Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu

"WTF is This???"

Intro-
I will start off by saying that Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu is one of the worst games I have ever played. It is the first 2-D fighter on the Game Boy Advance based on the popular Dragon Ball Z anime. It is another one of those senseless beat-em-up games based on a franchise that will sell no matter how bad the game is.

Story-
There is no story!!! That pretty much summarizes the story. Awesome, isn't it?
If the developers had actually taken the time to create a story mode, this game wouldn't be that bad. The closest you can get to a story is after you win a couple of fights, a line that says what happened next and other crap about how they saved the world or something.

Graphics-
The graphics are probably the only part of this game that even comes close to the average mark. The character models look only o.k. The game's graphics barely don't even pass the average mark. The arenas don't look that great, but they're passable. The animation is so slow that it will seem as if everything is in slow motion.

Sound-
OMG!!! The sound in this game is so awful you'll wish you were born without ears. The music is repetitive and boring, and the characters never talk. Only moans, grunts, and screams in this game. And those are only occasional. Even if you get hit, the possibility of the character screaming is about 50%. The sound is also the same for both guys and girls. When a girl screams in this game, it will sound like a guy. They don't even say their special moves, which is the highlight of DBZ games. Also, the music is exactly the same in every single stage which is really, really annoying.

Gameplay-
The gameplay in this game is one of the worst I've ever had the displeasure of playing. Each character only has 3 moves. Those three moves by the way are incredibly hard to pull off. Each character also has punch and kick. That's all. Can you believe it? When I first played the game, it took me around ten minutes to figure out the controls, and the game still sucked. Most people will just constantly button mash. In some games, button mashing will turn into incredible special moves that will absolutely own the other player. In this game, it doesn't even do right. All of the game modes are identical and Tournament mode is not even a tournament! All you do is beat up one character and move on to the next. It would have been more fun with an elimination bracket. In other modes, you can't even choose the stage at least. Even if the stages all look the same, it would have been nice to choose.

Never buy/rent/play/touch this game. It is that bad. Even the most intense Dragon Ball Z fan boy should stay at least a mile away from this game. If you are able to play this game for at least an hour straight, congratulations. You have achieved what no one else in this world has been able to do. If somebody else buys this game for you, it means they hate you. Overall, just don't even look at the box for this game.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 01/27/06