Your First Kamehameha Probably Wasn’t the First
For an entire generation of gamers, the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series on the PlayStation 2 was the definitive fighting game experience. It was the first time many of us got to step into the shoes of Goku, Vegeta, and the rest of the Z Fighters in a fully 3D environment. The controls were intuitive, the story mode was epic, and the super moves looked just like they did in the anime. It felt perfect. But what if I told you that Budokai wasn’t the beginning? In fact, it was the culmination of nearly a decade of trial, error, and some truly bizarre game design.
A brilliant new video essay by fighting game historian GuileWinQuote, titled “DBZ Fighters Before Budokai,” takes us on a journey back in time to explore this forgotten era. It’s a fascinating look at how developers tried to capture the larger-than-life scale of Dragon Ball Z with the limited technology of the 90s.
The Super Butōden Era: Split-Screen and Meteor Smashes
Long before Budokai, there was the Super Butōden series on the Super Famicom (the Japanese Super Nintendo). These games were revolutionary for their time. Instead of confining the fighters to a single screen, they introduced a dynamic split-screen mechanic. When the characters moved far apart, the screen would divide horizontally, allowing for massive stages that felt true to the anime’s planet-spanning battles.
This was also where the classic beam-struggle mechanic was born. If two energy blasts collided, players would have to furiously mash buttons to overpower their opponent. The real star of the show, however, was the “Meteor Smash.” By inputting a complex command, a player could launch a devastating super move. The camera would dramatically pan out to show the character gathering energy before unleashing an attack that could obliterate a huge chunk of the opponent’s health bar. It was flashy, cinematic, and something no other fighting game was doing at the time.
The 32-Bit Nightmare: Ultimate Battle 22 and Final Bout
When the series made the jump to the 32-bit era with the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn, things got… weird. Games like Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 and Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout are infamous among fans for a reason. While they transitioned from sprites to 2D characters made from 3D models, the gameplay often felt slow, clunky, and unresponsive.
Ultimate Battle 22, as its name implies, had a roster of 22 characters (27 with cheats), which was massive for the time. But its slow pace and awkward controls made it a frustrating experience. Final Bout, on the other hand, is a cult classic of sorts. It was the first DBZ game to feature a fully 3D engine, but it’s mostly remembered for its hilariously bad English voice acting and a roster that included Dragon Ball GT characters, a first for many players outside of Japan. These games were ambitious, but they showed that simply adding more characters or moving to 3D wasn’t enough to make a great game.
Why Budokai Changed Everything
Watching GuileWinQuote’s video, it becomes clear why Budokai felt so revolutionary. It took the best ideas from the past and polished them to a mirror shine. It combined the cinematic flair of the Butōden series with the accessibility of a more traditional 3D fighter. The controls were tight, the combos were satisfying, and the presentation was top-notch.
Dimps, the developer of Budokai, successfully cracked the code that so many others had struggled with. They understood that a great Dragon Ball Z game needed to be more than just a fighting game with a DBZ skin. It needed to feel like you were playing the anime, and they delivered that experience in a way no one had before. It was the perfect blend of style and substance, setting a new standard that would define DBZ games for years to come.
Conclusion
The history of Dragon Ball Z games is a wild ride. The early years were a mix of brilliant innovation and frustrating execution. But without the ambitious split-screens of Super Butōden or the awkward 3D experiments of Final Bout, we might never have gotten the masterpiece that was Budokai. This journey through the past doesn’t just show us how far we’ve come; it gives us a deeper appreciation for the games that shaped a genre and a generation of fans. So next time you fire up Dragon Ball FighterZ or Sparking! Zero, take a moment to remember the weird and wonderful fighters that paved the way.
FAQs
- 1. What were the first Dragon Ball Z fighting games?
- Some of the earliest and most influential were the Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden series, which started on the Super Famicom in Japan in the early 1990s.
- 2. What was the split-screen mechanic in the early games?
- In games like Super Butōden, the screen would divide horizontally when characters moved far apart. This allowed for much larger stages than typical fighting games and let players fire massive energy blasts from a distance.
- 3. Why do games like Ultimate Battle 22 have a bad reputation?
- While they had large character rosters, many fans found the gameplay on the PlayStation and Saturn to be slow, clunky, and unresponsive compared to other fighting games of that era.
- 4. Was Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout the first 3D DBZ game?
- Yes, it was the first to use a fully 3D engine for its fighting gameplay, though it’s often remembered more for its awkward controls and campy English voice acting than for its technical achievements.
- 5. How did the Budokai series improve on these older games?
- Budokai created a much more fluid and accessible 3D fighting system. It polished the best ideas from the past, like cinematic super moves, and combined them with tighter controls and a high-quality presentation that made it feel like you were playing an episode of the anime.
- 6. Where can I learn more about these old DBZ games?
- The YouTube channel “GuileWinQuote” has an excellent and detailed video essay called “DBZ Fighters Before Budokai” that covers the history of these games in great detail.