You either love DragonBall, or it confuses the hell out of you so much that it’s nigh on impossible to get into the dazzling firework show of its perplexing storyline. And even then, those who do find the perpetual battling and disposable dialogue of Goku and pals to be entertaining, it’s generally because they get a wry kick from being perpetually and dynamically bewildered by the most successful manga and anime series ever created.

The games have always followed in their founding animation’s footsteps to provide an awe-inspiring, yet highly disorientating fighting experience, and Burst Limit finally brings that long awaited manga bizarreness to seventh gen consoles. And, as always, the energy-rife effects, high-speed antics and badly translated Japanese smack talk are all present and correct.

Beginning with the crux of play – which is, naturally, the fighting – we find the first seventh generation DBZ game a little wanting. The high-flying aerial antics feel to have been distinctly toned down; grounding the action to more of a degree than you might usually expect from this franchise. While the characters do of course still fly, and often take to the clouds for a bit of combat, the movements still suggest some kind of terra firma under their quick feet.

Likewise, the fighters don’t roam the landscape to the extent of most other DBZ games, despite the environments being as superb looking and expansive as ever before. While these factors are very noticeable by their absence, it seems to have been a conscious decision to bring BragonBall closer to more established one-on-one tournament fighters seen recently, such as Virtua Fighter 5 and Bleach. This is neither good nor bad, really, but it does interfere with your expectations a little and carries with it a sensation of the characters being distinctly less superheroic.

Grasping the controls and plethora of abilities is more accessible due to the confined nature of the fighting, however. The characters trade kung fu blows extremely well, and transform, blast ki and dance around each other extremely well, and there’s no shortages of power-ups and increased abilities as the action heats up.

Those beautifully cinematic cut-scenes between special moves and transformations are also included, with a special emphasis now being placed on ‘drama’. Presumably in an effort to bring the games closer than they’ve ever been to the anime, the action is regularly inter-spliced with animated action sequences which work toward lacing a unique storyline though each individual game. Although the frequency of these scenes gets a bit irritating – and often occur just as you’ve unleashed all you ki in a powerful attack, which never lands because of the interruption -  the idea is quite sound in concept.

Burst Limit attempts to craft a unique storyline into each game, with players acting out the battle scenes and thereby determining what happens next. Now, while this is a great concept, in practice it’s very hard to follow quite how this modular story system is actually unfolding. We suspect this isn’t so much because of the system, but because of the inherent confusion surrounding the source material. With perseverance and a deeper understanding of the DragonBall Universe, this feature could actually add a dynamic adventure aspect to this fighting game, but will most likely be restricted to those who’re particularly knowledgeable in DBZ lore, and the Japanese.

Visually, DragonBall has never looked finer. The cell shaded graphics and breathtaking animation rival the anime to the point at which we don’t wonder if they actually look better than the cartoon. The animation producers might do well to actually approach Namco Bandai and begin utilising the Xbox360 and PS3 graphics systems for any new anime episodes in production.

From facial expressions to bullet-time reactions, fighting moves and special effects, the screen is literally ablaze with DragonBall fury, and the camera work never fails to capture the most dramatic angle for the high-octane action bursting from the screen.

As a new beginning in DragonBall Z games, Burst Limit is a decent introduction to modern super consoles, but ultimately lacks the panache of the amazing PS2 games it follows on from. With more of the aerobatic thrills and spills, and more zipping about the landscape in full-throttle manga fury, Burst Limit could really have opened up the possibilities of the gaming branch of this wonderful franchise. A little too much emphasis has been given to bridging the gap between a fighting game and an anime TV series, rather than celebrating the blindingly fast dazzling confusion of the awesome DragonBall team.

Fans shouldn’t resist the urge to pick up this latest incarnation, but expect a slightly more sedate – if much better looking – outing than seen in the Budokai series. Perhaps once the live action Hollywood film is released we’ll get a DBZ game that lights up the PS3 and X360 in the same way as they did on the PS2, but this game isn’t quite there yet.