I recently jailbroke my Wii and loaded it up with illegally obtained iso files legitimate backups of games I've owned and always owned and paid for with my real money, and for some reason I decided the first thing I should play was Dragon Ball Z Budokai. Why would I do this? Why am I so stupid...?
Liked Budokai well enough when it first came out, but that probably had a lot to do with the fact that there had literally never been a single good Dragon Ball Z game until that point. I mean, what else was I gonna do, play Ultimate Battle 22?
Budokai is slow, awkward, and ugly to look at. Character models are off-kilter, lumpy and disproportionate. There's a model viewer in the game and it's hilarious, just load it up and take a look at Nappa and his ill-fitting Saiyan armor, mouth all open, eyes vacant. Nobody quite looks right, but they do recreate DBZ's iconic opening completed with "Rock the Dragon," and that's kinda neat. The menus, on the other hand, look terrific. The portrait art that's used on the character select screen is incredible, it all has a really distinct style to it. It's just a shame it's wasted on this game in particular.
Fighting is clunky. Special attacks are combo'd into rather than being stick-based executions. There's no quarter circle inputs here, which was good for me at the time as I had virtually no experience with a proper fighting game. There was a period in the 2000s where I got really good at Budokai, which is something I can't often say about any fighting game, but coming back to it... it's just so sluggish, and the Gamecube controller with it's long travel time on its shoulder triggers and super clicky face buttons just doesn't feel comfortable for this kind of game.
Gameplay itself is also pretty braindead. The story mode covers the Saiyan, Freeza, and Cell sagas (Majin Buu isn't here but that's fine. It's fine.), but for the most part the difficulty curve is a flat line. Enemies block through your combos more the deeper into the story mode you go, and that's about it. After finishing the story mode you can come back for a few What If scenarios, which are entertaining enough, but The Legend of Hercule provides the most fun out of Budokai's side content. You play as Hercule and beat up everyone in attendance at the Cell Games, trash talking them (and disparaging yourself in your inner-monologues) after each fight. It's fun seeing Hercule talk shit about Android 16 only to turn around and say "Oh man, I really tore my arms up punching that robot!"
Dragon Ball Z Budokai feels like a proof of concept for a much better 3D DBZ fighter, and in many ways it is. I've been playing a lot of crap lately, what's up with that? I spent all this time modding this Wii and I have so many great games sitting on here that I could be playing, but I keep coming back to stuff I know I won't enjoy. I think I'm going to treat myself to a real classic next, I've earned it. Yeah... yeah I'm gonna play Star Fox Adventures next!
Liked Budokai well enough when it first came out, but that probably had a lot to do with the fact that there had literally never been a single good Dragon Ball Z game until that point. I mean, what else was I gonna do, play Ultimate Battle 22?
Budokai is slow, awkward, and ugly to look at. Character models are off-kilter, lumpy and disproportionate. There's a model viewer in the game and it's hilarious, just load it up and take a look at Nappa and his ill-fitting Saiyan armor, mouth all open, eyes vacant. Nobody quite looks right, but they do recreate DBZ's iconic opening completed with "Rock the Dragon," and that's kinda neat. The menus, on the other hand, look terrific. The portrait art that's used on the character select screen is incredible, it all has a really distinct style to it. It's just a shame it's wasted on this game in particular.
Fighting is clunky. Special attacks are combo'd into rather than being stick-based executions. There's no quarter circle inputs here, which was good for me at the time as I had virtually no experience with a proper fighting game. There was a period in the 2000s where I got really good at Budokai, which is something I can't often say about any fighting game, but coming back to it... it's just so sluggish, and the Gamecube controller with it's long travel time on its shoulder triggers and super clicky face buttons just doesn't feel comfortable for this kind of game.
Gameplay itself is also pretty braindead. The story mode covers the Saiyan, Freeza, and Cell sagas (Majin Buu isn't here but that's fine. It's fine.), but for the most part the difficulty curve is a flat line. Enemies block through your combos more the deeper into the story mode you go, and that's about it. After finishing the story mode you can come back for a few What If scenarios, which are entertaining enough, but The Legend of Hercule provides the most fun out of Budokai's side content. You play as Hercule and beat up everyone in attendance at the Cell Games, trash talking them (and disparaging yourself in your inner-monologues) after each fight. It's fun seeing Hercule talk shit about Android 16 only to turn around and say "Oh man, I really tore my arms up punching that robot!"
Dragon Ball Z Budokai feels like a proof of concept for a much better 3D DBZ fighter, and in many ways it is. I've been playing a lot of crap lately, what's up with that? I spent all this time modding this Wii and I have so many great games sitting on here that I could be playing, but I keep coming back to stuff I know I won't enjoy. I think I'm going to treat myself to a real classic next, I've earned it. Yeah... yeah I'm gonna play Star Fox Adventures next!
Reviewed on Oct 03, 2022