I’ve played a few sub-par Kinect titles on the XBox 360 at this point. Most of then have spotty motion detection at best, and many of them aren’t even much more fun playing with the Kinect instead of a regular controller. Though it’s hardly a must-play, or even worth spending much more than a couple of hours with, Dragon Ball Z for Kinect is neither spotty with its motion detection nor without its amusements while Kinect-ing it up.
This Dragon Ball title re-uses assets from other recent titles and doesn’t do too much new for a Dragon Ball game in general. Its highlight is the story mode, in which you punch kick, dodge, and Kamehameha your way through the major Dragon Ball story arcs as you would expect if you’ve ever played one of the franchise’s titles before. It also has a Score Attack mode in which you can have specific character matches.
All of that being said, it does those very typical things well. If you’ve played several of the DB games up until now, you certainly won’t mind going through an abbreviated version of the story one more time. Very spot-on motion controls accompany all of this, along with a decent array of moves and semi-interesting combo system. Helpful on-screen prompts guide you through completing combos and dodging enemy attacks, making each battle a fairly non-frustrating experience.
In the end though, you’re still throwing punches at your TV. Even though I didn’t have anyone judging me as I was playing, I couldn’t really help but judge myself. For this reason I wasn’t really able to stick it out much past the first story arc. I will freely admit that if I was a young boy I’d probably think that this was one of the greatest games that I’ve ever played. Finally being able to throw a Kamehameha did have a way of filling me with a child-like sense of wonder.