The Dragon Ball Z Super
Dragon Ball Z Super Butouden Goku’s Spirit Bomb: 15 seconds
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-pQxukVMa0&start=91]
Games based on anime tend to favor fanservice and authenticity over super-technical gameplay, and perhaps that love for theatrics is seeping into today’s traditional fighters. Even back in the Super Nintendo days, Dragon Ball Z titles tried to mimic the extended energy gathering required to perform trademark techniques like the Spirit Bomb.
Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22: Master Roshi’s Mafuba:
9.1 seconds
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCOx3xmKgv8&start=477]
This fighter is unique in that there was a secondary purpose to supers: Not only did they damage the in-game character, but they also made your real-life opponent nauseous through awkward animation and spinning backgrounds. Harnessing the mindblowing power of the original PlayStation, Master Roshi uses the demon-sealing Mafuba technique on his opponents, and it looks just like it did in the show!
DragonBall Z Budokai 3: Cell’s Spirit Bomb: 38. 4 seconds
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3CXaSZMtRU?&start=780]
The PlayStation 2’s graphical power finally freed creators from the constraints of toning down techniques to accommodate the hardware, and Budokai developer Dimps threw the stopwatch away when creating planet-shattering attacks. Considering that Dimps has later played a major role in creating Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken — which have influenced today’s fighting games as a whole — we can probably thank this game for the current minimovies that are the modern fighting game supercombo.