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Dragon Ball FighterZ finishes powering up and launches

Anime as heck in the best way

My knowledge of Dragon Ball Z comes mostly from Britney Spears posting her son's fan art and cosplay on her Instagram but dang, even I'm a bit excited by today's launch of Dragon Ball FighterZ. The fighting game looks anime as heck the best way, with flashy animations and stage-smashing attacks, and it's made by the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue folks so it should decent biffing and all. Our review isn't ready yet, as we wanted to see the game in its live state, so for now here's word that it's out and a warning that some players are finding their fightsticks don't work with it.

FighterZ (pronounced 'Fighters') throws a load of Dragon Ballers together to kick each other to pieces. It's a 3v3 tag-team fighting game, yeah? It riffs heavily off the anime's style with special effects, camera angles, and animations, with some attacks and finishing moves being super ridiculous. Fighting games are a good genre for excess.

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Heck yeah this is some anime. Along with a story campaign about fighting the mysterious new Android 21, it has local multiplayer, of course, and online modes including ranked matches and 6-player party matches.

Unfortunately, it seems the game has a problem with recognising DirectInput controllers. Players are all over the game's Steam forum complaining that their stick isn't working. Some report that using the TocaEdit Xbox 360 Controller Emulator tool has their sticks working just fine, but I don't know that software myself so I can't vouch for it. Fingers crossed the devs can fix this sharpish.

Made by Arc System Works and published by Bandai Namco, Dragon Ball FighterZ is out now on Steam for £45/€60/$60. It already has a season pass, which for £35/€40/$40 will give eight new characters as they're released.

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