A nice start for the onslaught of next-generation Dragon Ball games
This is a rather simple fighting game. You have a Punch, a Kick, Guard and Energy, however, holding the pad in a direction while pressing Kick or Punch, will result in different moves, which all look great and painful enough. It's impressive just how many moves they have maped to 2 buttons, although in the long run, the movelist is not as impressive once you realize that most character fall onto 1 of three archetypes, each with it's own moveset, the only real difference being the names of the Ki attacks and most characters have at least one unique Ki Attack. Another neat thing, if you press guard and tap UP or DOWN on the D-pad, you can sidestep, and if you are close to the oponent, it'll get you in a nice postion to start up your combos.The last button used to fight is Energy, which by pressing it makes your fighter shoot a yellow blob of energy, which deals little damage, and can be deflected, away or towards you, by pressing Guard at the right moment(This can lead to some interesting volleyball matches). However, in what I felt was a twist, compared to other fighters, to use the big flashy attacks, you have to do combos ending in the Energy button. All combos are premade, and you can check them on your command list, and are usually very simple, like Punch x 4 followed by Energy will result in a Kamehameha, or a basic flashy projectile for another character. Even though this might seem dull, it's actually quite interesting, and it allows new players, or players who don;t play fighters, to do the big flashy stuff, without the half quarter(or those dreaded full circle) motions. Another interesting feature, is the Customization. Through Story mode, you will earn capsules(Or you can buy them), which range from character specific techniques, to items with special effects, like reviving your character or boosting your attack when you are low on health. It's a fun system, although it won't make characters wholly different(Part of it, due to the similarities between all characters, who mostly play almost the same, which once again, is newbie friendly, allowing fans of Dragonball, and not fighting games, to move from one character to another, without much change) it does make it more interesting(I remember letting myself get killed, using Freeza, by my friends, and surprise them by having the spaceship revive me and turn me into Cyborg Freeza....fun times).
The presentation is incredible, for the Story Mode, they have recreated in 3D the whole series up to the Cell Games. Although condensed, it explains the story perfectly, although on your first playthrough, if you are new to the series, some questions may pop up, most being answered in the unlockable Story chapters. The graphics engine is good, I remember when it was first released, I just loved how everything looked, it was all so...so nice....sadly, with the advent of the following Budokais, the graphical impact got softened, to the point of actually...not looking as good. Speaking of graphics, characters and backgrounds are really detail-lacking, with most scenarios looking almost the same, which is kinda sad. Also, projectiles could have used more transparencies(And they will...., 1 year later).
If you got the European version, you will get the Japanese voiceovers(Which I don't know how good they are in the game, but it mostly means a high pitched Goku, and almost serious sounding Recoome), while Americans get the English Voiceovers,in which they display from decent-to-average performances. The sound effects are nice, and fit the game completely, and the music, while not orchestral, is fitting of a game of this type, although it could have used some more heavy sounding music.
All in all, this was a decent game, although a bit repetitive, it's worth playing, but not owning(in 2008) just to experience the Story Mode, which no other DB game has nailed as good as this one. On all other departments, the new Budokais are better, adding more flare and interactivity, that doesn't mean this game is bad, it's just dated, and you could get more bang for your bang on other installments.