Reivewed By
Dragonmaster Alex
Reivewed By
Dragonmaster Alex
Publisher : Bandai
Developer : Bandai
Released (Japan) : 1995 (1996)
Genre : Fighting
Language : Japanese (but a lot is in English)
System : Playstation
The famed "worst DBZ game ever". That actually amuses me. It makes me wonder. Why do people not like this game? IT TOTALLY ROCKS! But I am a big DBZ fan, so it may be better in my eyes than yours. Anyway, I like this one a lot.
Gameplay 9.5 - Basic 2D fighting with a twist. There are 2 levels to each stage. You can jump up to a higher level and attack from above your opponent. Unlike other DBZ fighting games, there is no split screen. The stages are made out of plygons and the characters are scaled down as they move firther apart. I like this better because you can tell where you're at better. Also this lowers the cheapness factor a great deal. In other DBZ games, a super attack would stop all action. If you didn't know how to block one, you were screwed! You could not jump out of the way or anything. You were forced to get hit or block somehow. This has changed. You can again counter with another super attack or simply jump out of the way. It's a lot less annoying and makes the game much more fun to play. The new build up mode is cool. Come on Capcom, put this in Street Fighter. Your character raises level when you defeat an opponent of a higher level. You can also take your character data and fight against another players character. Kind of reminds me of Barcode Battler, except you have to put some effort into having a strong character.
Graphics 7.5 - The games biggest weak point. The characters suffer from a bad color pallet. I've seen better in a PSX game before. It's not bad, just not very colorful. Granted, some of it looks pretty good, but most of it doesn't. The Backgrounds are sort of dull. Not much goes on in them, and they aren't very coloful either. They're made out of polygons. Again, not bad, but I've seen better. The opening intro is very cool! The animation is very high quality. It's the same intro as DBZ Shinbutohden for Saturn. The little scenes before and after fights are just annoying. They look like cardboard cut-outs with lips moving. It's better to just turn them off, you won't be missing anything.
Sound 10 - The music is AWESOME! Possibly the best I've heard on PSX. To my surprise, it isn't CD-Audio! This makes other stuff on PSX look bad! I LOVE IT!!! the sound effects are just great. Of course, they're all recorded from the voice actors in the show. I have no complaints here.
Story Line 7 - Well, there really isn't one for the game. Nothing follows the show when it comes to the order of fights. I don't think Gohan ever fought an older version of himself in the show! Well, I don't think any fighting game follows a real story line.
Control 8.5 - Not bad. Some moves are hard to pull off. It's set up just like the DBZ games for Super Famicom (Japanese Super NES). It may take a while to get the hang of for newcommers, but anyone who has played any DBZ game for Super Famicom will know what they're doing. Even the special moves are the same.
Overall 8.5% - This may just be the best DBZ game for Playstation. It's much better than Dragon Ball (GT) Final Bout. I have Legends for Saturn, and I don't think it's as good as this. I know some people might flame me bigtime for saying this, but I think this may just be the best DBZ game you can get, aside from DBZ Shinbutohden. Speaking of Shinbutohden, it's just a Saturn conversion of this, with the 3D backgrounds replaced with 2D ones with a split screen added. Unfortunately, DBZ Shinbutohden is very rare, so UB22 is probably the best one you can get your hands on right now. Also about 90% of the game is in English! Another plus! If you're not a DBZ fan, you might not appreciate this one. I still say this should be the one released in USA, not Fina Bout. Oh well, can't win 'em all.
