Dragon Ball Z: Buyuu Retsuden

"A well-made Fighting Game"

Well, this is a solid little gem. It's just too bad I don't speak or read Japanese. I would probably enjoy the story line mode a lot more that way. Even still, I could tell that the story line was different for every character chosen.

And now- onto the review!

Graphics: 6/10

I know, I know, I just got done saying it's a solid gem, and then I give it a 6 in graphics. Well there IS more to a game than just the graphics, but LORDY, the characters are horrid. Well, most of them. Cell looks good. Guess the spriters have the same love for Cell that I do...

What keeps this stat from falling below midway are the animations for the attacks. They're quite well done. Midget Krillin can be brutal when I want him to be, but mostly, I'm cheap with the leg-slide, solar flare, kamehameha combo. It get's the job done. Heh heh.

Music: 8/10

It's actually quite good, on story mode. I'm not sure which characters mean ''Music'', so I can't change them on the Vs. mode, and I'm stuck on the same theme, but the variety is there, and it's quite good.

Every Character has their own unique battle music and they all fit quite well. I don't know what else to say about the music, apparently I need to get a minimum of 400 words, so I'm going to keep talking here... Sorry, people, I like shorter reviews, myself.

Sound Effects: 7/10

They're pretty good. Kind of overused, like the punch and kicks are the same sound, but it doesn't take away from the game much.

The sounds for the Ki attacks are kind of the same too, but I can't see how one guy's energy disc sounds any different from another guy's so- I guess it's okay...

Control: 9/10

Great Control: some people are upset about the lack of fierce punch/weak punch, but I mean, this was made for 3 button control Sega. Plus, I like not having to decide just how hard/fast I'm hitting. This was nice and easy. All the attacks that I attempted, I got through as well. This doesn't happen for me on the SNES games...

Most of them just fizzle in my face. And that's not cool. But having your character nice and speedy and angry, flying around a lot makes DBZ so much more fun.

Conclusion: 8/10

Despite it's horrible sprites for the characters, this game is fun to play. Finally! I can beat the crap outta Recoome
AND with KRILLIN! The speed of this game is much greater than the ones on SNES, and it's just more fun for me. I think, had the GFX been better, that this would've represented the DBZ series MUCH more accurately than the SNES version did. Too sluggish there, and not at all like the hyper speed of the show.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/02, Updated 06/12/02