Dragon Ball: Final
Bout
System: Sony
PlayStation
Release Date: August 21, 1997
At long last, there
is finally a fully 3D polygonal fighter based on the Dragon
Ball universe. Choose from many different characters, including
Goku, Pan, Chibi Goku, Trunks, Vegita, Freeza, Cel, Boo, Gohan,
Piccolo, and a whole bunch of other forms of these same characters,
including Super Saiyan Level 4 SonGoku! There is the usual one
player mode, two player versus, and a Tenkaichi Budokai mode.
I -- like many other Dragon Ball fans from before the American
invasion -- waited excitedly for this game for a very long time.
When it finally arrived, what good things did I have to say
about it? Well, the intro animation is really well done. The
sound effects are straight out of the show. As long as you don't
try to actually play the game, it looks pretty cool. The characters
actually act like they are hurt badly when their life meters
are low. That's about it for nice things that I have to say
about this game.
Don't be fooled by
the pretty looking screenshots to the right. To see this game
in action is to hate it. There is just no excuse, in my opinion,
for Bandai to take so long developing such a pathetic game.
The play control is terrible, in that the characters walk in
slow motion and reel from an attack so long that if you just
keep hitting your opponent you will defeat them before they
can move. The hit detection is atrocious. You can be standing
behind your opponent and facing the other way and throw a fireball
and they will occasionally get hit. Your opponent can also be
flying high above you, and when you throw a punch at ground
level, sometimes they will get hit and suddenly be standing
in front of you.
The camera angles
are flat out stupid. When you power up a special attack, just
as you are about to fire it, it switches to a view from right
behind you or your opponent, so you can't even see the attack.
When somebody gets punched, it changes the camera view to one
of the screen with just the hit's recipient on it, leaving you
disoriented and unable to see what your character is doing.
The rest of the time the camera just sits there (as in the screenshot
to the right of Cell kicking Trunks) getting a side shot of
the characters, making the 3D aspects of the design almost a
complete waste of time.
Now, about the secret
characters. Check out these wonderful selections: As if the
2 versions of SonGoku that you can choose from by default weren't
enough, hidden within the game are Super Saiyan SonGoku from
DBZ, Super Saiyan SonGoku from DB GT, Super Saiyan Level 4 SonGoku,
and Super Saiyan Chibi Goku. That's right, there are 6 different versions of Goku, every one having exactly the same moves, with
their special attacks being just 2 different variations of the
KameHameHa. All of the versions of all the characters are the
same as each other, except they have Super Saiyajin hair. Heck,
there are 2 Super Saiyajin SonGoku's that are exactly the same
except for the outfit! Also, Super Saiyajin level 4 SonGoku's tail
looks like a string of hot dogs sticking out of his rear
end, and for some reason Freeza's head is ridiculously huge.
Now, on to the music.
There are only a couple of new tunes in this game. The rest
of the songs are recycled tunes from
Shin Butoden. Those songs are great, mind you, but
it just seems particularly cheap of them to not produce
all new stuff.
There is a US release
of this game, which is somewhat exciting, but there are much
more deserving titles in the DBZ game series, such as Hyper
Dimension for the Super Famicom or Legends
for the PlayStation. Still, it was made in very limited quantities
and came out before the US Dragon Ball Z craze began, so it
fetches a VERY hefty price at Funcoland. How does it play? It's
just like the Japanese version, except it has horrible English
voices instead of the original Japanese, adding insult to injury.
This is, in my opinion,
a very bad game. If you just love Dragon Ball, then go ahead
and buy it. Lots of people have complained about my bad review.
They say that it is a great game. In my opinion, however, Tekken
3, Tobal 2, and just about any other 3D fighter make this game
look like a piece of junk.
FAQs
and Codes at gamefaqs.com
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- Wonderful intro
movie
- Has Super Saiyan
Level 4 Goku as a hidden character
- The only DB game
to date with 3D character models
- You can sell the
US version of this for a LOT of money and wash your hands
of it completely
- Really crappy
play control
- Unexcuseably terrible
camera angles
- Special attacks
are mostly less than spectacular
- Way too many versions
of the same characters with just slightly different looks
       
Expect some soon.
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