Dragon Ball Z: Buyuu Retsuden

"Sweet!"

Now, I'm about to state something that I find incredibly embarrassing, so you should consider yourself lucky that I'm actually going to tell you about it. Not only am I almost 21 years of age (that's not it by the way) and I still like Dragonball Z. Now before you start baying at me like a pack of wild dogs, let get me one thing straight: you're probably picturing me sitting alone in my room with all of the “sagas” on video, watching the one about Freeza and commenting on how badass his power level is, or wiping my tears away at Vegeta's death scene(s). This is a half-truth; I'd never watch an episode of the anime again, mainly due to the fact that I feel that Akira Toriyama sold his soul to the devil when he let Toei make one. I'm a Dragonball manga fanatic and that's it. I don't even know why I like it, I mean, it has a crap story, generic characters and boring drawn out fights, but I absolutely LOVE it.

I'm also partial to a little DBZ video game action when I get the chance. However, the chances of actually getting a decent one is incredibly small, especially when the current series of DBZ fighting games are just re-hashes of the same formula and are jam-packed with non-canon characters and storylines. So, I decided to take a step back in time and play the Japanese-only DBZ: Buu Yu Retsuden on the Sega Genesis. I'll just tell you now that I don't own a Japanese copy of this game or anything but I simply got the rom. Do you think I'm a bad person?

Anyway, this fighter contains a selection of characters from the Freeza story arc through to the Cell story arc. We have all four Super-Saiyans from that era, along with Piccolo, Kuririn, and Android 18, the two main bad guys from both of those stories and Captain Ginyu & Recoome. It's a well balanced choice considering it decides not to cover the entire story but the absence of Android 16 and Mr. Satan, was slightly disappointing.

Now, 16-bit anime fighters always differentiate from the usual breed of fighting games. Obviously, your goal is the same but in order to achieve this goal; you will have to use slightly different methods. If you've ever watched an episode of the show or have read any major fight scene in the manga, fighters in DBZ are able to charge their fighter ki in order to pull off those famous planet destroying fireballs. (Heck, if you watched any of the anime, you'll notice that they have entire shows dedicated to this alone.) It's the same in this game, you can use your ki to shoot out fireballs from your hands but whenever you do, and your ki energy will drop. You gather your ki by physically fighting your opponent with a few punches and kicks or by actually pulling of the constipated horse-riding stances that you see in the show and charge your energy manually.

Fighting here is extremely fast paced and difficult so you'll need lots of practice and knowledge of the controls before you begin properly. With your selected fighter, you can throw fireballs, fight and fly in the air and perform a number of deadly meteo moves. DragonBall Z fights are renowned for their velocity and devastating and explosive special moves and it's brilliantly replicated here. However, it's an incredibly unusual method to follow, especially if you've been playing Street Fighter 2 and those that follow that game's particular model. This game requires you to be extremely defensive as well as offensive. Sure, it's fair enough to use loads of energy to beat your enemy senseless but if you pull off a finishing move and it misses or if it's blocked, you can find yourself in serious trouble. After using a move that drains your energy to below your ki bar's minimum, you can find your character gasping for breath. This usually gives your recovering opponent a huge chance to counter as you'll be in no state to block a special in that state.

Each character has their own set of finishing trademark attacks.The majority of them have at least two finishing moves which you can pull off at any time, provided your Ki is reasonably high. However, finishing moves can only be pulled off if there is large gap between opponents and if the two fighters are either on the ground or in flight. One of Buu Yu Retsuden's cool features is its fantastic use of voice sampling. The feeling that rushes down your spine when you finally perform a KameHameha and actually hear Goku scream it while he rams it right into Cell's face is almost orgasmic. However, these moves are notoriously tricky to pull off and are even harder to counter. Don't expect instant satisfaction straight away, you'll need to practice to get used to unusual controls.

However, if you're willing to get used to the controls and prepared to jump in at the deep end, you'll find that DBZ: BYR is one of the better games of the series. Out of the fighters in the Genesis library, it's one of the most original fighters on the system, despite being slightly inferior to the awesome Yu Yu Hakusho game which follows a similar path to this one. It's probably going to only appeal to select fans but, if your one of those (which I'm guessing you are if you're actually bothering to read this), it's certainly worth a download. Just don't expect it to play nice the first few times.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/06, Updated 11/22/06