GameCenter - April 2018 - 25

CHARACTER WITNESS II: THE
PREQUEL REBOOT ... IN 3D

As cool as those unlocks may be, though,
Cheng said the biggest is for Yamcha. So big,
in fact, that he won't say what you get for doing it. " Play as Yamcha against Nappa on the
Rocky Field/Noon stage," he said, "and finish off
Nappa with a Heavy Attack, which is the circle
button on PlayStation 4 and the 'B' on Xbox
One." We don't know what you get either, but
we're hoping it's a new car or a fuzzy kitty.

EXIT ... STAGE LEFT

"Combining different characters on different
stages can result in different dramatic finishes,"
Cheng said. "Try choosing Beerus as your character, Goku as your opponent, and Space as
the battle stage, and see what happens when
Beerus wins this match."

READING IS FUNDAMENTAL

Dragon Ball started as a manga by writer and
artist Akira Toriyama. Cheng and his coworkers honor that history in Dragon Ball FighterZ.
"With the exception of Beerus, Goku Black, and
Android 21, every character's moves or animations are taken directly from the manga series,"
Cheng shared.

ATTACK THE BLOCK

In many fighting games, blocking is as important as attacking. HHowever, in Dragon Ball
FighterZ, you can not only block incoming attacks, but also deflect many of them back. "The
Reflect ability can be used to deflect energy
attacks all the way up to super attacks such as
the Kamehameha," Cheng explained. "This will
prevent a player from taking chip damage."

TOE TAG

Dragon Ball FighterZ lets you tag-team characters and, when you initiate the switch, even
perform cool co-op moves. The thing is, "if
you tag in another character while executing
a super move, the character being tagged in
will only execute a Level 1 super attack," Cheng
explained. "But if a player holds down-back
while tagging in another character to pull-off
a combined super attack, the second character
will execute a Level 3 super attack instead."

MIGHT AS WELL JUMP

Years ago, the developers of 2013's Tomb Raider
revealed to this column that Lara Croft would
complete longer or shorter jumps depending
on how far you pushed the thumbstick-a trick
they took from Super Mario Bros. Cheng didn't
cite either game as inspiration, but you can
experience something similar in Dragon Ball
FighterZ. As he explained, "Players can control
'air time' when executing super jumps by either
holding up on the control stick for more air time
or down on the control stick for less air time."

CROUCHING TIGER,
HIDDEN JUGGLE

"Crouching heavy attacks always beat air attacks. Players can use crouching heavy attacks
to bait an opponent and initiate an air juggle
attack for more damage and embarrassment,"
Cheng said. Now you know. And knowing is
half the battle.

CLEAR AND PRESENT
DANGER

In The Hunt for Red October, Sean Connery
saves his submarine by steering into an
approaching torpedo, breaking it before it
is armed. You, too, can survive a Dragon Ball
FighterZ attack without speaking in a Russian accent. "Super Dash allows players to
fly through most projectile attacks," Cheng
said. "Players can use this tactic to close in on
enemies who are constantly throwing out projectile attacks and unleash a combo to punish
them for their cheap gameplay."

SPARKLEHORSE

"Using 'Sparking Blast' wisely can save a player
from a match loss," Cheng explained. "The
'Sparking Blast' function helps a player regain
character health much more when only one
character is left in a fight, so don't use Sparking Blast at the beginning of the match when
the entire team is still available for play."

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GameCenter - April 2018