DB Fighting Games: Overall good or not quite what you want?

[mysticboy]

From Raging Blast:

Vegeta Type:
Well-balanced in attack and defense; gifted in long-range battle.

Freeza Type:
Attacks based chiefly around Super Attacks.

[Saiga]

First of all, DNA, there is no objective measure of a game's quality. None at all. You're acting as though a deep fighter is objectively better than the Sparking series, which it isn't. Quality depends on taste.

Secondly, you're wrong about the differences only being sizes. "Android" isn't a size. They function different in how ki works for them, either generating it naturally without being able to power up or absorbing enemy ki attacks. Besides, the different size units still have different properties, such as immunity to flinch/inability to flinch others, immunity to rush/throw attacks, etc.

You do have to change strategies because you can't rely on stuns if you have a character incapable of stunning, or go up against an enemy who is immune to stuns.

Secondly, Gohan and Vegeta aren't doing the same things in different order. Gohan doesn't have the Rush Ki Wave at all, he can't use it. Instead, he's got a Kiai Cannon, which Vegeta can't use. That's a difference.

The generic blasts aren't as generic as you think. Range, power, energy cost and speed differ between them, even between moves that share the same name. Besides, no character gets access to all the different types, so you can't just pick any character and spam Super Explosive Wave.

[LoneRager]

Though I prefer the Tenkaichi "style" of game, I do acknowledge, however, that this preferance is for how I imagine the potential for the series, rather than how it exists today. The series has all the potential in the world to be a satisfying tribute to the series, but it just never pans out that way. When Spike broke from the standard and designed the gameplay in a large 3D plane, the ideas about what can and cannot be used in a fighting game should have also broken from the standard, this is sadly not the case.

[Darknat]

First of all, different people like different kinds of things. I don't like Ultimate Blast, but I know there are people out there who do.

This goes for everything, you may not like Sparking games, but several people do like them, and a lot of us see quality in those games.

The flaws in tne engine you mention, are just graphical glitches. I personally don't care much for graphics. I prefer they corrected other things in the game. For instance, they fixed a big problem with rushes from BT2 to BT3. In BT2 you can spam a rush until it works, whereas in BT3 there is a penalty if your rush doesn't connect.

The characters don't hit with the same strength. That's difference in strength. Characters like Majin Buu or Burter are way faster than characters like Broly or any of the big apes. That's difference in speed. Some characters can shoot more ki blasts than others. Some can teleport and counter more easily. Some have bigger differences like androids and characters that don't fly. Androids come in 2 types. The ones that charge ki faster automatically, and the ones that can't charge ki, but can absorv it.

Some characters can change forms more freely than others. Some can do grabs to people on the ground, some can teleport freely in sparking mode, some can't be stunned.


The attacks in Sparking can be delayed, can have more strength, can be "perfect" (charging attack with teleportation), and can be followed with some other string of attacks quite easily.

You may argue that there aren't combos as defined by other games. That's true. A true combo should be unavoidable once it's started. Sparking relies in teleportation a lot, so you can escape any attack. I only see a flaw in this teleportation, and that is that a character with no ki can win a teleport battle. It's certainly a flaw, but nothing too serious once you know that problem is there because you can avoid it easily.

You may say that characters are all the same, but the truth is that most characters in most fighting games have the same core basics.

For instance Soul Calibur uses a button for kicks, a button for horizontal attacks and a button for vertical attacks. You can combine those in any direction and do different attacks. Those strings are different, but if you change from a character to another, the core basics are there. Even though you can havedifferent commands to issue an attack that does mid-low-high, there are only 2 differences between that kind of attack for one character and another that does mid-low-high string. And those differences are damage of the attacks (which sparking also has) and in what state the character is left after the attacks (which may be used to do a combo). That second difference is also in the Sparking series.


About different fighting styles in Dragon Ball. They were never really defined in the manga or anime. Besides certain techniques. There is not a way a kame sennin student does a kick that is differnet than a tsuru sennin student. Ki blast in the series usually have the same effect. There are different ones, but for the most parth most are just like the kamehameha (which is overused in the manga and anime anyhow). So I don't see a problem when blasts difference is just aestethics and damage in a game.


Anyway, you keep telling that Sparking has no depth, but it does. You don't see it because you don't like those kind of games. That's alright. As I said people like different things. Some like shooters, others like rpgs, others like both. Whatever. I'm not trying to convince you that you must like the sparking series, I just trying to tell you it's strengths.

[DNA]

First of all, DNA, there is no objective measure of a game's quality. None at all. You're acting as though a deep fighter is objectively better than the Sparking series, which it isn't. Quality depends on taste.

Okay buddy, I'll let the Oxford Dictionary disagree with you instead:

Definition of quality
noun (plural qualities)
1 [mass noun] the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something:
an improvement in product quality

As you can see, quality is measured by how something holds it's own against something similar, which the Sparking series simply don't. It has nothing whatsoever to do with one's personal taste, if we are going by "taste", it would be measured by many people's "tastes", and that's how we get game reviews and scores that dictate a games quality. Again, you might enjoy the game yourself, but that doesn't automatically make it generally good. Furthermore, again, it is not measured by "taste", critics measure each feature separately and how it holds against similar games, be it fighters or Dragon Ball games or simply games in general depending on which feature is being measured.
Let me try and explain it to you with a more practical example. If you enjoyed Ultimate Battle for the PlayStation, that would be fine, but it does not make it a good game in any possible spectrum since the game plays, sounds and looks like ass.

I'll exemplify further by saying that recently tried Final Bout, I enjoyed it for the few minutes I played it solely for the fan service it has. The game also plays, sounds and looks like ass. Especially the NTSC version with it's mixed Japanese with English voice acting. But I enjoyed it because it has a good soundtrack, one good and unique stage (Planet Tsufru) and bad ass walking stances (Trunks: Future and Goku Super Saiyan 4). These things do not make it a good game in any way. Neither does my personal taste.

Furthermore, I could write a review and score the game but that would still have to be held against other reviews and scores to achieve the final overview of a quality of a game.

So by no means a quality of a game has to do with an individuals personal taste.

Secondly, you're wrong about the differences only being sizes. "Android" isn't a size. They function different in how ki works for them, either generating it naturally without being able to power up or absorbing enemy ki attacks. Besides, the different size units still have different properties, such as immunity to flinch/inability to flinch others, immunity to rush/throw attacks, etc.

You do have to change strategies because you can't rely on stuns if you have a character incapable of stunning, or go up against an enemy who is immune to stuns.

Secondly, Gohan and Vegeta aren't doing the same things in different order. Gohan doesn't have the Rush Ki Wave at all, he can't use it. Instead, he's got a Kiai Cannon, which Vegeta can't use. That's a difference.

Oh I'm sorry, you have 'android' as a type, that changes everything. The types of this game do not affect the gameplay style at all. You might change your strategy slightly but it will always end up being similar, because it doesn't matter if you are immune to certain attacks of not, it doesn't matter how long it takes to charge and attack or how much it costs or how much it takes for you to gather the energy, the strategy is still the same: how long will it take me to throw a big ki attack that will overpower my adversary. It doesn't matter if the ki attack is slightly different, especially since most of them are shared in one way or the other.

The generic blasts aren't as generic as you think. Range, power, energy cost and speed differ between them, even between moves that share the same name. Besides, no character gets access to all the different types, so you can't just pick any character and spam Super Explosive Wave.

Kamehameha, Masenko, Galic Gun and Final Flash are all the same attack. Those changes you are talking about are unimportant in the grand scale of actually making a game distinct. Range, power, energy cost and speed are trivial changes when you can freely move around, dash to your enemy in an instant, constantly power up and spam the attacks. Those changes do not affect the strategy at all, they only affect how much time the strategy is going to take to employ.

We are going round and round with you discussing minimal and barely noticeable differences and me explaining to you how in a grand scale of gaming that does not hold and how several other games actually feature game changing differences, changes that will force you to not pick a character in a competition because you simply can't play as him, the character is not your style of playing at all.
This does not happen in Sparking because every character has the same style, a competition doesn't even make any sense.

Though I prefer the Tenkaichi "style" of game, I do acknowledge, however, that this preferance is for how I imagine the potential for the series, rather than how it exists today. The series has all the potential in the world to be a satisfying tribute to the series, but it just never pans out that way. When Spike broke from the standard and designed the gameplay in a large 3D plane, the ideas about what can and cannot be used in a fighting game should have also broken from the standard, this is sadly not the case.

Oh I agree with you completely buddy. This is the best way to emulate a feel of the series, it's just simply not done right. It needs so much improving that it isn't even funny. Changing the style of game play was a step forward, of a million mile marathon. That's the problem with Spike, they are taking baby steps forward and sometimes steps back. This way they will never reach the end of the Snake Road and Kaio (us) are growing tired of waiting for them.

Edit: Darknat
I still don't feel that any of those differences or changes make any difference in game play or strategy at all. And they are all rendered useless when you can unlock and attach items that will counteract them.

The lack of uniqueness in the main series that you speak off is no excuse, just on the previous page we were talking about that. With some imagination and care you can pick up subtle differences and build a style from there. Capable developers do this. Super Dragon Ball Z did this. Even the Butoden series had that feel.

[DBZ Mick]

Seriously, dude, just stop. It's your opinion/taste. You hate the Sparking/BT games, others really enjoy them, it doesn't make you any more right or them any less wrong. It certainly doesn't mean their taste is wrong or whatnot...

Reviews even those by critics are also subjective and up to people's individual taste... Not to mention personal bias and so on. IGN ring a bell?


If we want to play your game- From Metacritic...

B1- 65/100
B2- 66/100
B3- 77/100

BT1- 72/100
BT2- 73/100
BT3- 73/100

How about public opinion?

B1- 7.9/10
B2- 8.4/10
B3- 8.9/10

BT1- 8.6/10
BT2- 8/10
BT3- 9/10

Seems they are both rating really close too.

Using what you say, the BT/Sparking games are critically all but superior to the Budokai/Z games except 3.

Even fanwise just as many people like BT/Sparking games as do those who like the Budokai/Z games.

I just started playing Infinite World- the critics say the game is downgraded from B3 and gave it horrible reviews, but anyone who's played the game knows it's vastly superior gameplay wise.

Fan-service can bring a quality gaming experience. Playing as hundreds of your favourite characters, a large variety of levels to fight on... etc. It's also subjective too though. Some argue that Spike put too much fan-service in and not enough on the actual gameplay, others disagree saying the vast roster makes up for it.

It's ALL about personal taste.

Or please tell me how wrong I am?

[Darknat]

Edit: Darknat
I still don't feel that any of those differences or changes make any difference in game play or strategy at all. And they are all rendered useless when you can unlock and attach items that will counteract them.

The lack of uniqueness in the main series that you speak off is no excuse, just on the previous page we were talking about that. With some imagination and care you can pick up subtle differences and build a style from there. Capable developers do this. Super Dragon Ball Z did this. Even the Butoden series had that feel.

The items are just a nice thing that it's there for chaging things. I'm talking about the the game without using items. That's like talking about using special weapons in Soul Calibur that can regenerate your health or be unblockable.

Anyway you keep telling that the gameplay is based on waiting to throw a ki blast. That's the gameplay if you just spam ki blasts. I'ts like spamming any other kind of move in any other game. Spamming is in everygame. And if you play in any of those (Sparking Meteor included) and know how to play, you can pusnish the spammers easily if you know what you are doing.

Anyone who knows how to play can evade blasts or rushes easily by just teleporting, blocking them or evading them. The gameplay of Sparking Meteor goes beyond the blast 2 and ultimate.

There are even mechanics to avoid spamming. You have to charge your blast 1 to do ultimates, and your ki to do blast 2. If you fail a rush, you loose half the energy needed for it (if you are on sparking mode, you go out of sparking mode and loose the energy needed for it) Even if you manage to get to sparking mode, the best option is not the ultimate but the added moves. You get more teleportation options, and more more follow ups. Some characters even get free teleportation. Your attacks do more damage too.

If you just spam special moves, you are not playing very well the game. It's like just spaming special moves on streeth fighter, or just do grabs in Soul Calibur (I use soul calibur as an example because is the fighting game I got more experience with).

You seem to have played more Sparking Neo than Sparking Meteor, which has many spamming problems. It's been a while, but I think you had to do a perfect guard to guard against rushes, and even if you did, the character doing the rush maintained the same ki as if he hadn't do anyrthing and could do the rush again.

In Sparking Neo all characters had the same strings, there were those spamming problems, there were fewer defensive moves, the gameplay was slower, characters shared that damn delta combination rush which was slow and boring. Rushes were all the same (Meteor introduced ones that just go straight, ones that can circle, ones that are grabs, ones that just connect to do damage, ublockable ones, different distance for some...)

Sparking meteor corrected all those problems and added a lot of new options and strings. Sadly Raging Blast was not a step forward on everything... They added things that I would like on sparking meteor, but took away a lot too.


I still think is a quality game. It's not a traditional fighting game for sure, but it has many good things in it that you just don't or can't see. Of course there is a lot of room for improvement, but that could say about any game that exists. There is always room for improvement.

[DNA]

Okay, fine, I'll compromise and ease up on my critics. But I have been saying that I am not criticizing people for liking the game and I am not picking on a single game but the whole engine itself. Yes, METEOR was better but how can you have a good game and the next one be bad? Why are they taking steps back?
Of course every character has room for improvement but this series has no simple room, it has a crater sized room for improvement. They keep adding a removing shit and I'm not talking about characters, they keep changing the graphical style too, to worse. And as I've pointed out the last few games are stripping it of anything recognizable or fun. Seven games buddy, SEVEN FREAKING GAMES, it's more than enough to build a decent one. It feels like they've been going backwards.

I'd love to have a decent game with this engine. A game that feels complete and good. But these just feel empty, they polish them with fan service and leave it void underneath. They add an immense story mode in one and remove it completely on the next. Then they try making a brand new story and fail completely (from what I've read) and then add the story mode back on.
The only risk they've taken in creating new content was the Ozaru transformations. Everything else was taken from other games, they only added a character creator after Online already had that. They have no creative balls.
Unlike TOSE who highly deviated from the Daimao Arc with Daimao Fukkatsu and five years later create the completely original Saiyan Zetsumetsu Keikaku. That showed a massive pair of balls and the result still resonates today. That took creativity and imagination which Spike completely lacks. At least Dimps had enough nuts to come up with the likes of Yamhan, Buu Vegeta Absorbed, Vegeta Super Saiyan 3 and Janenba Baby.

[DBZ Mick]

I've never played any Raging Blast games, mate, unfortunately so I don't know. I had hoped that since they cut down the roster from BT3 they would focus more on gameplay but apparently not.

[Darknat]

Okay, fine, I'll compromise and ease up on my critics. But I have been saying that I am not criticizing people for liking the game and I am not picking on a single game but the whole engine itself. Yes, METEOR was better but how can you have a good game and the next one be bad? Why are they taking steps back?
Of course every character has room for improvement but this series has no simple room, it has a crater sized room for improvement. They keep adding a removing shit and I'm not talking about characters, they keep changing the graphical style too, to worse. And as I've pointed out the last few games are stripping it of anything recognizable or fun. Seven games buddy, SEVEN FREAKING GAMES, it's more than enough to build a decent one. It feels like they've been going backwards.

I'd love to have a decent game with this engine. A game that feels complete and good. But these just feel empty, they polish them with fan service and leave it void underneath. They add an immense story mode in one and remove it completely on the next. Then they try making a brand new story and fail completely (from what I've read) and then add the story mode back on.
The only risk they've taken in creating new content was the Ozaru transformations. Everything else was taken from other games, they only added a character creator after Online already had that. They have no creative balls.
Unlike TOSE who highly deviated from the Daimao Arc with Daimao Fukkatsu and five years later create the completely original Saiyan Zetsumetsu Keikaku. That showed a massive pair of balls and the result still resonates today. That took creativity and imagination which Spike completely lacks. At least Dimps had enough nuts to come up with the likes of Yamhan, Buu Vegeta Absorbed, Vegeta Super Saiyan 3 and Janenba Baby.

Well I actually don't like much original content unless it makes sense. I like those Ozarus, but I don't like Baby Janemba for instance. Saiyajin Zetsumetsu keikaku was really interesting and I like the characters, but they probably had input from toei or toriyama because they did the ovas (or visual guides) at the same time.

It's been more than 7 games, You have the 3 sparkings, the Tag vs, the 2 raging blast, ultimate, kinnect, and I think also Zenkai battle. That's 9 already. Zenkai Battle seems to be the kind of game you are looking forward to.

Anyway I'm deefnding Sparking, but that does not mean I don't see a lot of things that could be done. For instance, a good walking/fighting on ground mode is needed, specially for characters that can't fly. The floating of those characters is unrealistic, but the anime and manga did the same anyway, and Neo's way of making them fall to the ground was annoying...

If I was doing those games I'll probably add more variety to the strings, and add stances for some characters. For instance freeza's fighting without using his hands could be a nice stance, or sword fighting/Nyoibou fighting for some charactes could be interesting. As long as you could change between stances easily (like Soul Calibur does).

I Would also like to make the rushes more real time. I like the cinematic effect, but I'm sure you can achieve that effect even doing them more real time. For instance, The attack Goku did against Piccolo could be something like: square several times (the kicks), Triangle (the hard punch), R1 (the jump) and L2+Triangle (the Kamehameha)
All the time maintaining the camera angle while the attack is being performed and reseting it when the combo ends or is interrupted (by not pressing the right combination).

I would also love to see a feature in the game that let you record the fights (like sparking), and also, edit the camera in them. I don't know if any of you played Driver on the PSX back in the day, but something like that. You can put the camera wherever you like and you could make a movie out of the recorded gameplay.

I'm in for all kinds of improvements like this, but I don't think going back to a traditional 2D fighting engine is a good thing. Not even something like the 8way run of Tekken or Soul Calibur would work right for DB. Spike did have balls in terms of doing something new. Either they improve it more, or some other company does a new 3D engine that really captures the feel of DB

[DNA]

Well I actually don't like much original content unless it makes sense. I like those Ozarus, but I don't like Baby Janemba for instance. Saiyajin Zetsumetsu keikaku was really interesting and I like the characters, but they probably had input from toei or toriyama because they did the ovas (or visual guides) at the same time.

I think Bandai had something to do with it, but not Toriyama. I'm also not saying any of it was good or bad, it was something imaginative. The Ozarus are simple a new skin on top of the existing one, with small alterations if applicable. And they still fucked it up by giving King Vegeta a goatee, it does look funny but that's not how the transformation works, as seen in the original series. All I'm saying is that Ozarus take less creative effort than fusions and completely new characters.

It's been more than 7 games, You have the 3 sparkings, the Tag vs, the 2 raging blast, ultimate, kinnect, and I think also Zenkai battle. That's 9 already. Zenkai Battle seems to be the kind of game you are looking forward to.

I keep forgetting that Tag Team exists but I don't think Spike has anything to do with Zenkai Battle Royale at all.

For instance freeza's fighting without using his hands could be a nice stance, or sword fighting/Nyoibou fighting for some charactes could be interesting. As long as you could change between stances easily (like Soul Calibur does).

This could be great if used right. It would eliminate repeated instances of Trunks because you could simply change from sword to brawl.

I Would also like to make the rushes more real time. I like the cinematic effect, but I'm sure you can achieve that effect even doing them more real time. For instance, The attack Goku did against Piccolo could be something like: square several times (the kicks), Triangle (the hard punch), R1 (the jump) and L2+Triangle (the Kamehameha)
All the time maintaining the camera angle while the attack is being performed and reseting it when the combo ends or is interrupted (by not pressing the right combination).

Very good idea, this would be great because it allows us to control instead of pressing two buttons and watch Goku do all the work. It would force us to immerse ourselves in the game. There could also be the possibility of changing the end of some attacks or the actual flow of it, a good example would be Yamcha's Rogafufuken, I've seen it ending with the Kamehameha stance (but no ki being fired, just the hands pushing the adversary) or a kick. Super DBZ did this since you have to push each button to pull the full string of attacks for Rogafufuken, I can't finish the move because it has a weird timing.

I'm in for all kinds of improvements like this, but I don't think going back to a traditional 2D fighting engine is a good thing. Not even something like the 8way run of Tekken or Soul Calibur would work right for DB. Spike did have balls in terms of doing something new. Either they improve it more, or some other company does a new 3D engine that really captures the feel of DB

It's not balls when similar engines already existed for other games, it's picking two things and joining them together. They didn't create a new engine, they adapted it to Dragon Ball.

And Zenkai Battle Royale seems to be the game that does capture that feel. And as far as I know it wasn't done by Spike. No surprise there.

[mysticboy]

I've never played any Raging Blast games, mate, unfortunately so I don't know. I had hoped that since they cut down the roster from BT3 they would focus more on gameplay but apparently not.

Spike tried to remedy this in RB with cancels and signature skills and they further expanded on these in RB2. The potential and ground work is there, Spike just needs a break to refine and expand it ever further.

[ShinRogafuken]

I disagree. In my whole life, I never heard me, or my friends saying "this game is very good, but I can't enjoy it". It's either good, or it's bad. Exception are the different genres, for example, Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 is a very good game, but not my type, because I don't like football. But between, say, Sparking! METEOR & Infinite World, maybe the second will be more enjoyable, while the first would be shit. It's up to the individual to decide if a game is good or bad for his tastes, IMO.

Yes, and you have been mixing taste with quality for the whole topic so far. Your personal taste does not reflect on a game being good or not. But you are right in one thing, I didn't explain myself very well, I meant that I can appreciate if a game is good even if it's not my type. It's not that I don't enjoy the game, it's that I would not enjoy it if I tried it because it is not my type of game, even if it is good. So I won't enjoy it by default, which does not make it a bad game.

Ok, I'm sorry, but your logic doesn't make any sense. Quality is determined BY taste (usually the taste of the majority). Do you honestly believe that there is such thing as "quality" outside of human perception of it? Also, I don't think the "majority" was against Sparking! METEOR.

[TheMightyOzaru]

Overall no. I feel DBZ games have been half assed after BT3. That's not to say games past BT3 are bad but they could use some work. Budokai 3 is definitely my favorite DBZ game though.

[DBZ Mick]

I've never played any Raging Blast games, mate, unfortunately so I don't know. I had hoped that since they cut down the roster from BT3 they would focus more on gameplay but apparently not.

Spike tried to remedy this in RB with cancels and signature skills and they further expanded on these in RB2. The potential and ground work is there, Spike just needs a break to refine and expand it ever further.

Ah, ok. Thought I heard about that. I know BT2 had cancels but they took them out of BT3.

[Darknat]

I've never played any Raging Blast games, mate, unfortunately so I don't know. I had hoped that since they cut down the roster from BT3 they would focus more on gameplay but apparently not.

Spike tried to remedy this in RB with cancels and signature skills and they further expanded on these in RB2. The potential and ground work is there, Spike just needs a break to refine and expand it ever further.

Ah, ok. Thought I heard about that. I know BT2 had cancels but they took them out of BT3.

BT2 cancels weren't very good anyway.

There are a few things from BT2 that I missed on BT3 besides the cancels. There was a special attack that you could do in BT2 that let you punch very fast your opponent in sparking mode. Also the ability to disengage the enemy and do taunts whenever you wanted was good on BT2. Finally left guarding and right guarding were also left out, as well as the powerful guard. The last one, even though it was left out, wasn't very well implemented in BT2 anyway. If it had made the cut to bt3 I suppose it would have let you guard and receive less damage from special moves that norlmal guard does.

If they took all those things, readded them to BT3, as well as some of the features of the raging blast series. Gameplay would be really good again. If they also made the rushes more comand like (and by that I don't mean quick event like...) and added some ground fighting. Then we could get a real nice game. They won't though... Probably next game will get a different engine altogether that will suck until it gets to it's second or third installment (as happened with the original Sparking).

[MCDaveG]

Well, Super DBZ was good fighter, that's how good fighter looks like. Less to roster, more to the fighting mechanics.
Other games are faux-fighters with fan service. We can measure amount of fan service then, but if you want good fighter, then I'm puzzled how SDBZ sold so bad.

For example Mortal Kombat (2011) is one of the best fighters, it beated down my fav SFIV completelly. So for me, good DBZ fighter will be MK in DBZ coat without the gore (But damage models with the DB blood, or Buu being shot trough will be awesome).

[DNA]

I've been letting this rest but I'll further illustrate my point now.

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations.

Just saying that should be enough, but I know it won't. First of all, I don't even like Naruto but I can openly admit that game is absolutely gorgeous and amazing. Thus going back to the point I made that a game might be good even if I don't enjoy it.
Secondly, it uses an engine very similar to the Sparking series, only done right. You just need to see a couple of game play videos to notice the vast improvements that could be done to the Sparking engine. It has been done, to a series also from Jump, also from Bandai. There is simply no excuse.
Thirdly, look at how gorgeous the game is. That deliciously crisp cel-shaded graphics. Yum. Then look at that shiny plastic shit Spike has been given us. Yuck.
Oh and look at that, the game still is amazingly comprehensive, it's got various iterations of the same character, it's got tons of beautiful looking specials, it's got the works.

I am jealous of Naruto fans, they are treated right, they get good looking and fun games. Care and polish is put into these games, that is quite clear.
On the other hand, we always get the short end of the stick, we get shit games and applaud them as good. The attitude is always the same, it's what you've been telling me this whole time, behind big explanations and what-not, it simply boils down to "it's good enough for me". If you settle for mediocrity, that is all you are going to get.

Again, as you can see, it doesn't need to be a traditional versus game like Super Dragon Ball Z to be a good game. It just simply needs to be a good game. Every single entry of the Sparking series is mediocre at best.

[TheMightyOzaru]

I really don't see why you have this aversion to the sparking series. It sold well, people play it more than any other series in the Dragon Ball line of games, and I think they are very good games, save the first one. It has fast paced action and the character roster is quite hefty allowing me to use a lot of my favorite characters that don't make it into DBZ games these days. Is the sparking series the best they can do? Hell no. I can see a lot of missed potential but the games are still fun nonetheless.

[DNA]

Is the sparking series the best they can do? Hell no. I can see a lot of missed potential

There's your answer. It's simply inexcusable this day and age for us to keep getting the crap they shovel to us nowadays. I'm including Raging Blast and Ultimate Tenkaichi as the Sparking series, because it is what they are. It is not the best it can be done, it's not even close to the best it can be done. They are very mediocre games that keep getting rehashed with a few different controls and slightly worse graphical style.
Sparking! METEOR was okay, it was fun, it had tons of fan service, it was a pretty cool game, even though NEO was better in terms of game play. But nowadays the games we keep getting from them are simply pathetic.