Members of the Fighting game community this is our year I think. We have Tekken 6 coming towards the end of the year as well as the last incarnation of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja PS2 franchise and now Dragon Ball: Raging Blast.
Not many details have been released about the game just yet save a couple of preview videos but if the game is anything like the great Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkachi 3 for PS2 with its 160+ character roster, fast paced fighting on land and air, gorgeous cell shaded graphics and semi-destructible environments then it promises to be good – wait now add the capabilities of the PS3 to that.
Yes it seems the developers have decided to improve what was good about the Tenkaichi series of games and blow our minds using HD Graphics that realistically depicts the animation (including facial expressions), fully destructible environments and as far as I'm guessing great sound too hopefully. I imagine the capabilities of the PS3 will be fully explored and I am seeing everything I liked about the PS2 incarnation but with Next generation extensions to special effects, map boundary limits and smoothness of the fighting mechanism.
I'll be watching the games released in the Fighting genre thsi year very closely as we seem to have a genre that refuses to die but continues like a dark horse evolving constantly and being great fun – and that's why I will always consider myself a fan of the genre. To the year of the fighting game!