Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden (series)
From Dragon Ball Wiki, the ''Dragon Ball'' encyclopedia
Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden is a series of 2D, one-on-one fighting games created by Bandai Co., Ltd. (now "Bandai Namco Holdings") from 1993 to 1997. Six games were created using the Super Butōden engine, though only four of them hold the actual name.
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[edit] Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden
- Main article: Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden
Released to the Super Famicom (SNES) on March 20th in 1993, the first game in the series. It played host to a number of features not seen in fighting games before.
- Main Features
- Storyline covers Piccolo Jr. Saga to Perfect Cell Saga.
- 8 (13 with a code) playable characters.
- Massive stages divided by a color-coded split-screen border which tells you how close you are to your opponent.*
- Combat on the ground or in the air.*
- Radar below the health and power bars telling you where you and your opponent are in the stage.*
- Unique special moves and "super moves" for each character. (Goku's Kamehameha, Vegeta's Final Flash, etc.)*
- Players can counter super moves by dodging, blocking, or engaging in a beam struggle.*
- * = All games, unless otherwises stated, have these features in common.
- Quirks
- It's impossible to charge your Ki manually; power is gained by blocking attacks or making successful attacks on your opponent.
- Knock-down recovery takes a fairly long time and leaves you open to further attack.
- Action seems altogether sluggish.
- Goku and Vegeta have their base forms playable in addition to their Super Saiyan forms.
[edit] Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 2
- Main article: Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 2
Decmber 17, 1993 marked the date the second game in the Super Butōden series was released. As with the last game, it was released on the Super Famicom. This game vastly improved on the original game in many ways.
- Main Features
- Storyline combines original aspects with key elements of the Cell Saga and the movie Bojack Unbound (with a little Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan).
- 8 (10 with a code) playable characters.
- Improvements Over Super Butōden
- The ability to charge your ki at-will.
- Action seems less sluggish.
- Positional radar now uses little men mimicking the fighters' actions instead of colored dots.
- Story Mode allows you to take control of different characters at different times as well as having multiple branches and endings.
- Quirks
- Removed the color-coded split-screen border. (See Super Butōden Main Features.)
- First (and so far, only) game where Goku isn't readily available for play.
- First fighting game to include movie characters as well as Cell Jr..
- Though the first fighting game to have Mr. Satan, he himself is not playable under any circumstance and only selectable through cheat devices.
- The game houses a debug mode, though as with Mr. Satan, this seems impossible to access normally.
[edit] Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden
- Main article: Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden
Despite it's April 1st release date in 1994, this game was no joke. It bought all the action and power of the Super Butoden series to Sega's MegaDrive (Genesis) without losing anything in the process.
- Main Features
- Storyline combines original and "what if?" aspects with key elements of various sagas ranging from the Saiyan Saga all the way to the end of the World Tournament Saga.
- 11 playable characters.
- Quirks
- The positional radar returned to colored dots for this game.
- First and only fighting game to include Ginyu Force members or Krillin until later games.
- Though the game doesn't support the 6-button control pad, pressing X in "six button mode" will randomly select your character.
[edit] Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 3
- Main article: Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 3
The third and final game in the Super Famicom branch of the series. Released September 29th, 1994, it introduced a number of characters from the last arc of Dragon Ball as well as keeping a few classic characters in.
- Main Features
- 9 (10 with a code) playable characters.
- Improvements Over Super Butōden 2
- Charging your Ki takes only a couple of seconds (in comparison with Super Butōden 2's several seconds of charge time).
- Quirks
- Only game in the 16-bit generation without a story mode.
- Piccolo is nowhere to be found despite his involvement in the Buu Saga.
- Future Trunks inexplicably makes his return from Super Butōden 2 as this game's secret character. In addition, in the Japanese release, he's the only character whose name is written in English characters ("TRUNKS"), possibly to differenciate him from Kid Trunks).
[edit] Dragon Ball Z: Shin Butōden
- Main article: Dragon Ball Z: Shin Butōden
Two months and a year pass before the release of Shin Butōden in November 17th, 1995. Though not the first Dragon Ball fighting game of the 32-bit generation, it kept the tried-and-true formula that made Super Butōden a favorite in the hearts of many. It also reuses the sprites from Ultimate Battle 22, a Sony PlayStation game released .
- Main Features
- Arcade game mode pits you against several random combatants for personal glory.
- 22 (27 in Vs. Mode) playable characters.
- Improvements Over Super Butōden 3
- Taking advantage of 32-bit hardware, all pre-existing sprites have been revamped and enhanced as of Ultimate Battle 22. Fighters also now have pre-fight voice clips.
- In addition to air battles and long stages, certain stages now contain extended areas you can knock the other fighter into as well as environmental obstacles.
- Quirks
- This game marks the return of almost every character from the Super Butoden series. Missing characters are Cell (Imperfect Form), Future Trunks in Saiyan Armor, Frieza (100% Power), Cell Jr., Zangya, Bojack, Broly, and adult Gohan (Super Saiyan 2), though adult Gohan does appear as the Great Saiyaman.
- Once again, Future Trunks' name is written in English characters in the Japanese release. Strangely enough, so is Super Saiyan 3 Goku's ("SUPERSAIYAN3").
- This game reuses a few tunes from older games.
- The colored split-screen border returns from Super Butōden.
[edit] Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout
- Main article: Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout
The last game to use the Super Butōden engine actually had little to do with Dragon Ball Z as a whole. Released in August 21st of 1997, Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout (or Dragon Ball Final Bout, depending on your region) kept the gameplay similar to the rest of the series while adding features to the core engine.
- Main Features
- 10 (17 with codes) playable characters.
- Arcade game mode pits you against several random combatants before fighting the end boss, Baby.
- "Build Up" mode where you can level up your favorite characters while playing.
- Improvements Over Shin Butōden
- Players and environments are now in full 3D. Some attacks and dodge moves can move you or the other fighter into the background/foreground of the level.
- Quirks
- Gone are the long arenas of the last five games, replaced by endless, open stages and a restrictive field of view. When the two players move far enough away from each other, the camera zooms out to adjust. Ultimately, this gives you less room to work with than the previous titles gave.
- Like the first Butōden game, this game moves pretty slowly at times and knock-down recovery can be a pain to work with.
- This game, like the previous game, reuses some tunes from older titles.
- Two hidden characters from different timelines, Super Saiyan Goku (in his Turtle Hermit dogi) and Future Trunks, have their names written in English in the Japanese release. ("SON GOKOU" and "TRUNKS" respectively.)
- More than half the secret characters in the game are some form of Goku.
- Altogether, there are six forms of Goku in this game. This would later be matched (and surpassed) by the Budokai Tenkaichi series.
- Despite his heavy involvement in the second part of the series, Baby only appears as a final boss character in this game (though is playable through cheat devices).
