Dragon Ball Z: Budokai

"DBZ Heroes, Villans, and Powers Galore!"

Dragon Ball Z is my favorite anime, and if it's one you like, you won't want to pass up this one... unless at this time you'd like to head straight into B2, but that's another game...

Story 9/10: The story is taken straight from the anime. It goes up until the end of the Cell Games Saga, although it skips the Garlic Jr. Saga. The mai character is Goku. The story begins when Goku meets his brother, Raditz, who informs Goku that he's really a Sayain warrior named Kakarot, who was sent to Earth as a baby to grow up and gain control. But, Goku fell nto a ravine as a baby, head first actually, causing amnesia of his Sayain heritage. Raditz kidnaps Goku's son, Gohan, in an attempt to force Goku to join him. It takes a combined effort from Goku and his old enemy, Piccolo, to defeat Raditz, and even then it's hard... I won't reveal the climax of that fight, since it has some relevance. From there, Goku and his pals must fight more Sayains, aliens, and androids in their mission to protect Earth. After completing Story Mode once, you'll unlock new points of view to play it from.

Controls 10/10: Their aren't really control flaws anywhere. The Default Button layout is simple enough, but you a free to customize a control layout in the options menu. Make sure, if you plan to do that, you try to do so first, so you don't end up getting so used to the default that it's hard to change. No one deserves that problem in a game.

Gameplay 9/10: Most of the story mode is fighting, with some action missions thrown in to the mix. However, most of these also have fighting mechanics. There are, of course, other game modes besides story. Duel mode pits 2 characters, Human or CPU controlled, against each other. World Tournament is for one player to attemp the challenge of a tournament ladder for prize moneyused to buy skills. The Tournament only begins with Novice difficulty, but as you unlock more characters and complete your highest available difficulty level for Tournament, you can buy more levels at the Skill Shop. Finally, there's a practice mode to brush up on your techniques and style. And, of course, there's a few secrets. Skills come in the form of capsules. You can use a normal set of moves, but you won't be well against human opponents unless you edit a skill list of your own for each characters. There are Special (Red), Physical (Blue), and Support (Green) capsules. Special covers Death Moves (i.e. Kamehameha) , Ultimate Moves (i.e. Spirit Bomb), and Transformations (i.e Super Sayain). Physical covers Chase Combos (i.e. Zanku Fist), Oppresive Combos (i.e. Super Dragon Fist), Energy Combos (i.e. Continuous Kamehameha), and Throw Attacks (i.e. Dragonthrow). Support capsules do a variety of things.. you'll have to discover those for yourself! Techniques require Ki Gauges (except for throws, which use no Ki; Transformations drain Ki at varying speeds, depending on how advanced the current transformation is: wyhen you get knocked down with less then the required amount of Ki Gauges for a Transformation, you'll revert to the previous form.

Graphics/Music 10/10: The graphics are cel-shaded, unlock in the PS2 version. But this is a good thing.. it gives it more of a look like the anime. The game has some cool music, though not all is great, and there isn't really a lot of different tunes.

Replayability 9/10: This game will take a while to completly finish. There are 9 of each capsule, and there are also the Dragon Balls to collect. The Dragon Balls take long enough to get (it's very repetitive and annoying), and then you only get one wish (a Breakthrough) at a time, so you'll be taking w while. That's why I give it a 9... it's so annoying getting 9 of every capsule and every Breakthrough that some gamers may not see it through.

Rent or Buy: It depends on how big of a fan of DBZ, fighting games, or both you are. If you plan to do everything, then you'd have to buy it, but if it's just for fun, maybe give it a rent first. Overall, though, I'd say buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/04