Super
Butouden
A-ha! A fighting game!
...
Augh, my eyes!
OK,
to be fair, Super Butouden is not an awful-looking game but it's very
subpar. The graphics are very gaudy with extremely high-contrasting
colours, over-detailed in many places (seriously, why is the sky drawn with pixelated noise?) and under-detailed in many
more. I do have to give it credit for being the only of the fighting
games for a very long time to include my favourite design of Gohan
(i.e. his Super Saiyan 1
form; the vast majority of fighting games in the era only included
his Super Saiyan 2 form).
This game was, to my knowledge, the very first Dragon Ball Z fighting game and with that in mind, it's an admirable first step. The physics lack polish and the game in general is very slow but it's actually an OK fighter.
However, it lacks a lot in variety; 3 of the 5 unlockable characters
are alternate forms of characters in the default roster, several
attacks make multiple appearances throughout character movelists, and
the stage select is rather limited.
Truth be told, I had no idea this game was the first Super Butouden title when I first played it. I had played the 2nd and 3rd prior and was actually looking for Hyper Dimension. I downloaded this from a ROM site that incorrectly labelled it as being Hyper Dimension. And it's really no surprise that I couldn't tell it was the first of the Butouden series, it seems almost nothing like its 2 successors.
First of the differences to note is the method of unlocking secret
characters, the first Super Butouden has its own unique code for it
while 2 and 3 share a code. In the first Butouden, you unlock the
secret characters by holding the shoulder buttons (L and R) and doing
circles on the D-Pad and the face buttons (A, B, X, Y) while the
intro is playing until you hear Goku's voice say something (I don't speak Japanese so I have no idea what it is).
The roster is as follows:
Starting Roster: Goku (base form), Vegeta (base form), #20/Dr. Gero,
#16, Piccolo, Frieza (100% Power), #18, Cell (first form).
Secret Characters: Super Saiyan Goku, Super Saiyan Vegeta, Super
Saiyan Gohan, Perfect Cell, Super Saiyan Future Trunks
This is actually the most secret characters of the 3 Super Famicom
Butouden titles, but again 3 of them are just alternate forms of
characters who are already playable without the code.
Mr.
Satan also makes an appearance as a joke character during the story
mode (which spans the Piccolo Jr. saga to the Cell Games saga). When
you reach Perfect Cell, you are given the option of choosing to fight
him with Goku, Gohan or Mr. Satan. Choosing Mr. Satan the first time
will display a somewhat crude rendition of the scene in the anime
where he attempts to attack Cell and Cell just bats him away into a
mountain; I say it's crude because it doesn't even show the
characters making contact, Mr. Satan kicks and punches the air a few
times, then Cell swats at the air and it sends Mr. Satan flying.
After that, you're returned to the character select and you can still
choose Mr. Satan one more time. This time, he'll just hold his
stomach and keel over, much like in the anime when he pretended to
have a bad stomach ache that was stopping him from fighting. After
that, you'll return to the character select and Mr. Satan won't be an
option anymore.
You may also notice that Piccolo is named Satan in the screenshots. This is due to it being the French release of the game. Yes, the Super Butouden games were actually released outside of Japan, just not in North America.
Movesets, as said before, lack variety; in all of the Super Famicom
fighters, every character has a basic fireball attack. That much is
understandable. But for an example of something less acceptable,
Goku, Piccolo and Gohan all have a move called Goku Kick; performed
by pressing Forward Down Kick while jumping. The following titles
gave Piccolo and Gohan a variation on this attack called the
Levitation Kick where, rather than just zooming at their opponent
with a fiery foot, they stopped in mid-air and kicked the opponent
several times.
The overall physics and combat mechanics aren't very strong when
compared with other fighting titles at the time (especially the likes
of Street Fighter II). It's still not an awful game but you're much
better off with its successors.
Other major differences with the following 2 sequels include graphics
(totally re-done in Super Butouden 2 and 3 maintained that style
while altering the sprites it takes directly from 2), music (although
this actually favours the first game; none of the soundtracks are
very memorable but, in my opinion, the first title's music is
considerably better than what followed), the aforementioned physics
and speed (both vastly improved upon in 2 and tweaked again in 3),
and the method of building energy/Ki.
I
want to set the record straight here because there's a bit of
misinformation on this game that is far too common (I actually had to
correct the Dragon Ball Wiki on this matter). You can
charge in this game. Holding down while flying causes your Energy
metre to build twice as fast. Considering just how slow it builds on
its own, it's still extremely slow when charging but I just want to
get it off my chest that it can be done. In the 2 sequels, as well
as Hyper Dimension, building energy was performed by holding Punch
and Kick (Y and B respectively) and could be done either on the
ground or in the air.
On that note, the flying mechanic in the first Super Butouden was a
very gimmicky and under-utilized inclusion and, sadly, one of the few
things the sequels did not improve upon. In practice, all it really
did was create a second ground for your characters to traverse.
While in the air, your character would still control just as they
would on the ground (yes, even jumping).
Final Bout, the PlayStation successor to Super Butouden 3 improved
upon the flying, as did Hyper Dimension, but those are different
stories.
Super
Butouden 2 (or La Légende Saien)
This
game holds a very special place in my heart because it was my
introduction to many things. It was my introduction to emulation.
It was my introduction to Dragon Ball fighting games. It was my
introduction to Super Saiyans. It was damn
near my introduction to the Dragon Ball franchise. I
had watched the 13-episode long '95 dub of Dragon Ball with very
little interest and never gave Dragon Ball Z a second thought at the
time. Super Butouden 2 enticed me to learn about the characters and,
through a mix of that and the fact that there was nothing else on
before school, I became obsessed with the anime.
That said...it's OK. It is a vast improvement from the first game
but it still does very little to make it stand out as a gem among the
other fighters that were available at the time. On top of that, the
music is some of the worst, most uninspired tracks I have ever heard
in a 16-bit video game.
This game did introduce certain staples such as the standard secret
character code (which was even used in the much more recent Ultimate
Butouden on the DS): Up X Down B L Y R A.
In
this case, the code unlocks Goku (oddly enough) and Broly.
Incidentally, if you have the French version of this game, the code doesn't do anything as those two characters are
unlocked by default. However, you still get confirmation that you
entered the code correctly.
During the intro sequence, when you put in the code, you hear Broly's
voice say “Kakarotto”. I think this is a very nice touch and a
neat hint at the characters you just unlocked; one character's voice
speaking the name of the other (Kakarotto/Kakarot being Goku's Saiyan
name for anyone who didn't already know).
The character roster this time goes Gohan (Super Saiyan 2), Piccolo,
Super Vegeta, Future Trunks (Super Saiyan), Bojack (Second Form),
Zangya, Perfect Cell, Cell Jr., and of course the unlockable Super
Saiyan Goku and Legendary Super Saiyan Broly.
This is the first of the fighting games to feature Cell Jr. as well
as not just 1 but 2 movie villains.
It also features a joke appearance by Mr. Satan in the story mode
again. This time around, it renders the scene of his attempt at
fighting Cell much more accurately by showing him actually making
contact with the villain. However, some accuracy is also lost in the
lack of a Cell Games Arena stage.
The story mode in this game covers the Cell Games and then moves into
entirely original plots involving Bojack and, as long as you don't
play on Easy, Broly. The game does not follow the plots of the
movies those characters were introduced in.
Chief among the improvements from the first title are graphics. The
game looks infinitely better than the first; it actually looks better
than much of the third. In fact, I'd call it one of the best-looking
fighting games on the console.
In addition, there are improved physics, and new gameplay mechanics
were also included such as the famed “beam battles”. In the
first game, when a character responded to an energy wave with one of
their own, they just cancelled each other out. Now, they clash and
the two players (or one player and the CPU) must compete to see who
can mash the A button the fastest. The loser takes the full force of
their enemy's attack.
The game still suffers from being too slow. Walk speeds are damn
near intolerable but, thankfully, every character has a dash maneuver
mapped to the L and R buttons that doesn't use any Ki and can be used
as long as the player wants (the first game also had dashing and it
could even be used to knock your enemy down; that bit was removed in
the sequels). Unfortunately, building Ki is also intolerably slow
and, unlike walking speeds, there's no way around it in this game.
It's only ever so slightly faster than the first game.
All in all, you'll probably enjoy this game if you're a fan and even
if you're not, it's still an OK game. There are far worse titles you
could spend your free time on.
Super
Butouden 3 (or Ultime Menace)
The last of the 3 Butouden games to appear on the Super Famicom and
arguably the best. This game finally brought the speed up
considerably in both movement and charging energy. However, this
iteration does have some of its own problems.
There is a lack of variety once again; Saiyans make up a majority of
the roster, there are less stages than in the second title and
there's no story mode. An ending credits scene can still be accessed
by completing a tournament in which the first player is crowned
champion but it still feels a little hollow.
Once again, a secret character can be unlocked with the same code
used in Super Butouden 2. Input it during the intro where you see a
portrait of Goku and Majin Vegeta fade into each other and you'll
hear a swishing sound effect. This unlocks Super Saiyan Future
Trunks.
The character roster goes Goku (Super Saiyan 2), Majin Vegeta, Goten
(Super Saiyan), Kid Trunks (Super Saiyan), Future Trunks (Super
Saiyan), Gohan (Super Saiyan) Supreme Kai/Kaioshin, Dabura, Fat Buu,
and Android #18.
Note that over half of the roster is composed of Super Saiyans,
adding to the feeling of minimal variety.
Goku's,
Future Trunks's, and Vegeta's sprites are all lifted from Super
Butouden 2 with modifications. Goku and Trunks both had their hair
recoloured in a more orangey-gold palette. Vegeta's outfit was
altered so it's accurate to his Buu arc appearance; you could argue
that this makes it a new sprite entirely but his head remained
completely unchanged (oddly leaving his Super Saiyan hair
inconsistently coloured with some of the other characters) and all of
his animations were the same. On that note, there is a colouring
inconsistency with the hair as Gohan and Vegeta retain the shade of
yellow from Super Butouden 2 (Goten's hair uses this shade as well),
meanwhile Goku, Kid Trunks and Future Trunks all use a new, more
gold-looking palette.
Additionally,
beam battles also took a colossal hit in visuals. They look so
lame this time around. In Super Butouden 2, clashing beams had a
very detailed end sprite, complete with an animation of the beams
struggling to dominate each other and even electricity effects
flowing around them. That's all gone in the third title. Now beams
just meat in the center of the screen, have a very dull,
'splash'-looking end sprite and don't move back and forth.
Aesthetics aside though, it is objectively a superior title to the
second game, boasting much better speed and slightly better physics.
Next Time: Hyper Dimesnion. Awww yeah. That one gets its own post to itself.
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