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As one of the world's most popular anime and manga series, it's no surprise that Dragon Ball Z continues to spawn a steady stream of computer games, particularly as its combat-heavy kaleidoscopic array of characters makes it perfectly suited for it. Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden is the latest release in the franchise, arriving on 3DS as a 2D fighter. Whilst that alone is unlikely to pique the interest of anyone beyond the series' faithful, the fact that it's been developed by Arc System Works, home of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, raises expectations much higher. Sadly, any hopes of a portable fighting masterpiece should be swiftly put to bed.

While it depends somewhat on the selected mode, the game's overarching combat sees you forming a team of combatants, with or without assist characters, and taking them up against an opposing team, whether against the AI or a friend in ad hoc versus. You have three attacks and an evasive move, alongside the ability to charge your Ki and then unleash it in a variety of special moves. It's a straightforward system, and combat feels weighty and immediate, so it's a shame then that the game's difficulty level is often so low as to reduce many encounters to simply hammering the standard attack buttons.

Oddly, while different button combinations will clearly produce different results depending on who you're in control of, Arc System haven't opted for specific movesets for each character as you'd get in their mainline fighting titles. The same set of combinations will fundamentally transfer across the entire roster, which in one way makes it incredibly welcoming, but on the other hand robs it of some of the depth you might expect.

There is plenty of content here though, starting with the Z Story mode which takes you through the classic Dragon Ball Z story, or 'what if' versions of it, Adventure Mode sees you taking on missions that unlock gear and extra companions, with the Extreme World Tournament your ultimate reward for making your way through the Adventure mode's eight areas. All of the story-based modes feature quite a lot of text, some of which is not incredibly clear as it can whisk through a raft of information in a couple of sentences. Fans of the series will find it easier to follow, but newcomers may puzzle over some of the goings on.

The Adventure mode is clearly the jewel in the crown here, with each mission having different parameters and rewards depending on the grade you achieve. It's here that the game actually builds in difficulty, and while anyone can mash their way through each stage, it takes more careful and tactical play to achieve S grades on each level.

On top of that, there's also a straightforward Battle Mode and the ad-hoc versus mode, though disappointingly no online option. Finally there's also a Quest Mode, which utilises the 3DS' Streetpass features to trade Guild Cards with other players. For anyone looking to immerse themselves even further in the lore there's also a useful gallery that contains profiles for all of the combatants.

Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden certainly looks the part, whether displayed in 2D or 3D, with large bright character sprites moving smoothly around the stages. Dragon Ball fans will certainly get a kick out of taking control of Goku et al, and their moves are suitably reflective of their anime representations.

The audio doesn't quite hold up to the same scrutiny as the visuals though, and while there's some energetic guitar work, all of the character audio has clearly been compressed to within an inch of its life, sounding weak and raspy. At worst the repeated use of some character's moves may drive you to distraction, and that's a huge shame when it looks as good as it does.

1. Great visuals.
2. Challenging adventure mode.
3. Welcoming gameplay.

1. Poor quality character samples.
2. Often too easy.
3. Lack of depth to fighting mechanics.

Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden does a serviceable job of bringing a number of the iconic characters to Nintendo's diminutive handheld, and fans in particular will find plenty to enjoy here with a serviceable amount of content in a well-presented package. However, the base challenge is set too low, and while the grading system adds difficulty, followers of Arc System Works' other game series may want to look elsewhere for a serious handheld fighter.