Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Blast From the Past-Dragon Ball Z Sagas

I had an idea in my head for awhile and thanks to Alex Mckinley for giving me a game to start off with. Blast From the Past will be a series of games ranging from games from the 80's to the end of GameCube. So let's start off with a shitty game!...Unfortunately.



I remember reading about this game for the very first time. I thought it would suck, and guess what? It did. Here's what the ad said.

 Dragon Ball Z: Sagas is a 3D action-adventure video game developed by Avalanche Software and published by Atari. It is the only Dragon Ball Z game to be released across the GameCube, PS2, and Xbox, the first Dragon Ball Z console game to be developed by a non-Japanese developer, and the first Dragon Ball Z game to be released on a non-Japanese console, the Xbox. It also ended up being the only Dragon Ball Z to be released on the Xbox, while the Japanese machines continued to get a steady stream of Dragon Ball related games, all of which are still made by Japanese developers.

Right there you know it's bad. Published by a non-Japanese developer. Wait a moment. Isn't Dragon Ball Z oh, I don't know, JAPANESE? What I've noticed is that when America takes an Anime and tries to create something of their own, they fail hard. (Naruto, One Piece, etc.) Also a 3D action adventure? I didn't know Dragon Ball Z was becoming Zelda. Dragon Ball Z is a beat-em-up type show/game. It's based on martial arts. (Filler does not count.) DBZ is not and should never be anything but a fighting game. No, sagas is not a fighting game. Compare games like Star Fox Adventures or, dare I say, Shrek 2 to Sagas. They all feature walking from point A to point B fighting enemies only to encounter a boss at the end of each level.

Another thing to note is complete randomness of this game. Sagas has the basic story of Z from Saiyan to Cell. (Sorry, no Buu Saga.) Yet there's a new Saga added. The Yardrat Saga featuring ONLY ONE DAMN LEVEL. Why would Atari add this? You only see Yardrat for only two episodes and not even for a full two minutes combined! And let me add that the boss at the end of this level is a boss that has a power level higher than Frieza at max strength.

I'm sorry, but didn't Vegeta, say that the Yardratians had no fighting capabilities, and only relied on magic? Or was I mistaken? How the hell is the number one land estate owning, planet-destroying, MOFO weaker then a magician? I don't get it...

One final thing I'd like to add is the difficulty of transforming into a Super Saiyan. Instead of building up your ki, transforming into a Super Saiyan when you have enough power, and staying that way until the match ended or you wanted to go back to your base form, you get a tiny little yellow bar at the bottom of the screen that says SSJ? Well you spend (And I timed this.) 15 to 25 minutes punching your enemy not causing any damage at all until you get enough power to turn Super Saiyan only to have it last for (I timed this too.) three whole minutes.

That ladies and gents, is a legendary warrior feared across the universe for his mighty and blood-thirsty rage turned into a crappy video game's bitch.

I hate this game.

Oh, and you only play as five different characters and unlock five more when you beat the game. (Not that you'd want to play it again.)

What do you think of this crap-fest?

-Snelling