Dragonball Z by Banpresto and North Star by Sega / Arc System

**Yakumo** · 01-08-2006

Visited Fukuoka city today so of course I had to pay a visit to Sega Gigo which always have the latest stuff. Sorry for the crappy @ictures. They were taken with my phone hiding from the Sega Gigo staff :110:

First game that caught my eye was a new Fist of the North Star 2D fighter running on the Atomiswave by Sega and Arc System.

There were no play instructions so I found it quite odd. There are 5 buttons in total 3 of which I guess were punch while the other 2 were kick or at least I think. I played as Ken who seemed to do different special moves depending on what strength button I pressed. For example I could do a fire ball motion plus a punch but depending on which punch I used came out completely different moves. There are super specials as well but I had no idea how they were pulled off. I seemed to be just pulling of allsorts of crazy combos by just button bashing.

Graphically it's pretty nice in a Guilty Gear kind of way but could do with a little more animation I feel. background graphics and music all seem to be based on the animation as well as the games intro which features the original singing theme song :thumbsup: All together this looks like it could be pretty good once I get to a machine with a move and button guide.

Next up is a new Dragonball Z fighter by Banpresto again running on the Atomiswave. I never got a chance to play this one due to the amount of people around it but I did manage to grab a few shots with the phone before being pushed out the way by a rabbit Japanese Dragonball Otaku.

This shot was taken from a nice widescreen connected to player one's cabinet.

Yakumo

**Warakia** · 01-08-2006

Cool stuff, if people want to see more fist of the north action check out tokyo ranking fighters, they have some great videos of the game in action. If you want to see the truly amazing fatality esque instant kills download the shortest videos. It looks good as a fighter, though I have heard of lots of balance issues.

Anyone know where you can get some good DBZ match videos?

**Dr. Lao** · 01-08-2006

With a name like Chou Dragonball Z you would expect it to be an eating competition with your favorite DBZ characters especially when you recall their appetites. Am i right or am I right? The Budokai's revitalized interest in DBZ and that is how we came to get this arcade game.

**Borman** · 01-08-2006

I didnt think that the DBZ game is on the Atomiswave, maybe running in one of its cabinets but not on the hardware itself (and its running in a naomi cabinet anyway :P) . Awesome pics though Yak

**Dr. Lao** · 01-08-2006

It runs on Namco's System 246.

**Pikkon** · 01-08-2006

I read on The Magic Box that Bandai announced a PS2
port of Chou Dragonball Z.Will be released in Japan in spring 2006.
Thanks for those great pics Yakumo.

**Dr. Lao** · 01-09-2006

I've read System 246 hardware is based on the PS2.

**Yakumo** · 01-09-2006

Originally Posted by Dr. Lao

It runs on Namco's System 246.

I guess that's why it's connected to the Namco Wide Screen then.

Yakumo

**SuperGrafx** · 01-09-2006

Yakumo, regarding the Fist of the North Star game (which looks great btw!) you mention that it plays like the Guilty Gear games. My main gripe with GG is that loose feeling (IMO, the players you control feel like they're made out of paper of something). Does this game have a more solid feel to it in both control and hits?