Fortnite’s new update adds a ton of content directly pulled from the popular anime franchise, Dragon Ball. Specially, beloved heroes like Goku and Bulma are now running around the battle royale rubbing shoulders with Darth Vader and Batman. Wild times. And these new anime characters have brought with them powerful goodies, turning the game into a giant, exciting shitstorm of anime, superpowers, and violence.
Yesterday, after some teasing and a lot of rumors, Epic released the latest update for its massively popular free-to-play battle royale shooter Fortnite. (One time we actually tried to review it.) You’ve probably heard of it, before? If not, well it’s a wild third-person shooter in which 100 players drop on an island and then scrounge for guns, armor, and ammo while the map shrinks and they fight to be the last player standing. Also, Deadpool and Ryu from Street Fighter are there too. As I said, wild times.
Now, as part of its latest crossover with a popular franchise, Fortnite has been invaded by characters, locations, and powers from Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super. And let me tell you what, these new toys and characters are fucking stuff up.
For the next two weeks, players can buy DBZ-themed characters and other accessories while also working to complete a series of in-game quests that revolve around doing various Dragon Ball Z-like things or visiting locations or landmarks from the show. Complete these quests and challenges and you get DBZ-themed rewards, so a lot of people are trying to finish them. And 100 people doing that at the same time means areas of the map that are connected to DBZ quests are chaotic battlefields in which players go to die in hopes of trying to complete some specific objective like “Buy An Item From A DBZ-themed Vending Machine.”
Oh, and did I forget to mention? One of the items these vending machines dispense lets you unleash Kamehameha blasts. Yes, this is the same super-powerful, deadly energy attack Goku uses in the anime to obliterate his foes. And because multiple players can have these blasts at the same time, many matches of Fortnite are turning into a fever dream of various characters from Marvel and Star Wars blasting celebrities like Lebron James and Ariana Grande away while yelling “KAMEHAMEHA!!!!”
During my last match, I was sitting in a random shack, healing up after a small skirmish and looking for some loot. I was also hiding out of fear because outside I could hear a dozen different players yelling “KAMEHAMEHA!!!” and blasting each other away. Eventually, Rick from Rick and Morty found me and blasted my shack away with the devastating attack. I just laughed.
I can imagine that for some players who take this game seriously and compete to be the best each and every time, this current update might be very frustrating. The amount of times I’ve used the new Nimbus Cloud item to zoom away from fights, only to turn around and blast people away with a super anime attack, is far too high to admit. And it’s only day one of this event. While certain more serious players may be annoyed by all the anime shenanigans going on right now, I’m having a blast.
In fact, I’m having so much fun I can almost ignore how all of pop culture is blending together into a gray slurry absent of any unique features or ideas. Almost.