Reviewed: November 28, 2003
Reviewed by: Jason Porter

Publisher
Atari

Developer
Dimps

Released: October 28, 2003
Genre: Fighting
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen

8
9
9
9
8.7

Supported Features

"But is it a good game?" you ask hesitantly. "I've never even seen Dragon Ball Z!" Fear not, gentle gamer. Licenses aside, Budokai at its core is a very solid game and a welcome addition to the fighter-starved GameCube library.

The GameCube version features:

• All new enhanced graphics
• Follow the Dragon Ball Z® animated series from Saiyan Saga to Cell Games!
• Face off with up to 23 mighty Dragon Ball Z warriors!
• Unlock, customize, and trade devastating skills with friends to create the most powerful fighters in the universe!
• Fight in 5 epic play modes
• Fine-tune your skills against custom AI opponents
• Battle at blazing speeds in the Burst Zone

At the basic level, play itself is well designed in Budokai. This is one of those rare titles like Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance in which blocking and dodging are at least as important as kicking and punching. Button mashing won't get anyone anywhere for very long here. The controls are deceptively simple: four buttons (three attack and one block) plus the directional stick are used to create every one of the hundreds of moves. Having played this game on both systems, I have to say the GameCube's controller is much better suited to Budokai than the PS2's. It's simply easier to hit two or three buttons at once when they're basically all lined up instead of rotated ninety degrees apart from each other.

The one really weird thing about Budokai's gameplay is the lack of a jump command. That's right, no jumping allowed. At first it felt cheap, but once I realized it was necessary to streamline other things about gameplay, I came to appreciate the amount of thought that went into creating the system. In place of jumping, you can block (which works against almost everything) or dodge in one of three directions. When you get hit into the air, you stay there, allowing the other fighter to fly up and meet you for some awesome-looking midair combat. After playing Budokai for fifteen minutes, you're so used to it that you forget any game ever allowed you to jump at will.

This game is sleek and relatively deep, but it's anything but balanced. Some characters definitely have unfair advantages in battle. For a fan of the show like myself, this is great - some characters are just supposed to be stronger than others - but it also means that there are some characters who will see little if any play from serious gamers. Luckily, even the mot extremely unbalanced match is not unbalanced enough that one fighter is sure to win. In other words, it's not exactly fair, but it isn't cheap, either.

Budokai features a handy practice mode with some useful stats and a helpful command display along the bottom of the screen to help players learn special attacks more easily. The duel mode is fairly standard (two players or one vs. the computer), but is worth mentioning because it allows you to pit two computer opponents against each other in order to observe how they fight. This helps when you get into the World Tournament Mode.

In this mode, you choose either Beginner, Adept or Advanced level and fight your way through three, four or five increasingly difficult single-elimination matches in order to emerge victorious and reap a monetary reward. This mode has no difficulty adjustments, so if you want to beat Advanced level, you'll really have to bite the bullet and train hard. However, with each tournament you win or place 2nd in, you gain anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000 "Zenie," money that you can use in a Skill Shop to buy skills that you can equip onto "blank slate" versions of the characters in the game. Each character has seven slots for skills, and each skill takes from one to seven slots. There are literally hundreds of different skills to purchase and it's more or less a randomized purchasing system. This customization aspect may very well be the most exciting thing about Budokai. It effectively lets players build characters however they want them and try anything they can think of. Of course, the "normal" version of each character is always available to play with as well, but some of the most powerful techniques and interesting support items can only be seen by equipping the appropriate skill onto a character. The possibilities are nigh-endless!

Last, but not least, Story mode follows the first half or so of the story of Dragon Ball Z through the eyes of Goku, the show's hero. There's plenty of characterization (more than in any other fighting game I can think of), and even though some of the name references may be frustratingly obtuse to non-fans, the basic storyline is easy to follow. Of course, as Goku you fight plenty of battles. When you defeat a character in Story Mode, he or she (or it) will then be available to play in the other modes. Story Mode is a blast to play because it offers more plot than just a mindless beat-em-up to interested players.

The graphics remain largely unchanged from the PS2 version, which was already impressive in its ability to look like an anime in video game form. What Atari has changed only makes the game better. The character models are now all shaded in a very sleek, cool-looking way. Add to that the vibrant colors of the original and the unforgettable character designs of Dragon Ball Z and you've got a visually stunning game. Small pencil line details on the characters only add to the authentic feel. Textures are at a minimum to accent the feeling of playing a cartoon, mostly showing up in the cool-looking level designs.

I also noticed that some of the explosions, dust and other particle effects seem to be smoother on the GameCube version of Budokai. Transparencies, blur and other effects are flawless. This title is a joy to watch.

There are a good number of songs in this game and all are fun to listen to. At least some of them are arrangements of music from the TV show itself. Others seem to have been written exclusively for the game. The score has a heroic, cartoony sound to it without being silly. It's very contemporary sounding. While no single track stood out to me, they were all good.

Perhaps the 'coup de grace' of Budokai on either platform is its voice acting. Fans will be ecstatic to hear all of the voices they've come to know and love, from the optimistic-to-a-fault Goku to the gravelly voiced narrator. Also as in the show, the vastly talented (and underappreciated) Chris Sabat does a staggering number of the voices, including Raditz, Nappa, Vegeta, Mr. Popo, Kami, Piccolo, Yamcha, Zarbon and at least one of the two Eternal Dragons (and probably more). When all is said and done, there's some great voice talent and the same almost-cheesy lines fans know and love in Budokai. The game is a winner in this category.

The real value of Budokai, though, is in the skill collection and customization of characters. Collecting every skill for every character is a momentous task. Once they're all collected, there are thousands of possible combinations to try and experiment with. Even for the gamer who can't find anyone to play against, Budokai will basically be fresh for as long as you want it to be.

Atari has made a winner with Budokai and I for one am very happy to see that the GameCube version gives the Nintendo faithful plenty of reasons to gloat over their PS2-playing friends - even if it did take a while to get here.