Tag Archives: Budokai

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to look at one of the oldest DBZ titles out there. Budokai is a true classic title that doesn’t even have the Buu saga contained within it. So the game goes by very quickly. It’s fun to play through the first two sagas again and the game gives a decent amount of context for the levels. That said, there’s just not a whole lot of battles here. How could there be when most of the characters aren’t even playable? You’ll be done with this in around 2 hours or so.

The gameplay is your classic 2D fighter. You use your close combat moves and energy moves to try and take down all of the health your opponent has. If you play better than your opponent, you will have won the round. There’s nothing complicated or tricky about the gameplay so it’s all about execution. If you lose then you know that you were outplayed. It’s really as simple as that and I can appreciate this. You have to lock in and mix up your combos if you really want to win. You learn more and more combos/attacks as you play through the game.

In general I wouldn’t say that I ever really got too good at learning all of the attacks. I would try to find one or two that would work really well and then I kept on using them. This seemed to be the perfect balance for me. Just spam the Kamehameha and the normal attacks and you would do pretty good. In general the Super Saiyan fighters really had crazy fast moves too. When I was using them I didn’t have to worry quite as much about strategy or anything like that. I do like how you would go back to base mode if you took too much damage though. The enemies would have the same thing happen to them too. I liked that the game was fair about it as others would just stack the deck in favor of the villains which is always a bit iffy.

The hits are satisfying and so I have no problems with the gameplay. Maybe it wasn’t the fanciest out there but this is an older game. Every character does have a combo move that triggers a whole animation with a lot of blows and good background damage. That was definitely a lot of fun. I didn’t get to land a whole lot of them to be honest but each one that I did get was very satisfying. You really have to time the attacks just right in order to land these special moves. Trust me when I say that it’s not easy.

The graphics have that retro feel which works really well here. Everyone is super blocky like an N64 title but the character designs are really handled well and you still recognize them from the show the whole time. Everything is fully voice acted which is always really nice as well. The soundtrack is fun enough, I enjoyed seeing the English theme song even if it’s not one of the all time greats. Everything about this feels like they put a lot of effort into the game back in a time when things weren’t as advanced as they were back then.

You also don’t have to worry about replay value. The campaign may have been very short but there is still the vs mode which is the main reason people would stay playing the game anyway. You can keep having fresh games with your buddies forever since the core gameplay is so solid. It’s why that part of the game is so absolutely critical. If it had not been up to snuff then the whole experience would have been hurt big time. Fortunately that was not the case so that’s why I can recommend this one.

Now the final question is, can you dive into this one without any prior knowledge of the DBZ universe? I would say yes. While the game has to skip a whole lot due to the limited amount of characters, they give you just enough story before and after each fight to know what is happening. I actually think it would be a very interesting way to get into the franchise that’s for sure. Still, this game is so old that by this point I doubt it will be the intro point for anyone.

Overall, Budokai is definitely a really nostalgic game to dive into. It’s pretty nice seeing the retro animation and having the theme song before every story saga really makes it feel like watching the show. It does a good job of tackling the story but is a really short game without a ton of characters to play through. Ultimately there aren’t too many reasons to play this over any of the newer ones. They will all have more things going for them but now I feel like I have really gotten to have more of the full Budokai experience so that alone was worth the trip. I eagerly await seeing what comes next with Sparking Zero although I will have another DBZ review up before then as my gaming marathon continues!

Overall 7/10

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 Review

Posted on by
3

Dragon-Ball-Z-Budokai-2-Front-Cover-46845
This is one of those games where you have to ask yourself…is more content always a good thing? I’m going to be honest, I’d like the game a lot more if it didn’t have the story mode that’s present in the game. It’s a shame that more modes can actually be bad for once and it’s a lose-lose situation since I’d be sad if there was none included as well. So I ask…does a bad story mode hurt the game enough for me to deduct a star or should it stay high?

The Budokai series is quite different from Tenkaichi in the sense that it is a 2D brawler. I always enjoy those although it’s safe to say that I still prefer Tenkaichi even though I’m going through a 2D fighting crisis right now. Tenkaichi just revolutionizes 3D gameplay and I never get tired or playing it. Budokai, on the other hand, feels a little limited at times. There’s only so much that you can do as your options are a little limited. It’s not as polished as something like Street Fighter, but the fundamentals are there and the controls are easy to grasp. The problem is that a lot of the game is locked out unless you complete tedious grinds.

For example…you start the game without signature characters like Vegeta and Frieza. I’m really curious to see how the character select screen looked at the beginning and I really should have checked when I had the chance. If you do not defeat them the right way in story mode, then you’ll continue to have to play the game without them and that can be a shame since there’s no way you’ll want to play Story Mode again. Just about everyone is unlocked through Story Mode or with the Dragon Balls, but the unlocks are not easy or quick. They take time.

Let’s go back to why Story Mode is no fun. You start on a Mario Party map and your goal will either be to make it to a location or defeat enemies multiple times. For a fighter like Frieza or Cell, you may have to win 3-4 times and then do that against some of the minions as well. Each turn feels like it takes a long time and you can imagine how sad it is to lose a level after going so far. It shouldn’t sound that bad in theory, but the fights really add up. Even the fact that the story takes a lot of new twists and turns cannot save the final product. You’ll end up just wishing that it was all over after a while. Without the unlockables at every corner I may not be as harsh on the Story Mode. As it is, it’s definitely one of the worst fighting game ones out there.

Aside from that you have other modes like Good ole multiplayer and Tournament Mode. Multiplayer is where you will spend the bulk of your time of course since fighting games like this one are best enjoyed with friends. That’s how it’s always been for the genre and it’s why nothing can beat a truly good fighting game. Tournament Mode should also be decently fun and you’ll earn some money out of it so you can buy some skills. Speaking of which…that’s another unlockable that is rather unnecessary.

Your characters actually don’t have their iconic attacks at first. Mind Blown right? It puts you at quite the disadvantage in Story Mode at times. Imagine playing Goku and being unable to use the Kamehameha. You can find the skills throughout the stages and get them at the shop, but locking a character’s moveset is unprecedented and certainly not in a good way. I really don’t know what they were thinking with this one and it’s a prime example of what I like to call “artificial replay value.”

The graphics are fairly solid. Goku’s voice acting is certainly great as he sounds a lot like Sonic. I feel like this started to change as the games got newer, but the retro ones still have this effect. The blasts are fun to watch and while more effort could have been put into the stages, they look good. The opening cinematic is also a blast and those always added an extra touch to the DBZ series. The soundtrack is a little more forgettable and I can’t actually recall any tunes at the moment, but I remember them being fairly good. Not every game can be the next Sonic right?

Budokai is a little on the old side and it shows, but this still did start the legendary franchise off right. If you like the gameplay here, then you should check out Shin Budokai. It’s a modernized version of this one and naturally it’s been greatly refined. Tenkaichi also came out due to this game so we owe it a lot. I also feel bad for the title since it didn’t ask to have such a terrible Story Mode. It just happened and the game ended up paying the price. We’ve asked the tough questions, but this DBZ title still beats some of the newer ones…sorta. It’s a closer fight than I’d like to admit.

Overall, This review may have been a little on the negative side, but this game is still a good one. When you take away all of the fluff, gameplay is still the most important feature in any game and that part is still done well here. Learning how to block and fight effectively is what will make you a true DBZ warrior. Part of why Story Mode was so difficult was because I didn’t know how to charge my Ki. I still have no idea how to do that even though it’s usually very easy to figure out. Still, the extra difficulty made everything a little more intense so that’s good. I definitely recommend getting this game, but don’t play the Story Mode as it will sour your experience. Despite this game being on the legendary Gamecube console, I actually prefer Budokai 3. The amount of in game lockable content is just too much. It would be good if you could unlock them naturally, but otherwise….I don’t think so. In closing, ignore everything about the game and just head straight to Vs. Mode. That’s the best way to have fun, but good luck with that since you won’t have Vegeta or a number of other cool characters. Maybe they could animate Story Mode and then take out the gameplay when they do a remake someday. That would be the best of both worlds.

Overall 7/10