With over 3,5 millions copies sold for the PS2 since its release in December 2002, Dragonball Z: Budokai will make his debut on the Gamecube. I had the honor to get a little taste of this blockbuster brawler which will be released for European market around October this year.

With a little reservation I started the game though. After reading the average PS2 reviews, you could wonder if this game will be a good acquisition for the cube, also because 'ports' do not have a very solid reputation. But as soon as the intro started, I was impressed with the sharp, colorful graphics approaching the quality of the animated series we all have grown so fond of. This means that Atari enhanced the graphics for the cube version over the PS2 version. Should this game tank to uncanny depths, the fault shall not lie in the hands of Atari because they certainly have put some efforts into it to contribute to the Gamecube visual hardware.

On to the game itself, the Story mode is the most prominent feature which covers the sage from the arrival of Goku's brother Radditz to the Cell games in great animated fashion. This mode is more like an interactive cartoon, where between the vast cut scenes you will battle your way through the story. There are some other assignments in this mode, which certainly brings some alternation, but first and foremost this is a fighting game and fighting is what you get.
Along with the Story mode you have Practice, Duel mode and Tournament mode where in the latter you will be able to earn zenies. With these zenies you can buy tricks, this way you can make a custom Goku or Krillin etc.

Execution of the signature special moves goes with various difficulty, some of them are easy, others a little tricky and unnatural. Overall though the battle system is pretty straightforward, this does only benefit to the gameplay, it will keep the pace up without the risk of getting instant RSI for trying to find that button combination.

After a couple of hours toying around I had yet to be disappointed with this game. Although it takes a little while to get used to the mechanics with all those Ki levels, and the various pointers won't make any sense either at first. Keep in mind that they are still fine-tuning this title, but so far it has great potential and not just for the fans.

Features

• Play as any one of 23 different mighty Dragon Ball Z characters, many of them unlockable, and unleash up to 60 combo moves for each character;
• Unlock characters and faithfully follow the DBZ story from Saiyan Saga through Cell Games in Story mode;
• Fight in five epic play modes including Story, Duel, Practice, Tournament and Legend of Hercule;
• Tournament mode allows players to earn Zenie to purchase capsules and customize characters;
• Collect fighting skill capsules and trade them with other players

  Key difference between PS2 and Gamecube versions:

• Cleaner character graphics in Gamecube version, which offer more detail and less distortion

To celebrate the release of this game in Europe, we have captured a whopping load of direct-feed movies for you to download. We have prepped the intro movie as well as two cut-scenes. To top it off, we also captured five battles between different fighters in each movie. You can find all the links below.