If there's a franchise that's tailor-made for hardcore fighting games, it's the long-running—and some would say unfortunately never-ending—Dragon Ball Z franchise. Spanning multiple series, character generations, and video game franchises, Akira Toriyama's manga-turned-anime is all about buff humans, aliens, androids, and monkeymen trading blows in literal earth-shattering battles.

Though many developers have applied their talents to the Dragon Ball Z brand, none have the hardcore fighting game résumé and respect of Arc System Works, the legendary team behind classics series like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear. With Dragon Ball FighterZ, Arc System Works goes in a different direction, but it will please fans of the Dragon Ball brand, as well as those in the fighting game community.

My demo session featured just six selectable characters (Goku, Gohan, Cell, Boo, Vegeta, and Frieza) and two battle locations (Namek and Tournament). Instantly separating Dragon Ball FighterZ from other Arc System Works fighting game is the title's 3 vs. 3, team-based fisticufffs. I chose an all-Saiyan squad and went to battle against the CPU and human opponents in separate sessions.

The verdict? The fighting is good. Really good. In fact, the game's manic fighting and bright, comic book-inspired look feel more like a true sequel to Marvel vs. Capcom 2 than Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 .

Super Saiyan Fighting

Dragon Ball FighterZ has a relatively simple control scheme: Each character has a light, medium, and heavy attack, as well as a dedicated special move button that lets you hurl a projectile without inputting relatively complicated motions. The button layout recalls Injustice 2's setup, in a way.

In what may sound like the simplest of props, Dragon Ball FighterZ looks identical to the mega-popular anime. Due to the nature of Arc System Works's cel-shaded, homegrown engine, the polygonal character models are clones of their cartoon counterparts—it's shocking just how closely the video game adheres to the show.

Jamming the projectile button hurls a volley of energy beams, either from the ground or from the air. Tapping X+A causes your character to summon its meter-filling chi, surrounding it in an aura of energy. You're vulnerable in this state, but the trade-off is that you quickly build meter for offensive or defensive use. Tapping Y+B when you have meter, and are getting pummelled, initiates a combo-escaping teleport with the anime-specific visual blur and audio cue. It can prove a match-saving mechanic, one that enabled me to evade various screen-filling super moves.

Certain characters, such as Frieza and Goku, can transform into more powerful versions of themselves, in this case Golden Frieza and Super Saiyan 3 Goku, respectively.

Though Dragon Ball FighterZ has mash-friendly elements, it boasts more complex mechanics to appease people who are into deep fighters. In my short time with the game, I busted out launchers, aerial combos, dashes, wall slams, and off-the-ground moves that looked incredible in motion. Each move had a dynamism that comes via manga-style motion lines, flashy impact sparks, and the dust kicked up from the wild brawls.

Lavish Moves

Being a tag-team game, Dragon Ball FighterZ lets you swap characters to set up combos or just give fighters a breather. This isn't a freewheeling tag system; swapping out, say, Gohan for Cell requires some meter. This is a wise move that will, hopefully, prevent the potential abuse that comes with a free-form tag system. Your teammates also assist in battle by jumping into the fray with a quick attack. This blow currently doesn't require meter, but the damage output is relatively low.

The transitions from fists and feet flying to close-ups in which characters unleash super moves are sheer perfection, making the title resemble an interactive television episode. And those super moves are ridiculously over-the-top affairs that Arc System Works lovingly highlights with slick camera work that pans around characters. Hard-hitting moves are treated with similar care. One of Vegeta's kicks, for example, causes the camera to briefly rotate behind the Saiyan prince, so you can see the moves wind up and impact.

Leveling Up In 2018

If you're eager to dive into high-quality anime fighting, you must have patience; Dragon Ball FighterZ is slated to appear on the Xbox One console family, PC, and PlayStation 4 sometime in 2018.

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