Review of Dragon Ball Z Legends(Import)

Dragon Ball Z Legends

Graphics-8.6. They're not too impressive and they're not too shabby. The intro screen is very nicely done, being full screen and at 20-30 fps unlike almost half of the American Saturn games which take up less than half of the entire screen. Too bad the graphics are a little pixelated, but then again this game was made before anti-aliasing became popular in video games. On the upside the characters look exactly like they do in the original anime, so if you've ever seen it you'll like how nicely they're drawn. It's also very nicely animated which helps to keep it from being choppy and a strain on the eyes, not great but at least it gets the job done adequately.

Sound-9.4. Pretty much your standard game music with all the sound effects you would expect from something with the title Dragon Ball plastered onto it. But still, they could've done a whole lot more with the sound effects and made it more of a complete experience for the Dragon Ball fans.

Control-9.7. Hey, they're easy to learn but hard to master! I don't see how you could make this any simpler without making the game totally frustrating. Just imagine if your characters didn't track the enemy whenever you press up or down? You'd have to go flying in this big open environment and spend hours finding the enemy or you'd be stuck in an invisible box like area as the playing field. At least the way they did it simulates the feeling of freedom and it isn't too frustrating to use in the heat of a battle.

Challenge-8.7. My biggest challenge was in trying to figure out how to play the game since I know no Japanese and the manual is written in all Japanese. Other than that the game isn't insanely hard until you discover how the controls are supposed to be used properly. It just takes a little time to get the hang of, but once you learn you're set and you can basically sit and play for hours and hours on end.

Overall-9.6. It's a very good game, but it also has its flaws that keep it from being the ultimate game. Hopefully in the future it will become a more polished beat 'em up type game with more freedom of movement, nicer graphics and an option to change into the Super forms of the characters. Otherwise this should satisfy almost all Dragon Ball fans. Heaven knows it satisfied me for sure!

Synopsis
How many times have you ever wished that you could change the outcomes or thought that you could do a better job than the super heroes on television can? I'm willing to bet that at one point in your life you were watching a show where you thought to yourself, "Why the hell doesn't he just finish that guy off? If only he did it right the first time this entire landscape wouldn't be decimated!! How stupid can you get?!?" I know I have and certainly a large number of companies obviously have had that same feeling after seeing the sheer number of games based on Super Hero cartoons or comics like 'Spider-Man', 'Incredible Hulk', and 'Superman' among others. The problem with these games is that they recreate the situations in the comics and cartoons, but you hardly ever feel like this is the case. Sure, we all know how easy it would be if you could just shoot off those spider webs with reckless abandon or become the Hulk any old time you felt like, but somehow even when you do get an opportunity to use your power it hardly does what one would expect. When the Hulk is released from his alter ego Bruce Banner, he still has to knock the enemy 2-3 times before he dies. Some improvement considering that it took Bruce Banner 4-5 tries to do the same thing. In Dragon Ball Z Legends from Bandai Japan, the feel of Dragon Ball is captured in almost every way. Just like the series, you get to play Son Goku and fight all the other beings that want a piece of your hide or a piece of the Earth(destroyed that is...). Plus you get to play a few of his companions or enemies like Trunks, the son Gohan, Picolo, and Vegita among others. Basically in a nutshell Dragon Ball Z Legends is about Goku and his 'friends' numerous battles against almost everything in the galaxy. If you've ever seen the television series(American or Japanese version) Dragon Ball Z, it follows the exact same plot line. So most of the sequences occur the same as in the shows, of course the plot only follows the Dragon Ball Z series and not Dragon Ball GT or the original Dragon Ball which are the same cartoon but with different plots to seperate each. Sort of like how there is an entity of X-mutants in the Marvel Universe as a collective whole but yet the individual mutants are all divided into their own comics such as X-men, X-Factor, X-Force, New Warriors, etc. This is why you will see some characters from Dragon Ball, and what looks like similar characters from Dragon Ball GT. So finally, who would I recommend this game to? All fans of Dragon Ball, and those who are looking for any good games either import or domestic. Who I wouldn't reccomend this game to are people who want to have total freedom of movement, and a real sense of plot since this game is basically a big mob-fest with a small amount of story wrapped around it. But still, if you're looking for a good Super Hero, or Anime/Manga based game you need not look any further because this is one of the best series spawned games in a long time.