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The Dragonball universe has never fared well in gaming. The games
have ranged from horrible to "will kill you if you touch it". Of
course, the only titles that ever showed up in the USA were in the
latter half. Titles like DBGT: Final Bout and Legacy of Goku were
shoved into our faces with hate and disgust. Even that old NES game
that ripped off of Dragon Warrior was just released on the GBA not
too long ago. But still, I have an old standing belief that the
Dragonball universe has a powerful potential to make a good game.
Enter DBZ: Budokai. The name is based on the tournament in the game,
horribly called the "World's Martial Arts Tournament" in the English
dubs.
This thing is a fighting game through and through, one of the only
two types of games that would work in this series, other being an
RPG (power levels and such). Did this one succeed where the others
failed, or did it bomb out like the rest? For super-fans: I will
write this review for the English audience, so I'll have to (to my
dismay) use character names and move names based on the butchered
dubbed version.
Graphics are OK
DBZ has never been considered a work of art in the anime world. In
fact, it is pretty crude and looks like it was rushed. So, there
wasn't much to work with when translating those animations into 3D
models. Surprisingly, the models were done remarkably well. They
looked just like the characters in the show, and in some cases, like
Radditz and Nappa, looked better (those two characters were done in
the Saiyan saga of the series, which had some particularly bad
animation). The only negative is that Vegeta's hair looks kinda
strange in standard and first Super Saiyan mode. Well, there is
another… the players’ speech is funny and sometimes they have
strange facial expressions when up close (mainly before and after
fights). The effects are really nice. There are quite a number of
moves included in the game (just about all of them actually), even
those that are never featured in DBZ, like Yamcha's Wolf Fang Fist
and Tien's Dodonpo. These were more prevalant in the previous
series, Dragonball. They are all rendered quite well and are
gorgeous to look at. I still like how the Warp Kamehameha move plays
out.
The Ups and Downs of Gameplay
The fighting system is set-up rather well. Square punches, triangle
kicks, circle is an energy blast, and X blocks. Moves are pulled off
by hitting the right combination, followed by the energy button or a
punch/block combo to grab the opponent. DBZ is no button masher. If
you don't do it right, then you will end up with half-combos where
the opponent can come in and attack your opening or you will never
pull off a special move, which is almost a guaranteed death in this
game. The only two missing factors are jumping (none at all) and
self-initiated flight. The only way you can fly is if your opponent
hits you into the air or you hit your opponent up there, to which
you can follow. Fighting in the air is just like fighting on the
ground. A good addition was a positive use of the environment.
Attacks do more damage when you hit them into something. There are
even some levels that if you hit them past a certain point, you send
them through a rock or flying long distances, giving you extra
damage. Sometimes it is possible to come back from behind when you
pull off a move like that, so there are no guaranteed wins in this
game.
There is a small balance issue I noticed. Smaller characters (like
Gohan and Krillin) have a slight advantage on the field. Many of the
taller fighters have high punch and kick attacks as standard, and
since every character has a hit location field built to the contours
of the model, then hitting the smaller characters is a bit
difficult. This is especially apparent when facing a modified Teen
Gohan, who can hit Super Saiyan 2 and is hard to hit and can be a
challenge. Also, there are a couple of stupid mini-games in here as
well. There are two that involve rotating the sticks around, but
there are two of those and are in the first part of story mode. Then
there is a sort of tutorial that teaches you how to deflect and
return energy attacks, which is a good thing. The tutorial mini-game
was good, but could have done without the stick rotating one.
Sound, Alright This is a mixed bag here. The game features
the entire English voiceover cast. While there are a couple of good
ones (Vegeta stands out the best), the rest are horrible. I wish
they would have offered the Japanese ones, but according to
Infogrames, they filled the entire DVD up already. The sound
effects, though, are all good. Energy blasts are nice and when you
hit a character into a wall or something, it has a nice ring to it.
Huge Fighter Cast Just about every significant fighter in DBZ
up to the end of the Cell Games was included here. The only notables
are the lack of three Ginyu members, Burter, Jeice, and Guldo, as
well as a lack of Chioutzu, Tien's clown-faced brother. They also
added the Great Saiyaman, older Gohan in his Super-Hero costume,
which took place after the Cell Games. Otherwise, they are all here.
Each fighter has his own individual style that isn't copied from the
next. Apart from a couple of identical special moves, like the one
where they do a rapid energy blast into the enemy, each character
has a huge assortment of unique attacks and abilities.
Lots of Modes You have your standard story-mode. This takes
you along the DBZ storyline, event for event, with a few dialogue
modifications (which actually improved over the show). There is even
a sort of "what-if" when you’ve finished all of the chapters in a
story. Like, ‘What if Vegeta won on Earth?’ or ‘What if Frieza won?’
and gives you a bit of a created story. There is your duel mode,
which is your standard one-on-one fight you get in fighter games.
Then there is the World Tournament mode. This one is cool. You pick
a fighter, and battle your way up to the championship. What makes
this one good is the way the level is set up. You can win in two
ways. KO your opponent or knock him out of the ring.
This opens up possibilities of winning with a single hit (or the
other way around). Here you win money, which you can use to buy
special moves and open up new modes. Legend of Hercule - this mode
is a bit odd. Hercule (known as Mr. Satan to hyper-fans), is this
arrogant person who thinks he is the strongest on Earth, but is
little more than a flea to the DBZ fighters. This mode takes Hercule
against a number of fighters, from Yamcha to Cell, to see if he
really is the best. Hercule has no energy moves and must rely on
strange martial arts moves with odd names. He is a blast to play
with, as his moves are funny.
Custom Characters
If you noticed that there are a few moves missing from the series
when first playing through the game, you are right. More moves are
unlocked by playing the story mode or by spending your tournament
prize money at the capsule store to get more moves. With these you
can customize your fighter the way you like him. Also, there are
special support moves you can get. They range from beefing up your
attack, defense, to a heart disease that causes your opponent to
lose heath slowly through the fight.
Bottom Line DBZ: Budokai is officially the first fun
Dragonball Z game to hit the market. While it has a couple problems
in the lack of jump or flight and a few strange mini-games in story
mode, this fighter is remarkably deep and entertaining.
Congratulations, Infogrames, you finally did the impossible, made a
good DBZ game!
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