enemy, you are automatically prompted to rewind time, where you can once again attempt to tackle the obstacle. This change brings the game back to the roots of the platformer, when games were about nailing tough jumps and not hitting enemies.

But the biggest change from The Sands of Time-and the one gameplay idea that elevates Braid from the realm of the great to the castle of the amazing- is the game's alteration and expansion of the Time control mechanic. Unlike most platformers, Braid doesn't gain any new powers or abilities over the course of the game. Instead, each world offers a subtle change to the way the Time Control mechanic plays out. For instance, in World -2 of the game, everything in the world is affected by Tim's time reversal. However, at the start of World-3 the player is introduced (ingeniously, without every actually "telling the player" how the mechanic plays out) to glowing green objects in the world that aren't affected by time. On World -2, a regular locked door in a level can be unlocked with a key, and reversing time will allow Tim to regain the key, but will once again shut the door. However, a green door on World 33 can be opened with a key, and the Reversal of Time will allow Tim to regain the key without closing the door. And that's just a taste of the multitude of MIND BLOWING revelations that you'll be left to discover over the course of the game.

And, ultimately, that sense of discovery is one of the principle joys of Braid. For all talk of platforming, Braid is, mostly a brilliant, devious puzzle game that will have you looking around your environment, exploring for solutions, and testing ideas using the Time mechanic and its various expanded uses. Few games have ever managed to capture that organic sense of discovery better than Braid: when you solve one of the game's brilliant puzzles, especially in a unique, obtuse, or completely crazy way(and the game is chock-a-block with unique, obtuse, completely crazy puzzles) you'll feel like a total genius, having found a truly brilliant solution to a tough puzzle.

Part of the fun in solving the puzzles is exploring an environment to look for ways to move ahead, and the reason this solution searching shines on the 360 is due to Braid's technical presentation. The game's fantastical, brilliantly realized environments are loaded with subtle details that add even more personality to a game bursting from the seams with character. A wide palate is used over the course of the game, proving every Diablo III hater wrong: colors are better! The game shines on a high-definition television, and is one of the most beautiful games on the 360, regardless of its 2-D design. From its haunting opening title screen to the final, devious world, Braid is a game that dishes out visual delights for days.

Braid also features a wonderful instrumental score. With lovely violins and moody cellos, Braid's music will constantly delight your ears. The game also modifies the score nicely depending on what Tim is doing to the flow of time at that moment.

The nice thing about reviewing Braid is that it only has one sticking point (which means I have more time to say nice stuff!) That sticking point: the Price. At 1200 Microsoft Points (or 15 bucks, 5 higher than most original content on XBLA), there might be users who are unsure about putting down the cash, afraid they may not get their money's worth. The game's not especially long either: collecting all the game's puzzle pieces and beating the worlds will take most players about 4-6 hours of play(depending on how much time is spent dealing with a particular puzzle.

The one part about Braid that I haven’t expressly mentioned is how the game pays homage to the platforming greats that came before it. From Tim's main objective (to rescue a princess) to the game's enemy design (effectively, the game is full of Goombas and Piranha Plants), there's no denying that the game features plenty of references to the Super Mario Bros. franchise. The truly astonishing thing about Braid, however, is how it manages to stand aside-and in many cases, blow away- the ideas that made the older source material such a hit. This is no mere parody, nor is the game an attempt to cash in on Nostalgia. Rather, Braid is a magnificent achievement, a game that ingeniously blends classic mechanics with new ones, that trusts players rather than pander to them. By the game's fantastic conclusion, you won't see Braid as a love letter to a classic game series. Rather, you'll see Braid for what it really is: one of the finest 2-D platformers ever created, and one of the flat-out best games on the 360.

Final Score: 5 out of 5 Stars.

DBZ:Burst limit doesn't actually play too badly, but between the straight-up broken online mode, lazy reuse of animation between characters, boring and sleepy voice acting, and single play mode bereft of context to the show, its hard to imagine fighting game fans or DBZ fans enjoying this product.

You're warned.

Let's get the obvious joke over with.
I love Rayman! Who doesn't love Rayman?
I would go so far as to proclaim that EVERYONE LOVES RAYMAN!

HILARIOUS.

Truth be told, I have nothing but deep affection for the Rayman franchise. The baby of famed game designer Michel Ancel(the major creative force behind the franchise, as well as of Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game with the too long name) , the Rayman franchise has been a potent force in gaming since the mid-90's. Sporting wonderfully inventive worlds, wacky characters, stupendous art design, and fantastic platforming, Rayman has been the star of some of the greatest platformers of all time.

That is....he used to be.

Since the launch of the Wii in 2006, Rayman has been playing second fiddle to the Raving Rabbids(another creation of Ancel), and has been relegated to two minigame collections over the past two years. Now, if rumors are to be believed, Rayman will be straight up removed from the next installment of the Raving Rabbids game on the Wii. The thought of seeing Rayman disappear in the shadow of a minigame collection for the Wii is too much for my poor heart to bear. Rayman used to represent everything that was great about platforming, and, if I could entice Michel Ancel to save Rayman before giving Beyond Good and Evil its(also deserved!) sequel treatment, I would beg him to make the following changes to this storied franchise.

1. Minigame Collections? PFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTT!


It's 2008, game publishers! We aren’t going to fall for buying minigame collections anymore. Truth be told, the original Raving Rabbids game was one of the better games at the Wii's launch(because of its wacky style and hysterical minigames) but in 2008? Minigame collections are played out. Nintendo now has the minigame collection genre of games on lock(with the sublime, super inventive WarioWare: Smooth Moves) and the promise of "Swinging the remote over your head, like a Real(insert novel object here)!" no longer excites and enthuses. Players are better than it, developers are better than it, and Rayman is better than it. Pull Rayman out of his waggle wonderland and....

2. Bring back the 3-D platformer!


While the original Rayman game was a neat, colorful 2-D sidescroller, Rayman 2: The Great Escape was a god damn REVELATION. In an era when every publisher and their mother was trying to copy the freakish success of Super Mario 64, only Ubisoft's Rayman managed to 1-Up the Italian, with its fantastical worlds and endlessly inventive platforming. Rayman's bizarre universe was so filled with artistic delights and diverse stages that they put the collection-fest platformers of the time to shame(cough Banjo! cough). Rayman's world made those minigame collections on the Wii ridiculous, insane and funny, but a 3-D platformer would be able to do justice to our limbless hero's world, and provide him the eccentric situations that made for his amazing platforming back in 1999.

Speaking of 1999...

3. I mean the traditional 3-D Platformer!
Man! The 3-D platformer is in a weird state in 2008. After the Mario clone heyday of the late 90's, games still described as platformers took on and focused on the best aspects of genres other than platforming: Rachet and Jak focused more on the weaponry over time, Sly Cooper's stealth elements were as important to the game as the core platforming, and Psychonauts functioned essentially as an adventure game. Even Mario, trying to recapture the spirit and joy of his first 3-D romp, ended up dissapointing most in Sunshine. To remain a relevant franchise, Mario had to take the platformer as far as it could possibly go(SPACE!), and oftentimes function as more than a simple platformer. Now, with Rare announcing that Banjo and Kazooie would try their hand at vehicle customization, the time is RIPE for a traditional, good ol' fashioned 3-D platformer. And there is no franchise better equipped for traditional platforming than Rayman, with his focus on variety-stuffed levels, vibrant art design, and wonderful characters.

And the most wonderful characters?

4. ROBOT PIRATES.


THEY ARE ROBOTS BUT THEY ARE ALSO PIRATES.


FUCK YES.

Not since the Koopa Troopa has such an engaging and fantastic series of villains been created for a Video Game. Admiral Razorbeard and his robot pirate armada scoured Rayman's home world with the intent of enslaving everyone of the citizenry. Just menacing enough to be totally awesome, the robot pirates, who look like a cross between a steam engine and Jack Skellington, are completely and totally freaking awesome.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Rabbids and their.... weird screaming. I'd love to see a Rayman platformer where the main opponent was ridiculous Rabbids wearing Splinter Cell night vision goggles. It's like choosing between an Awesome Robot cake and a only slightly less delicious Cake that likes to scream at you. It's a catch 22....of violence!

Hell, I'd love to see a game where the the Robot Pirates in the sky were fighting a desperate and senseless war against the Rabbids for control of the ancient magics.

Oh man.......
5. The Robot Pirates in the sky were fighting a desperate and senseless war against the Rabbids for control of the ancient magics. Make it happen.

6. Platforming is the key, combat is not!
The one game in the Rayman franchise I've yet to mention is the series 3rd installment, subtitled Hoodlum Havoc. Best known as the Rayman platformer Michel Ancel did not work on, Rayman 3 focused on gaining different powers for Rayman's fists, and using those powers against environmental traps and enemies. It was a fine little platformer, but compared to the majesty of Rayman 2, it was easy to be disappointed by the new direction of the series.
Now, I'm not saying Ubisoft should remove combat from the game altogether: I just talked about how awesome it was to face off against the Robot Pirates. However Rayman was always best when the combat was secondary to the platforming. Sure, make it fun, but diverse and inventive level design should be the primary concern for the developers. A modern example: The game should be more POP: Sands of Time, with the focus on platforming, than POP: Warrior Within, with its more developed combat at the expense of amazing platforming...or a good story.

(MAN! Warrior Within sucked!).

7. Keep it weird!


In an age when many people just arn't willing to go out and buy any old 3-D platformer, any old generic platformer is never going to make it off shelves. Much of Rayman's success has to do with the inherent eccentrics of the character:
Rayman has no limbs.
His hair is a banana peel, and he can use it to fly like a helicopter.
He can throw his fists to attack enemies.
He can tame a wild rocket in the way a cowboy might tame a wild horse.
He can then ride that wild rocket like the aforementioned wild horse.
He can use a plum to float in lava.
He fights Robot Pirates.
Simply creating a colorful platformer isn't going to cut it in 08. Rayman's success was due mostly to the fact that there is nothing else in gaming quite like him, and no other game worlds as inventive as his homeland.

With a greater influence on weird platforming, and a terrific group of antagonists in the form of the robot pirates, a fourth Rayman platformer(and a official sequel to Rayman 2!) could literally offer something most game can't in this day and age. Most game players, it seems, won't purchase anything that isn't a lame street racing game, or a World War II FPS. Rayman is exactly the kick in the teeth the game industry needs: a charming, colorful, and genuinely weird character in an equally fantastical realm. Reality, as game players know, is a weak goal. Rayman is as far away from "the norm" of video games as any franchise could possibly be, and he's just the character that, in the right video game(traditional 3-D platformer with a focus on level design and fighting Robot Pirates) could bring some much needed spice to the medium.

Ladies and Gentleman of Destructoid:
I can't take it anymore. I am so sick and tired of the lies, the deceit, the bottled up emotions, contained for too long!

I have literally spent the past 8 years denying the truth! I've told myself that what I feel isn't healthy, that it isn't natural. That my feelings would ostracize me from the rest of the world. I'd be forever looked upon in disgust and shame.....

The God Damn haters trying to keep me trapped inside myself!

But why should I have to deal with this pressure from the rest of the world?! Why should I have to hide in dark holes and closets? Who the fuck do these shit-pricks of the world think they are, riding atop their high horses, telling me that what I know in my heart is a sin. The hell with them, and the hell with all yalls who don't want to here it!! I refuse to deny myself anymore!

I'm going to be the person I was born to be, and if God doesn't like it, then I'll see him in that jerk in hell!

My name is Droll, and I LOVE DRAGON BALL Z.



I love it stupid action! I love its ridiculous fighting! I love how they spend most of the episodes talking instead of fighting! And I love that HAIR!

MAGIC CONDITIONER!

I love the fact that every episode is more ridiculous and stupid than the last! Every episode is a brand new train wreck of mindless lunacy, like listening to Linkin Park!

ANALOGOUS TO EVERY EPISODE OF DRAGON BALL Z.
ALSO ANALOGOUS TO LINKIN PARK.

And I want the whole world to know that DRAGON BALL Z IS TOTALLY BALLZ.

OBVIOUS JOKES ARE ALWAYS FUNNY.

And now, I have the perfect opportunity to talk about it! Because a demo of DragonBall Z:Burst Limit has arrived on the 360!


CHECK OUT THAT SWEET SEGWAY, BRO'.


SEGWAY!(Podcast hosters! If you want to see this or any other totally sweet and amazing segways at my disposal just like this than contact Droll by sending him a private message! Or just spam his inbox with pornography. I'll get the message)

The most important thing to start off any Dragon Ball Z game coverage- review,preview, or otherwise- is to simply state that most ANIME GAMES ARE GARBAGE,BECAUSE MOST ANIME IS GARBAGE, AND NEARLY ALL DBZ GAMES ARE SUPER GARBAGE, SENT FROM THE FUTURE BY A MISANTHROPIC GOD WHO WANTS TO DESTROY ALL LIFE IN THE GALAXY."

That's a little extreme, but so is everything else in this blog. With the bull comes the horns.

In fact, the only truly worth wild Dragon Ball Z game that I ever remembered hearing about(and never actually had the opportunity to play) was Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3, which(as I hear tell) offered a fighting system that was as explosive as the television show, but still fun for fighting game fans.

It's perhaps lucky( for all of us good ol', god-fearing quality game fans!) that Burst Limit was made by Dimps, the same developer as Budokai 3. It seems that Bandai/Namco and Atari( the bastard parent co-publishers of the game) put the series back in the hands of the one development house that can pull off those games right, and, if the demo is indicative of the quality of the product, Burst Limit may once again be the game that appeals to DBZ lunatics and fighting game fans alike


ACTION FOR EVERYONE!

The Xbox 360 demo(clocking in at 435 megs) doesn't offer too much in the way of content: the Burst Limit trial lets you try out two characters - spiky haired series stalwart Goku and.....Yamcha.....

Who?

who I think must be related to "Lamb Cha"...P.

There we go!

You won't be traveling through some slice of the arcade mode in the demo( like you might find in the Virtual Fighter 5 demo). Rather, both Goku and LambCha battle in individual story sections. It seems like the game will offer a light story mode, where the players will fight through the major storyline battles throughout the series. That's fine, since, as anybody who's anybody knows, DBZ episodes are usually 90% talking(buildup!) and 10% fighting(CLIMAX!).

THIS EXPLOSION IS ANALOGOUS TO EXTREME FIGHTING!


Speaking of the fighting.....that's in the game!



Burst Limit appears to be a pretty standard fighting game, even by Dragon Ball Z standards. You have both fast "rush punchers" and stronger/slower "smash punchers". The B button on the 360 controller makes fire balls. If you try and do quarter circle forward, and than hit the B button(like, say Ryu's fireball, SubZero's ice blast, and every other projectile laden fighting game ever" the Ka-me-Ha me is gonna HA!-eat things up.

....I am going to get murdered by the grammar gestapo.


Actually, the really nice thing about the fighting engine: its super fast and super smooth. Developer Dimps has created an engine that forces faster combat than just about any fighting game out there(save the silky smooth DOA 4 on the 360). Combos are pretty easy to doll out, and they come in a manner that could be described as both fast and furious. Blasts of energy and fists can quickly turn your generic anime fighter into mush, forcing the player to alternate between smart blocking and quick dodging. Both movement and fighting move so fast that it doesn't feel anything like even slightly more technical fighters( Soul Calibur, Tekken, and especially Virtua Fighter can't match Burst Limit's speed) All the fighting unfolds at a pretty smooth clip as well: the rock solid frame rate makes the action seem all the more smooth and impressive


SMOOTH MOVES! WARIO AIN'T GOT NOTHIN'!

A nice Dragon Ball Z touch is the ability to dodge the more powerful projectiles(as well as super moves) by teleporting behind your opponent just before the blast hits. This was apparently a feature from other DBZ Budokai games, but it neatly evokes the ludicrous combat of the show, and allows you to give your opponent the beat down.

Another good, little anime inspired touch to the fighting can be found in the form of pursuit moves. By holding the left trigger after sending an opponent flying, you'll engage in a classic "ridiculous fighting madness!" minigame, where both you and your opponent try to quickly mash the face buttons of the controller as quickly as possible. If you engaged the pursuit move yourself, you will be racking up a huge number of combo-ed hits by mashing buttons, while your tried to block your attacks in the same fashion. It's not a terribly original feature:you find these button pressing mingames in the "kinda okay, but not too great but also totally dumb because of the source material" Naruto: Ultimate Ninja games on the PS2. However, it another fun little sequence that does a great job of evoking the show's ridiculous action. And, just to accentuate it again,for the record: it makes the game feel FAST!!!!


EVERYONE IS THIS PICTURE TOTALLY SUCKS.

Part of the reason the pursuit moves are fun, however, is that they just look awesome. In fact, the whole game has a really terrific look to complement that fast action!



Now, let me clarify. Of all the lame,terrible, ridiculous Anime artists out there(you know, the one's who are not Hayao Miyazaki) there is no lame terrible ridiculous anime artist more more played out that Akira Toriyama, and lame, terrible ridiculous Dragon Ball Z characters. We've seen Toriyama designs in so many dumb anime games(looking at you, Blue Dragon!) that its almost impossible to look at that dude's artwork and care.

Almost. That's the key.
It's hard to maintain the above "enthusiast cool guy who likes to hate on stuff!" cred when Burst Limit looks so awesome. It looks so good that I can't think of a way to describe it without falling back on the tired cliches: 'It looks just like the T.V show!" or "It's a DBZ episode come to life!" Burst Limit so faithfully replicates the style of the show that it doesn't need to be propped up by a dumb comparison or a cliche. It's that amazing.

TOTALLY SWEET. END OF STORY.

I can't say enough nice things about the animation as well. Characters have a terrific thick design that makes every blow look as ridiculous and ridiculously painful as they ought to be. There are some really subtle cloth animations(especially evident when you play as Goku) that help the game not to feel static(like so many of those "cel-shaded games"). Animation in general is really smooth, and seems to strike a nice balance of being faithful for show fans and exciting enough for fighting game fans.

But the best Dragon Ball Z touches of all come in the form of some really slick cut scenes that occur DURING THE FIGHTING. Over the course of matches, players will naturally trigger various cut scenes that will, supposedly, have an effect on the fighting. Various characters will sometimes jump on screen and deliver a powerful blow to opponents and send them flying. Opponents will become more cautious and start to change their fighting style to match your aggressiveness, blocking certain attacks more often. These tiny little game play effects are accompanied by terrific/ridiculous/extreme cut scene action that DBZ has always been known for. It may sound like a bad idea, to break up fighting game action with story scenes or dialog, but it, like everything else in the game, seems to do a really terrific job of evoking the action of the stupid television show its based on.

There are a couple tiny problems with the game that could potentially affect your enjoyment of the full product. The voice actors, who must have been brought in for the 90th time to read the same lines they read the last 89 recording sessions, sound bored and more laid back than they ought. A DBZ game has to be about OVERWROUGHT AND DRAMATIC ANIME YELLING! and not the weak ass voice acting these guys and girls are bringing to the table.

The game camera usually does a good job of keeping up with the games frenetic pace
of the action, but sometimes, to try and get the best/most dramatic view of the action, it will spin around wildly. , leaving the player totally confused as to what's actually happening in the fight. This usually lasts for less than a second, but it could potentially throw you off if "you're competing in the DBZ:BURST LIMIT fighting game competitive scene!!!!"

THERE IS NO HIDDEN DEPTH. THE GAME IS JUST SHALLOW.

Ridiculous.

Burst Limit isn't doing anything new or different(at least from this demo) but the gameplay is solid(i.e good) enough, and it captures the anime inspired lunacy you'd want from anything remotly Dragon Ball. From the demo, I am now cautiously optimistic about the full game's launch this June. If the rest of the game turns out as well as this demo, DBZ Burst Limit could be a fun little fighting game that nicely appeals to fighting game fans and DBZ fans Look for a full review in this blog, exclusively on Destructoid DOT COM!

Unless, of course......the world BLOWS UP?!!?!!!