"It's so much not fun that it scares me."

I think people is being to lenient on the game because it is based on Dragon Ball Z. I'm a fan of the series, nobody can deny that Dragon Ball is one really amazing anime (unless you don't like anime).

Dragon Ball has an incredible potential for the videogaming industry since it contains action, adventure and cool fights. So far the games haven't been amazing, even tough the last one for the PS2 was pretty good. But better go back to the past, when Dragon Ball kept trying with the Butouden titles on SNES.

This title is the third one from the series (as the number clearly implies ;D) but if you haven't played the other two as myself then you will wonder WTF was Bandai thinking. I just read the other reviews and people is always comparing Butouden 2 with the third one, saying that the second game has the story mode and that it is way cooler and more complete. So, right now I will tell you what I think of this game, from a "I-haven't-played-the-other-2" view.

GRAPHICS: 8

Pretty good graphics basically. The powers look pretty cool and the movements aren't that bad. The animations need a bit more frames per second, but you won't notice it that much.

The character designs are ok, but one cannot say much about it since it wasn't designed specially for the game, but since the manga. The coolest attacks are the one from kaio-shin and they look a bit more colorful than the simple Kame-Hame-Ha. A detail I loved is that when you make an attack flows perfectly it becomes stronger and some kinda rays appear around it, making it to look much cooler.

There are much better graphics on the SNES, but this one aren't that bad.

MUSIC/SOUNDS: 5

The music isn't bad. It is something average on the SNES. There is a nice number of songs that you can choose from so you can hear to your favorite before battling and that should be entertaining.

The sounds are very bad. Yes, there are tons of them, but they are all really similar between them and they are so irreal. They are all awful screams that bother considerably. The other sounds are bad too, so don't worry looking for them.

GAMEPLAY: 3

Gameplay? this game has one of the worst gameplay for fighting games that I've seen on the SNES. You have a nice number of character... which half of them are the same among them. They all have the same attacks, they all charge the same fast, they all go at the same speed... the only differences are those combos and that the close range attacks are a bit different sometimes... So, the only real point on having a nice number of characters is that you will be able to find your favorite one and choose it...

Now, the Fat Boo is really strong and it's the only one that I think it's unbalanced because it seems they made it different. Damn! One would think that making it different wouldn't mean making it way stronger. Another problem for me is that you can't transform. You are always on Super Saiyan form and there is no way to become SSJ3 on Goku or change to the normal form because some people like black hair.

What I hate the most from the gameplay is that there is no story mode. There are only battles 1 on 1, which might be you vs another person, you VS cp or CP vs CP. So, the CP's AI is really bad and fighting them is extremely boring and fighting another person is still pretty bad. It usually becomes a fight in which once you learn how to do the "video" attacks, you will keep running away only looking for a moment in which you can attack. Then once you learn to protect yourself from those attacks the game will become absolutely boring.

Fights that are body on body (not using energy balls) are very bad and and just ruins the game.

STORY: 1

I'm joking. Even when this game was supposed to have story it doesn't... how weird and awful thing.

DIFFICULTY: too easy

The AI of the CP is just awful, it will really bore you. Now, how much time will it take you to learn to play this game to a fair level? a day or two. I don't think it should take you longer than that.

REPLAY VALUE: 4

It's actually fun for a while. You might enjoy this game for a week or two because learning absolutely all the attacks, combos and and protect things, without using guides, will take you a week, top. Then the game will turnout boring...

CONCLUSION: 4

This game was made with no effort. I don't have any doubts about it. They didn't try to make a great game, but only took the characters and took advantage of people like me who love the anime and wanted to buy a game from it.

RENT OR BUY?

This game should be a fine rent. Give it a try, you won't get disappointed for not buying it :)

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/06