Collection essentials #473-#475: Dragon Ball Z Budokai series (GC & PS2)

It feels a bit weird to start the PS2 list with a game all the way down midway through the letter D. It’s not that I don’t have PS2 games that I own and like that start with those first few letters, it’s more that it’s hard for me to give them the “essential” label. For example, I have many Dance Dance Revolution games on PS2, and they are quite good, but I have already covered the original Dance Dance Revolution on the original PlayStation. The PS2 games are generally better, sure, but it’s hard for me to look at one particular installment and say *this one* is specifically essential. There are also many retro game compilation titles on the PS2 such as the two Capcom Classics Collections, which are cool, but it’s hard for me to say that *this specific compilation* is the particular release of these games that I want on my list (though there will be compilations showing up here at some point).

Anyways, time to talk about…Dragon Ball Z!! It’s one of the tippity-top most popular and recognizable anime franchises in the history of the world. Even if you know nothing about anime and don’t care about it, chances are the sight of one of the main characters in Dragon Ball will strike you as something you’ve seen before because it has been so omnipresent in pop culture for years. 

It may surprise you to know that it took a while before Dragon Ball properly came to the states. The series started out as a manga (i.e., Japanese comic book) series in the 1980s, soon being adapted as an anime series for television. The first television series was simply called “Dragon Ball”, and then “Dragon Ball Z” was the second series to air, covering the latter portion of the Dragon Ball manga. There were a couple failed attempts to bring the Dragon Ball anime to America early on. The real birth of the series’ huge run of American success came when they decided to skip right to the more action-oriented Dragon Ball Z anime series, which aired in late 1996. Dragon Ball Z had already completely finished airing in Japan already when the first episode came stateside, so it took years to catch up. 

Naturally, there were tons of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z video games released in the ‘80s and ‘90s…but almost all of them stayed in Japan. And it just so happens that, around the time Dragon Ball was starting to surge to popularity in America, there was a period of a few years where no Dragon Ball games were being made, not even in Japan. My own speculation is that, since the TV series ended in Japan, there wasn’t so much demand for new video games based on the series for a while. And so, American fans got REALLY hungry for a Dragon Ball video game. 

2002 was finally the lucky year. First, there were a few Dragon Ball titles released on Game Boy systems. And then at the end of the year, we got Dragon Ball Z Budokai on the PlayStation 2. It seems pretty obvious that this game was developed with American audiences in mind; this is because it released in America and Europe before Japan, and because the content of the game only covers up to the end of the last fully-completed story arc in the series that had been localized in English up to that point, and the major characters from the series’ final story arc are all missing.

Dragon Ball Z Budokai is a one-on-one fighting game, not an action/adventure game as you might have expected. The main single-player mode is a story mode in which the players watch a series of cinematics telling a condensed version of Dragon Ball Z’s story, with players participating in various important fights as the events unfold (along with occasional unique little challenges to clear). The English voice cast from the TV show is present for this game, which is excellent. The game requires you to unlock most of its content, as only a handful of characters are available to select right off the bat. Players can customize each characters’ moves and attributes by acquiring and assigning various “skill capsules” which must be unlocked and/or purchased from a shop. Players can earn a bunch of money to spend by playing the difficult “World Tournament” mode where they must defeat a series of opponents in a row. There is some content in the game for amusing alternate “what-if” events that never happened in the actual manga or TV series.

The fighting itself is, well, not all that special. One thing that’s a little peculiar is that the game doesn’t use the typical fighting game command inputs for special moves. That means you won’t be moving the analog stick a specific way before a button press to use special attacks. Instead, to use the cool flashy attacks that the characters use in the manga and the show, you have to press a specific series of attack buttons (sometimes with direction inputs). For example, to use Goku’s Kamehameha beam, you have to punch four times and then hit the “energy attack” button. So there’s no way to quickly Kamehameha at a moment’s notice; you must always throw a volley of punches first, and that’s a little weird. Also, for the big grand signature moves like the “Spirit Bomb”, you actually must perform one of these sequences which ends in a close-range kick on the opponent that will initiate a little cinematic where the player simply then watches a little cinematic of the character fully executing the move. The fighting isn’t particularly deep, and it doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot of variation between how different characters play. Other “Dragon Ball-ish” elements like powering up and shooting little balls of energy are present, but I’m not going to thoroughly explain every little gameplay detail.

Budokai was initially a PS2 exclusive, but a GameCube version was made and released the following summer, with a new and obvious touch-up given to the graphics to give the game a more “cel-shaded” look. A few months later near the end of 2003, Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 was released on the PS2. The main draw of this game is that it had the characters from that final story arc of Dragon Ball Z that had been missing from the previous game, as by then the English dub of the anime had finally gotten that far. Simply rehashing the story mode from the previous game but extended a little longer would have been kinda redundant, so they changed up the single-player mode to be in a sort of “board game” style where character icons move over a series of spaces and fights ensue when heroes and villains collide. This mode does largely follow the story, though it takes more liberties than the faithful iteration found in the first game. There were some tweaks to gameplay which I frankly can’t fully recall and don’t feel bothered to look up right now. 

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 would drop on PS2 a year after that. And like the first game, Budokai 2 would also see a delayed GameCube release, which oddly came out after the third game for PS2 hit shelves. Budokai 2 on GameCube had actual content aside from graphics that was exclusive this time, but PS2 owners probably didn’t care because Budokai 3 was a much better game. And by this point, the GameCube was starting to fade from relevance, so a GameCube version of 3 never happened. Later, Budokai 3 received a “Greatest Hits” budget rereleases as is custom for PS2 games that sell well, only this is a rare instance where the releases is objectively better, as it introduces new content such as the option to switch to the Japanese voice cast.

While I wouldn’t call it the greatest fighting game in the world, Budokai 3 feels like a much more well-thought-out fighting game and is clearly much better than the first two games. Again, I don’t want to get bogged down explaining a bunch of mechanics…but to name a few, the way the game handles the “ki gauge” (how much power your character has to execute special moves and such) is a much better system. You can now generally throw out your special moves with a simple and quick button-and-arrow command rather than throwing out four punches first. Characters can simply fly at will now, which they oddly couldn't do before. There are other interesting and engaging gameplay elements that take place during fights, such as a “beam struggle” when the two characters use a beam special attack at the same time, requiring players to rotate the analog stick quickly to try and overpower the opponent. Single-player mode now involves an open world where the player can fly around and explore, while still triggering story events by winding up at certain places of relevance.

Now, for my personal history with Dragon Ball Z and these games…I remember being aware of Dragon Ball Z when it first gained popularity, as I knew people who had watched the show. I didn’t know a whole lot about it, though, and at the time I don’t think my family got the cable channels where it was airing. That is, until sometime circa 2001 when I discovered that our cable provider was now giving us Cartoon Network, which I had badly wanted to get at home for quite a while at that point. I started watching Dragon Ball Z around that time, which was early in the Buu saga (final story arc). It wasn’t long before I was totally hooked on it, hungry for all things Dragon Ball. Soon after the end of a season in late 2001, Cartoon Network began airing reruns starting at the very beginning of Dragon Ball Z, which I had not seen before, further fueling my fandom. 

When I saw TV commercials for Dragon Ball Z Budokai on PS2, I wanted it BAD. But, of course, I was a GameCube owner, so I was sort of out of luck. But luckily, my cousins PJ and Eric down the street DID have a PS2, and got the game! I was so psyched to play it at their house, and I absolutely loved it. After a few months, I was flipping through my latest issue of Nintendo Power, and was ecstatic when I saw an ad for my dream scenario…a GameCube version of Budokai!! At last, I would have the game at home! It launched at a budget price, too, which made it more attainable. Some months later, when I finally got my own PS2 in the spring of 2004, Budokai 2 was one of my first games that I snagged for it.

However…after the excitement wore down, I came to see that these games were not especially great. I kinda grew bored of them and let them go. And I actually didn’t initially get 3 at all despite good reviews. It was several years later, in 2009, when I would finally get and play Budokai 3. And what do you know, it was really good! What Budokai really should have been all along. I liked it so much that I played it 100% completion, unlocking everything! When GameStop was clearing out their GameCube titles, I managed to pick up the GameCube versions of the first two games in young adulthood. And while they may not be the greatest games in the world, I still have a fondness for them.

In the 20+ years since then, there have been a TON more Dragon Ball video games made. Budokai 1 and 2 probably shouldn’t be your first choices. Budokai 3, however, while not the very best Dragon Ball game, is certainly worth considering nowadays if you’re a fan of the series. I do feel that all three games do a great job of representing the IP well. The first and third games received an HD rerelease in the following console generation, though none on modern platforms I’m afraid. As for me, being a Dragon Ball fan since the relatively-early days of American syndication, these are essentials which I appreciate for quenching my ravenous hunger for a good Dragon Ball video game adaption back in the day. I don’t go back to them much, but, hey…if you’re local, hit me up and maybe we’ll play a few rounds!