fighting

And true to the series, or as close a following as a fighting rendition of the anime legend can get. Fans who have suffered through Dragon Ball GT imports and DBZ Ultimate Battle 22 for the PSX will find Budokai a must buy. If you're familiar with the series it's an exhilarating trip with (obviously) much better graphics and more entertaining modes of play.

If you're looking for the best fighter out there then Tekken, MK: Deadly Alliance and Virtua Fighter 4 are your best bets, but you may still find the energy blasts, special moves, and unique characters worth a rental. The controls are limited to simple punch, kick, guard and energy functions, as well as the options to customize multiple button presses like P+K+G into other unused buttons.

The fighting itself is mediocre at first glance, you can walk through the story mode spamming the punch and kick buttons if you've got the difficulty on 'Very Easy', but ironically the simplicity of the control scheme help a great deal when seriously playing the 'Very Hard' levels. The computer isn't a perfect simulation busting off counter-20-hit combos when you mis-time a grab, but it's challenging.

The game also includes a nice character editor that was surprisingly deep. You earn money to buy skills through the World Tournament mode or unlock them through the story mode. In Mr. PoPo's shop there are several kinds of skills to buy, all at random (meaning you may get an attack for Piccolo or armor for Vegeta, depending on which skill section you're buying from) except for the 'recommended' skills, which typically cost more but at least tell you what you're getting.

All in all it's a great step in the right direction for fans of the series with an engaging story line (even if you've seen it 20 times on Toonami) and friendly presentation. Decent graphics, plenty of characters to choose from and customize, (though you'll miss the inclusion of Buu and further enemies if you've seen the show) lots of special moves and the American voice acting enunciate a package sure to keep you playing till those last 50 episodes get translated =)

Based on the anime series, DragonballZ, "Budokai" is a fighter game that includes 23 Dragon Ball Z warriors. Features include turning Super Saiyan, unlocking, buying, and trading skills. You can also collect 7 dragonballs and "make a wish" which gives you access to all the moves of one character. This can be done as many times as you can keep collecting the 7 dragonballs.

There are several modes in this game. You can either enter the story mode, (which helps you unlock characters) fight in a tournament or even battle against another friend. At first you are given access to the main characters such as Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo. However, these few select characters at the beginning changes quickly as you are able to acquire others such as Freeza, Cell, Hercule, Great Saiyaman, Trunks, Captain Ginyu, Antroid 16, Android 17, Android 18, Android 19, Dodoria, Raditz, Nappa, and Zarbon. However, despite the amount of characters you can play as, (23) there are no characters from the Majin Buu Saga which would include, Goten and Buu. There is also no Android 20 which would've been another great character.

Budokai is a highly recommended game whether you like DragonballZ or are just looking for another 1 on 1 fighting game. This game also has 3D graphics, which takes away from the actual look of what DragonballZ really looks like, but the graphics are still well done.

Pros:
Colorful, 3D graphics
23 characters to choose from
Story Mode
Tons of skills to learn

Cons:
Can be too complex to learn all the skills
Game doesn't follow through all the sagas
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Other recommendations for great DragonballZ fighter games is:
Budokai 2: (for Playstation2)Even more characters are involved including Fat Buu, Kid Buu, Goten, and all the fusions such as Vegeto. Android 20 is also included. If you have Budokai, you can trade capsules, (skills) between Budokai and Budokai 2. This game is also cell shaded to look more like the anime series.
Ultimate Battle 22: (for Playstation)Great DBZ fighter game
Teiketsu: (for GBA) another DBZ fighter worth a look.

DragonBall Z Budokai for the PSII is probabaly as faithful as a video game based on a absolutely popular Magna and Television series your gonna see from. At first I was a bit weary of about this game because it was made by Artari, who really didn't leave an impression on me with "Driver" [PSX] and the superfied glitch-tastic movie-based game "Enter the Maxtrix." I figured they were gonna rush this game like they did with "ETM" and it was gonna turn out horribly bad, I would be left with a bad game I wasted my money on. But to my humble surprise, this game is Fantastic [for Artari game]. You'll be able to play up to 20 or more characters from the series villains and Hero alike, spanning from Goku to Piccolo, and The sayains to Mighty android Cell. The menus are done quiet nicely. It looks and feels like something from Japan rather and the US. The game has Practice, Story, and Tournament modes to choose from. The story mode is not all that impressive, they could have just stuck with putting cut-scenes from the actual DBZ cartoon but instead they give poorly done 3D cut scenes that are somewhat like the episodes from the series but not at all as impressive. The Tournament mode is probably the hardest mode in the game of all, your opponents will knock you around like a rag doll which means your gonna have to spend a lot of time in the practice mode unless you wanna get beaten down because of your lack of practice. They are sheerly brutal [which is a DBZ trademark]. You also need to learn a lot of combos and tricks if you are to survrive either the Tournament or Story mode, because the further you go into the game the harder it gets despite the short battles. All the characters retain their trademark moves, like Goku's Kamehameha wave and Kaio-ken attack, Piccolo's spical beam cannon, Vegeta's Galick Gun, And freiza's Death beam. To make a long review short, this game is great for fans of DBZ, if your not a fan and dislike DBZ don't bother giving the game a second glance. However, if you are a fan give this game a chance, you'll love it.