Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu
| Developer: Webfoot Technologies | Publisher: Atari |
| Release Date: November 24, 2003 | Also On: None |
As a young kid, I was a DBZ addict. I still am, and always will be. Being an addict, I wanted more than the manga and anime. It wouldn't be hard to expect that I tried to buy every DBZ game on every system that I owned. I usually like all the DBZ games I buy, but there were some that I can't stand. Bandai used the DBZ license to create a pattern of games. However, Atari (the new creator of DBZ games), uses the DBZ license in a pattern of bad games.
Taiketsu is just another dumbed down version of Street Fighter 2. No let me rephrase that, a dumbed down, moronic version of Street Fighter 2. The fighting system is pretty basic; you take your character and hit the other character until he doesn't have any HP left. The problem with this system is that it is pretty hard to do a special move, since characters are very unresponsive. Sadly, you cannot turn into a Super Sayian through a whole battle (only during a special move). One gameplay feature that I felt was better than the rest of the annoying features, was the Sky Battle. This is where both characters fly into the air and rapidly hit each other. The faster you press A and B, the more damage to the opponent. This mode is barely entertaining to say the least.
Taiketsu lacks any strategy. It is simply button mashing. If you played any other fighting game, you will readily see that Taiketsu has nothing new to offer, except a new level of boredom that could possibly be reached using a GBA.
Taiketsu has 15 DBZ characters. All of them want to self-destruct. There is Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Gotenks, Piccolo, Android 18, Krillin, Cell, Brolly, and a lot more characters. The coolest part about this game is that there is Brolly. There have only been a few number of DBZ games to have Brolly, and this is one of them. There are also a number of familiar moves. There is Goku's Spirit Bomb and even Vegeta's Gallet Gun. Though the characters look differently, they play pretty much the same. This is sad, because you end up choosing a character, not because the play good, but because you like how they are in the anime show (at least for DBZ fans).
The game's graphics are atrocious. Atari decided to make this game semi-3D instead of the normal and clean 2D graphics. Why would Atari make an anime game that is semi-3D, especially when 2D graphics represent the game's anime cartoon roots more appropriately? You'd be better off asking why this game was made in the first place.
The audio is nearly as bad as the game's graphics. Not only is it annoying, but it doesn't resemble the series one bit. Anime games should resemble the original show, so that the show's fans will be happy. That means the music, character's actions, and art should resemble the original anime. Atari's way of thinking is that the games should only have the same name and characters, but shouldn't feel like your watching the actual show. Isn't Atari smart?
As far as multiplayer goes, it is just as bad the single player mode. There is neither skill nor strategy involved in these battles. All you have to do is press buttons and hope that your character wins. Picture you and your friend fighting in Taiketsu, then you guys go into a Sky Battle. Imagine if you don't come down. Wouldn't that be funny? Good thing that Atari painstakingly checked this game for any obvious and malicious bugs, oh wait, they didn't.
Overall, Taiketsu is a solid candidate for the title of being on of the worst DBZ games out there. It's got the bad graphics, audio, gameplay to make any fan of these series wonder why they wasted their money. If you want a fighter on the GBA, go buy Mortal Kombat. If you want a good DBZ fighting game, go play DBZ: Hyper Dimension (on the SNES) instead. If you want to waste your time and money, go buy Taiketsu.
| Graphics: | 4 |
| Sound: | 4 |
| Gameplay: | 4 |
| Creativity: | 4 |
| Replay Value/Game Length: | 2 |
| Final: | 3.6 |
| Written by Simon | Review Guide |
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