This idea rocks, it would definatley look more interesting than the ball and also more DBZ orientated, i'd be surprised if the framerate drop would be noticeable. Players have auras that they can turn on and off and I never notice the drop when they do (you can always tell with netgraph) and lightning? That's a few small 2D sprites, anything could handle that. If your machine can handle a 1.2 explosion then it could easily handle a lightning aura for adv melee. If not, you could always have the ball sprite on hand to replace the flashy new one.
Good one Ashur :yes: