Dragon Ball Z: Budokai

"One for the fans"

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai

Brief Introduction
Dragon Ball Z is a cartoon anime show about a group of gravity defying, beam blasting ''people'' who rid the Earth and other surrounding planets of evil and what not.

Story:

Most of the fans should know the story already. This game covers up to the Android Saga. For those of you that don't know there is the Saiyan Saga. In the Saiyan Sage Goku(one of the main characters) comes back from a World Match, he plans to return home and have a peaceful time with his friends. When he gets home a mysterious other Saiyan known as Raditz appears, the rest... Well you'll see. Next is the Namekian Saga. In this Saga, Krillin(Goku's best friend) goes to the Planet Namek to obtain the Dragon Balls to bring some other of their friends back. Along the way they run into some trouble with a powerful being known as Frieza. It's your job to stop him. In the final Android Saga a boy from the future comes to warn the group about the terrors that await in the future. The rest plays out from there. The Story is good, but it's better to just watch the show.

Gameplay

The gameplay in this game is basically like any other fighter engine. There are of course different things to do because this is a Dragon Ball Z game. There is the normal punch, kick, block and grab. There is also a button for an energy beam along with different combos that you can get by purchasing things called Capsules. I'll explain that later. Along with energy beams you can also fly, but not the super fast flying that you'd expect, but a flow drift into the air or a slow drift downwards. It's some what like a Dragon Ball Z fight but all the attacks look the same. You can also do a small ''mini-battle'' where if you hit your opponent at the same time they hit you it will go into a fast motion punching and kicking. Unfortunately you don't actually press the buttons for this, you just turn the control stick around in continuous circles as fast as you can and the person with the fasted control stick turning knocks their opponent to the side.

Capsules, which you can purchase from Mr. Popo. These allow the characters to learn different skills which you can equip and use in battle. Saiyans can turn Super Saiyans, Cell and Frieza can change forms, you can get different beam attacks and all kinds of other things to improve your characters abilities. This is an interesting scheme and works well but since there seems to be so many it can get tiring purchasing them. Since the only way to earn enough cash to buy one is to compete in the World Tournament.

There are a variety of different gameplay modes. The first one is Story, this is fun because you play through the Story of the first 3 sagas, but it doesn't last very long and isn't very difficult. The next mode is Duel, in this you can choose your character and you can fight against another friend or against a computer. This is fun, but gets tiring and pointless. The next mode is World Tournament and is exactly what it sounds like. You choose a fighter and bring them into the ring where you can fight your way to the top to earn money. There is also a Practise mode which is pretty self explanatory and a mode that you can unlock involving Hercule but I won't give to much away.

Graphics/Sound

The graphics are very nice, they're cel-shaded. I don't have anything wrong with cel-shading but I would've preferred more realistic graphics for this. Although the graphics really do relate to the cartoon so it makes it look like you are playing along with the cartoon which makes it fun.

The sound is good too, just normal tunes and noises, I usually play with the sound off and my stereo on but either one works. The sound is good, but uninteresting in my opinion.

Replay Value

There are a few characters to unlock along with stages and all the skill capsules. There are a lot of skill capsules! You can play this with a friend too if you're bored. Overall there isn't much replay value because once you've unlocked everything, even with the skill capsules, there isn't that much else to do except battle your friend for fun which can get tiresome after a while.

Overall

Overall I give this game an 8 out of 10. It is very true to the show but I wish it would have more to do in it. It's fun too, if you're a fan you should pick it up unless you already have it on the PS2. If not, it's worth a rent because it is fun for playing just for fun. I bought it and I still play it occasionally and I like it. So I hope I helped you out some what in your decision for this game!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/12/04