Dragon Ball Z: Budokai

"One of the better DBZ fighting games"

And here we have it. Dragon Ball Z budokai... a game that snuck up on me, and turned out to be a lot better than I expected. But then again, my expectations for this game were pretty low...
How does it compare to the other DB fighting games? I'll break it down like this.
It seems to me like they tried to mix DBZ Legends (import only) and Final Bout. And with that in mind, lemme give a quick break down on how those games played.

Dbz Legends: Hailed as one of the best Dbz simulations out there, you could have battles with more than just one person fighting at once, but the battle engine itself was rather limited. Your only attacks were a flurry of punches/kicks, and some pellets that you could fire off. Movement was either forward or backward, and you could circle around your opponent when you had your aura up. There was a balance meter, and if you managed to attack enough to fill it up, then you unleashed a cinematic attack, and harmed your opponents life meter, and then you went back to trying to fill it up again.

DbGT Final Bout: Like most (2d) fighting games, you've got your health bar, and special (ki) bar. This game brought the DB universe into 3d, and tried to keep the same gameplay from the Super Famicom versions. Your character had an array of special moves, fireballs, combos and so on. And if two fireballs met, it would erupt into a challenge between the two players. The person to mash more buttons first would win. It also had the meteo attack, which allowed you to unleash a Legends-style flurry of attacks.

Now, after I've gotten that out of the way, lets review the game at hand.

First Impressions: Okay, let me be honest. I was expecting this game to be complete and utter bull crap. The first videos of the game that Infogrames showed off were blanketed by scenes of the anime, which didn't really show off much of the game itself. I was looking forward to a total let down, but this game is actually very fun. It's nothing that stands out as amazing, but the fact that it's fun, and uses the license well, give it much respect on my behalf. It's easy to pick up, and the more time you spend to learn the game, the more you'll get out of it. With 23 playable characters, and plenty of secrets, it'll provide some decent play time, but it still lacks in a few departments.

Storyline: This follows the DBZ storyline from the appearance of Raditz, to about 3/4ths of the way through, ending at the Cell games saga, unless you count the inclusion of great saiyaman. Over all, the story mode of the game does a nice job of bringing the story home. Also, they add a few extra ''what if?'' surprises that weren't included in the storyline. Kudos for that.

Gameplay/Controls: This is mixed bag. You've got to approach this game with an open mind, or else you'll be left disappointed, and with a seemingly simple game.
You've got your punch, kick, guard, and energy attack buttons. Simple enough.
By combining punck and kick, you get three variations of attacks, depending on which direction you push (forward, neutral, or away), and you hold these buttons down to make it unblockable. Otherwise, you've got three more basic attacks. If two unblockable attacks collide, you'll enter ''burst zone'', a mode where both characters must wildly spin around their analog stick and mash on the buttons. The player who enters the most commands wins, and the opponent gets knocked away. Reminds me of the legends/meteo style attacks.
Pressing kick and guard yields a similar effect, and gives a ''power kick'' attack as the manual states. Same thing as the previous attacks, except these aren't unblockable.
Throws are done by pressing punch and guard, which is pretty standard today for most 3d fighting games.
Alright, so now you know how the game plays. One thing that should be confusing at first, is the fact that you can't jump, or duck. This is why I believe it's a mix of legends, which i'll go into a little bit deeper next.
You do have the ability to sidestep, by pressing guard plus up/down simultaneously. Why they didn't map these commands to up and down is beyond me, but hey, every dragonball game has to have something frustrating about it.
You can move towards your opponent and away by pressing left or right, and dash/retreat with a double tap. And you can't manually fly, so if you want to see air battles, pop your opponent into the air.
Special moves in the traditional fashion are gone. Instead, they are inserted into the game a bit differently... through the use of combos. Want to just do a kamehameha from a distance? Still have to do the combo from far away, which will make you look like an idiot before actually launching the attack. It's kinda disappointing that they did this, also... but that's another point that leads me to believe that it was based off of legends. In legends, you had to fill up your meter with attacks, and when full, you'd do an attack. Same thing here, except that to do a special move, you have to enter the proper combo sequence.
This is a nice touch for beginners, but for expert players, it will probably become an annoyance. It forces the game to end up being battles that consist of attack and block. You can't mix up attacks, as holding block will block attacks from all levels, be it high or low. No overheads, sweeps, or anything of the sort. And since special moves are accomplished through combos, it means you're just going to be exchanging attacks with little to no variety. But for some odd reason, it's still fun.
Variety in special attacks is also limited, since most moves are just copies of one another, with different names. So try not to get too excited when you get a capsule for a new move, only to equip it and find out that it's the same as someone elses.
Speaking of which, the capsules are probably the best addition to the game. I remember a few reviewers saying that this game doesn't bring anything to the fighting game genre, but they couldn't be any more incorrect. The fact that you can customize your character with a variety of skills, ups the gameplay and replay value. Want to make a character who's a defensive monster and tough to take down? No problem. Or how about a character who can kill you in two attacks? You've got that here too. It's pretty open ended, and the possibilities are nearly endless. But since so many moves are repeats of one another, it cuts down the combinations by a bit, as your characters don't turn out as varied as one might want them to be. Nice addition, nonetheless, as it'll keep most players hooked until they unlock all the skills.

Graphics: A lot of complains from most people here. However, when I see the graphics, I give a round of applause. They're clean, crisp, and most importantly, capture the feeling of the anime perfectly. What do people expect? If it looked like Tekken 4 or Virtua Fighter 4, then it wouldn't be dragonball. I'm glad it kept that anime feel to it, so i'm content with it. One problem I had, is that a lot of stages had invisible walls. It'd be nice to see a wall or something there.
So yeah, good job all around.

Sound: I was one of those people that was a little precautious about the english dubbies doing the voice overs. I have grown fond the of the japanese va's, and it's taken me awhile to accept the english ones. But they do a really good job of bringing the characters to life. The mouths sync up near perfectly, and with the exception of a few attacks, most of them come off with emotion, and strength. The music is good as well, with a few original themes from the japanese series available. The sound effects are classic as well, which provides a nice sense of nostalgia.

Closing thoughts: Infogrames did a good job of porting this over, and dimps did an even better job of mixing two of the more popular dragonball fighting games together, with a hint of the card game mixed in too. The result is a unique blend, that suffers from a lack of variety, and ends up too simple to be a major contender for fighting game afficionados. But hey, it's all about fun, right? If you're a dragonball fan, up the score of this review by two, and there you have it. And since it's simple to play, almost anyone with a pair of working hands can pick it up and enjoy it.
And there you have it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/02, Updated 12/07/02