Dragon Ball Z: Sagas

"Why couldn't this be more like Legacy of Goku 2 and Buu's Fury?"

Dragon Ball Z games have been notoriously horrible. With the advent of Legacy of Goku 2 and Buu's Fury for the Game Boy Advance, there is a shimmer of hope for Dragon Ball Z fans awaiting good games. Now why couldn't that quality transfer to a more powerful system, the GameCube? Instead, we get this waste of disc space called Dragon Ball Z: Sagas, the king supreme kai of bad Dragon Ball Z games.

Although I'm all for beat em ups instead of one on one fighters, the way this game executed the genre is poor. First of all, what made the Legacy of Goku series so much fun (except the original) is the ability to raise your characters' levels. Having trouble with a certain boss? No problem, just pump up your levels a bit and you're good to go. Unfortunately, levels were replaced with a lame capsule system; players must collect enough health and ki capsules to raise their health and ki levels, respectively. This leads to ludicrously long and drawn out boss fights. Most bosses take a good 15-20 minutes to beat, all because your characters are incapable of inflicting significant damage.

Second, the exploration aspect is gone. The levels keep players on a thin rail, meaning you pretty much can only in a straight line from point A to point B. No side quests, no secret areas, just the same ol' beat up a few enemies and move on until you reach the boss.

Third, the game boasts two player simultaneous, but even this is executed poorly. Every time you execute a Z fighter's signature move, such as the Goku's Kamehameha Wave, the game goes into slow motion. We're talking snail's pace slow motion here. This means if you have a friend who wants to do nothing but use special attacks, you're going to do a lot of sitting around and waiting.

Fourth, the special attacks you can purchase via Z coins are useless. Why? Because if you can combo your punches and kicks so you DON'T use a special move, you can actually juggle the boss indefinitely until his health runs out. That means you're better off not purchasing those extra special attack combos, since it actually makes boss battles harder since you'll be trying to avoid pulling off combos so you can end the ridiculously long boss battles.

And what's up with the music? There virtually is none, except for what sounds like someone randomly mashing a few keys on a piano. The tune does change when enemies appear, but it's still adds no energy to the game.

Everything about the game feels rushed. The game play, the music, and the camera. Wait, did I mention the camera? When you are backtracking searching for items such as capsules, Z coins, and dragon balls, the camera doesn't help out by rotating. As a matter of fact, it's completely fixed. That means as you are backtracking, you'll have an extreme closeup of your character's mug, as he stumbles back to the beginning getting caught on obstacles.

In short, every aspect about this game is low quality. Even if you are a hardcore Dragon Ball Z fan, who must have everything Dragon Ball Z, I wouldn't even recommend renting this game. Yes, it's that bad.

Score 1/10

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 03/20/06