Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury

Players who are not DBZ fans should give it a pass.

Dragon Ball Z fans, prepare to hate me. Sorry, but your reason for living gets yet another solidly mediocre game for you to play in Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury. The story will be great for fans, but the uninitiated are going to be going "Uh?" a lot. The game also is just a little too easy and playing through is mostly just an exercise in repeated button mashing.

Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury picks up its story where Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku II left off. This naturally means that DBZ fans will know exactly what is going on in the story, while the average GBA player will be completely lost...despite some limited plot exposition at the beginning of the game. This instantly establishes the game as "one for the fans" and not as a game that should be picked up as anyone's first exposure to DBZ. In the course of Buu's Fury, the player will get to play as Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, and Trunks. For the DBZ fan, the game is about 10 hours of fan-boy delight.

The play mechanic is that of a standard console/handheld RPG, and perhaps is even a little more linear than many. Being Dragon Ball Z, of course the whole story is regularly punctuated by numerous battles – both standard, low-level enemies and boss characters. Since combat is so important in DBZ, it is not surprising to see a marginal improvement in combat play for this installment of the franchise. A new blocking move has been added with the press of the right shoulder button.

Sadly, it is in combat that DBZ also fails most apparently. The player's character starts rather strong and levels up very quickly. This makes it possible to overwhelm the standard fighters with no problem and the bosses even seem like a bunch of wimps by comparison. Bosses tend to attack in easily analyzed patterns and generally a hail of punches and kicks will do them in. If the player can get a boss pinned against a wall – and it's not that hard to do – opening up a fresh tin of punch and kick whup ass makes the fight a foregone conclusion. And you know that new blocking button? You’ll seldom need it to win the day.

Control is really one of the few outstanding aspects of Dragon Ball Z: Buu’s Fury. It is tight and responsive. The fact that it is so good probably accentuates the problems in the ease of winning fights: the game controls so well it is too easy to make it do what you want and batter an opponent to dust.

Graphically the game is really not an improvement over previous outings. Level design even borrows a bit from the first games. Audio is okay, but the repetitive music got on my nerves after a while. Overall the presentation is pretty good and fans of the series will not be disappointed – it is all unadulterated Dragon Ball Z.

In addition to the main quest mode there is also a link-cable mode that allows players to fight each other. But be aware, both players must own a copy of the game for this mode to be available. In many ways this could show off the tight controls and the new blocking function to much better effect than the main game. Having an unpredictable human at the other end of the cable will bring in a little more fighting strategy than just mashing the 'A' button

So, if you are a Dragon Ball Z fan, Dragon Ball Z: Buu’s Fury is likely a game you’ll want to pick up, though even the show’s fans may be turned off by the ease with which they will play through it. It is actually short and easy enough that a two-day rental will probably be all you’ll need to blow through it. But if you are a true DBZ fan, my guess is you’ll have to own it. Players who are not DBZ fans should give it a pass. © 2004 GameShark.com