Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku

"Mediocre, but at least it's not another fighting game"

Intro:
Goku decides to meet his friends, whom he has not seen in a long time, on Master Roshi's island. Little does he know trouble is brewing in the form of a strange, alien being who claims to be his own brother.

The game will take players from the Saiyan Saga all the way to the end of the Freiza Saga.

Game Play and Atmosphere: (6/10)
Players will assume the role of Goku for the entire course of the game. Because the game is so short, - campaigns range from 5-7 hours - it would've been nice to have other playable characters.

Game play is an overhead action/adventure hybrid, with a few RPG elements thrown into the mix. Goku can punch, use one of three ki attacks, - two of which have to be learned as you progress - fly, and hold both health restoring items and quest items. Goku starts off fairly weak, so weak in fact, that he's even on the wolves' appetizer menu. You would think the world's strongest martial artist would be able to handle a mere puppy dog. Not only that, but your fists are more or less useless, so you'll find yourself resorting to ki based attacks at least 85% of the time. On the plus side, your ki gauge refills fairly quickly, and ki attacks can be charged to inflict more damage.

Fortunately, it does not take long to raise levels, and once Goku gets some experience under his belt, he gets stronger fairly quickly. There is nothing like annihilating hordes of enemies using a single ki blast at a fraction of it's full power. However, this leads me to my first rant. The learning curve is lopsided; the game actually gets easier as it goes along. Players will probably die a few times fighting the forest wolves at the start, but once they progress in levels, then even the strongest enemies and bosses fall like dominoes.

The game implements pretty much every major Dragon Ball Z character in the quest. All the bosses, heroes, and supporting characters are intact. The game follows the storyline reasonably close, with a few added optional sidequests thrown into the mix, which serve to give the game more play time and give Goku more experience and occassionally a boost in walking speed. However, the way in which some elements are introduced is a bit awkward. For example, a few characters do nothing but remain stationary in given locations, and all they do is give Goku experience, no sidequests necessary. I didn't realize simply talking to people could make you a better fighter. I guess that's how Hercule does it.

Also, boss fights are mundane, unexciting, and repetitive. No strategy is necessary. They all follow the same pattern: Simple hit and run tactics. This is a real shame, considering the main fights on the show are more dramatic and exciting, but on the game, they are reduced to games of hide and seek. There are reasons for this. Because bosses take away a good portion of your health, melee attacks are almost futile. That means the best method is to charge up ki blasts, fire, run away to re-charge and to put some distance between you and the boss, pick up the occassional flight charge, - you can't be hit while airborne, but you can only fly for so long - and repeat the process until the boss keels over. This same pattern will be used throughout every boss battle in the entire game.

There are a couple of problems with the environment itself. First of all, some objects are bulkier than they should be. This is obviously due to laziness in programming, as you should easily be able to walk right behind objects such as trees and rocks, without having to go clear around them less you get hung up. Second, the Namekian Temple is one of the most aggrivating events I've seen in a long time. It's not difficult because it requires every ounce of skill, but because it's a cheap guessing game. Every room contains multiple teleporters. You're probably thinking ''Cool. Multiple rooms to explore.'' Nuh-uh. At least 75% of the teleporters take you back to the entrance of the temple, and only a few lead to extra rooms. And the passageways that are optional don't contain anything special either, but just more teleporters which take you back to the start. There is nothing more frustrating than to work your way through it, choosing teleporters by process of elimination, only to make one false move and have to start all over again. This is not a good way to make a game challenging. The temple does have some profound sayings etched on the walls though, which are certainly worth reading.

Play Control: (8/10)
The control scheme is relatively simple, especially given the number of functions in the game. I am personally thankful that all the special ki attacks can be accessed by a simple procedure of switching them using ''L'', and executing them using ''B'', instead of resorting to lame, Street Fighter-esque button combinations, which have no business being in a game of this nature and should be kept strictly for fighting games.

The interface and menus are pretty simple as well. The game keeps track of items, quests, special ki attacks learned, etc., and all this information is easily accessed. You won't be fighting through confusing menus to get to anything.

One minor gripe I have, is that melee attacks seem to be more effective from certain directions depending on which monster you are fighting. They seem to have more range if you approach a monster from a certain direction. For example, if you come at big dinos from the left, then it's easier to hit them. I really see no rationale for this sort of scheme, and it's probably due to poor programming.

Replay Value: (6/10)
A game that is this short needs replay. Fortunately, due to the optional sidequests, there is some reason to pick this up again. Then again, it shouldn't be too hard to find everything on your first run.

Since the game doesn't drag on, and raising levels does not take gobs of time, it's a decent game for a quick play. This is one of the few games with RPG elements where you actually spend a great deal of time related to your main quests or the various side quests instead of beefing up your character.

What really knocks down the game's replay value, is the shaky game play mechanics. While it's good for a quick play, and players don't have to spend forever and a day raising levels, players may not want to undergo some of the frustrating nuances in the game again.

Graphics: (9/10)
The preview in Nintendo Power claims that 3D models are used. That's certainly viable, as all the characters look absolutely great. The characters do have a 3D-ish look to them, and you can tell special attention was paid to shading, texture, and subtle details. For example, you can actually see the turtle logo on the front of Goku's gi. You can actually see the little dots on Krillin's head. Subtle details like these make the characters look more realistic.

The environments are accurate from the show's standpoint. For example, the colors used on Namek actually reflect what the planet looks like. Also, several different environments are used, ranging from forest, mountains, snow, city, and military, and all seem to have some nice touches and give the game some variety.

The animations are fairly well done too. Characters even have animations conveying surprise, shock, etc.

There are even a few cut scenes from the show. The game even opens up with the show's introduction from the first and second seasons. Most of the other cut scenes are stills, but they are nicely ported.

When a character is speaking, his or her portrait comes up. The portraits themselves look okay, but sometimes they are put on a rather bright background that is a bit hard on the eyes. That's about the only thing wrong with the game as far as graphics are concerned.

Music and Sound: (5/10)
The music soundtrack is mediocre at best, but certainly not grating. For some reason, the theme music at the intro was taken out and some other song which doesn't sound anything remotely like it was put in. The intro song in the game sounds a bit cheesy, and I think they could've done a better job. The overhead tunes are slightly better. The one you hear at the outset has sort of a bouncy, happy feel to it, which is certainly appropriate given the light-hearted nature of Dragon Ball Z. Most of the other songs are just average. They are nothing outstanding, but not bad either.

The sound effects vary in quality. For example, the crumbling noises heard when enemies are defeated sound cool. Goku also yells his trade mark ''Kame-ha-me-ha!'' when a Kamehameha Wave is fired at full power. But for reasons I can't fathom, when a character makes a sudden appearance or departure, it makes this sharp ''HA!'' sound. That's the best way I can describe it. I'm not sure about the rationale behind choosing this effect. Most of the other sound effects, like the music, are average.

Conclusion:
Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku is yet another game with good graphics and sub-par game play. It's certainly not as bad as some people say it is, but it does have some serious problems that need to be fixed. If you're a fan of Dragon Ball Z, then you might want to get this game if you can get it fairly cheap. After all, it is one of the few overhead adventure/RPG Dragon Ball Z games, and it does have some merits.

Final Score: (6/10)

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/04