Dragon Ball Z Budokai X

A nice and original idea that is sadly lacking.

With Dragon Ball Z Budokai X, you are tasked with fighting another player or the AI, but you do it in the air. It is a two-dimensional fighter game, but as you fight in the air, you can (in theory), attack your opponent from all sides.

Do Not Expect HD Graphics

It has a very retro feel to it, which you will see when you watch the cut-scene at the beginning. The music and animation is very retro-arcade, and much of it is rather pixilated. That is not to say that the characters are blurry; it just means you can see their pixels.

An Arcade Feel To The Game

The game has a lot of silly sounds almost as if they have purposefully tried to create a Japanese arcade feel by going a little over the top. There are also a lot of flashy effects, but you soon become used to them. The same goes for the fancy fighting sounds, but they become rather repetitive.

Alter Your Character

Pick between playing the sagas or battle. If you choose battle, then you get to change the stats of your players. Your stats include the attack, defence and speed. You also get to choose your character, and if you want to play a two player game or a 1 vs. 1 game.

Why Was It A Nice And Original Idea?

The fact that you can attack your opponent from all sides is a brilliant idea. It means that things such as blocking are unneeded and frankly pointless. It also means that things such as energy weapons that fire shots or lasers across the room are significantly less threatening because there are lots of ways to avoid them.

Why It Fails So Badly

The game graphics and sounds aside, it has a few other fatal flaws. You can potentially attack from all sides, but the game doesn’t let you. For example, you can ram into a person from any direction, but hitting, punching and many other weapons will only work going left or right. Most of the weapons and fighting moves only allow you to inflict damage to your left or to your right.

Another major flaw is that you always have to keep moving towards your opponent. It is a little like fighting in space where the impact of your punches actually pushes you away from your opponent. Overall, it was a nice idea, and the developers probably tried hard, but the game is a bit of a misfire and is very unlikely to end up on your top ten games list.

Pros

• A fairly original fighting concept
• A nice retro feel
• Nice use of the Dragon Ball characters

Cons

• Repetitive gameplay
• Having to move towards your opponent all the time is annoying
• Limited fighting features and abilities