Dragon Ball Z: Budokai

"Another letdown in the quest to make a GOOD DBZ game"

Introduction
I am a major fan of the DBZ series, and have been anxiously anticipating the release of a game that appeared as eye-candy to me. I base this review solely on my opinion of it overall, and believe me...it's not a pretty opinion.Let's see if i can sway any people before it's too late...

Graphics
Well...the graphics looked great in the demo's, the magazines, and the website. Man, how do they get away with printing that stuff. Almost instantaneously from popping the game in the PS2, you're already hating the chunky blocky looking graphics. ok....so that's pretty bad...can't be much worse. WRONG. i have seen more glitches in playing this game 4 days than any other game i've ever seen. I watched combos completely miss and go through characters; moves that were out of range hit;and even worse, slowdown and invisible attacks. this is THE PLAYSTATION 2, THIS IS UNDERPAR BY FAR FOR THIS SYSTEM. W O W...i think around the 5th match you'll really hate these graphics like a stepdad hates his redheaded stepchild. Moving onto the next category....My rating here: 3/10

Sound Effects/Music
This is a bit tough to rate here.....seeing as how I'm a little divided on what could have been and what is. the main chars (goku, vegeta, picolo, gohan) sound great. They really keep the whole feeling of ''i AM playing DBZ''But then....we move on to the rest of them. I don't think they payed the person who did these voiceovers...because they sound horrible. To get the feeling of what i am talking about, try this: Think of cartman's voice from Southpark, and then let Barry White do his voiceovers. Ok, good, your now experiencing the incredible lack of effort here by Infrogames to keep that realism feeling. As for the energy blasts and physical attack sound effects, they're...ok. There really isn't anything great of impressive about them, except that certain energy attacks sound like they were executed inside an empty tincan. Onto the most important category...My rating here: 4/10

Gameplay
This breaks the games, damages your respect for the series, and makes you hate life all at once. These controls are stiffer than Bob Dole after he emptied out a whole canister of viagra. If you've played Final Bout, you've played with these controls before, and most likely hated them. I truly despise the lag between moving as well; in some cases your holding forward, and still going backwards from pressing that button before. Lets skip onto the fighting.I.......well.......you'll never want to watch this show again if you play this. This combat is slower than a sloth who has no legs or arms and is mentally retarded while having a constant and continous seizure. You will watch the incredibly slow paced ''run'' of characters and think, ''wait...there's still the fighting'' I am sorry to burst your bubble, but no. I have beaten people using 1 combo set the entire battle; what is the fun of playing a fighter where you don't even need to vary your moves? If your one of those people who doesn't like a variety of moves, might i suggest ''Urban Champion'' for the NES. A very major detail i also noticed was the fact that there was not a crouch/duck move, nor a way to jump voluntarily (as they do oh so often in the series) How you make a DBZ game without aerial combat is a mystery Sherlock Holmes couldn't solve. The story mode....this will bore you to tears. yeah, i suppose it's fun....1 time through (if even)but having to do it over and over to unlock moves, which i think the characters should have already known, is just tedious. It almost seems like they tried to copy MK:DA....uneffectively. Lastly....slowdown is horrendous if combat becomes too active. it's almost as bad as multiplayer Dynasty Warriors 3 when you execute a dual mosou attack. I can't stress how angy this game makes me, but i must press forward....My rating: 2/10

Replay Value
I can't comment here, because i've had it for 5 days and i'm bored with it already. I honestly would not say this game is worth more than a rental's worth of entertainment...and that seems too generous to this disgrace. My rating: 1/10

Overall Conclusion
I honestly could not recommend this game to anyone, even the die hard fans need to avoid or it'll scar you for life with emotional distress.If you feel like paying 5$ to suffer through this nightmare, be my guest. My final comment is this: AVOID the hype and frenzy from this game, and get a second opinion from a non-fanatic of DBZ. But i truly beg of you, DO NOT BUY THIS GAME.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 12/09/02, Updated 12/09/02