Dragon Ball Z Super Gokuden: Kakusei-Hen

"Ka...Me...Ha...Me...Huh?"

An undetermined length of time ago, in an alternate universe created by Akira Toriyama, people with big spiky hair could harness their bodies' latent energy and use it to smite the forces of evil!

That's basically the storyline of Dragonball Z. Now, I like Dragonball Z. At one point, I wanted to write an unofficial guide to the show. I was that obsessed. Then I played Dragon Ball Z Super Gokuden 2: Kakusei-Hen. It's not completely terrible, but it could definitely have been better.

Story: 7/10
If you are a Dragonball Z fan, you probably will know what's going on even if you don't understand Japanese. DBZ:SG2 follows the Saiyajin saga, the Vegeta saga, and the Furiza saga. You know the story: Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Boy has son. Boy's son is kidnapped by uncle. Boy and brother are revealed to be aliens. Boy kills brother. Brother's boss finds boy and fights Boy, loses. Brother's boss's boss is evil and wants to be immortal, so he sets out to find magic wishing stones. Boy must stop Bbb. You know, that old story.

Gameplay: 2/10
This is where it falls apart. Depending on the path decisions you make in the game, there are between 5 and 30 fights. Each of these fights represents a moderate-to-major plot point in the story. But these are no ordinary fights, my friend. Heavens, no! These are beefed-up versions of ''Paper Rock Scissors''! Each letter button (except L and R) represents a type of attack. One type beats another, loses to yet another, and ties with itself and one other. You can assign five attacks to each letter, but why bother? There are only three moves you need.
1. Charge (builds energy)
2. Super Move (uses energy)
3. Stun Move (counters enemy's super move)
I beat the entire game using only one and two. Second time through, I used number 3 once or twice.
You switch between Gohan and Goku at certain points throughout the game, just for the sake of following the storyline. Midway through the game, as Goku, you have to do gravity training. This consists of hitting X 50 times before your health falls to 0.
I'm dead serious...

Graphics: 6/10
Not bad... not great either. 3/4 overhead/side view so you can see both yourself and the enemy pretty well. In the long (and I do mean long) dialogue scenes, the characters are represented by having their faces in big windows. Their faces change in certain scenes to reflect their mood (anger, fear, anger, anger, and anger).

Sound: 7/10
Music was fairly decent. MIDI, of course, but what else is one to expect? Sounds during combat were great. Punches and kicks sounded like they were actually hitting something, charging an attack and gathering energy sounded very much like what they sounded like in the show. Sadly, this is perhaps the best art of the game.

Replayability: 2/10
Unless you need a cure for your insomnia, don't play this through in one sitting. And don't pay it more than once. There are some scenes you can only see the second time through, but I couldn't force myself to do it. One other thing you might want to try is getting all of the attacks, which you do by using the same letter button over and over ad nauseam. I believe my final count was around 200 hits of each button to get all of its attacks.

Overall: 4/10
This game was not completely terrible. The overly boring gameplay hurt it quite a bit, but the graphics and sound helped a little.

Buy or Rent?
Buy: If you are a complete DBZ-holic and worship the ground Akira Toriyama walks on.

Rent: If you are bored and have played every other SNES/SF game.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/03, Updated 07/07/03