Kamehameha!!! It’s T-Ku!! Kamehameha!!!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Anyway, about a week ago, I went to a Game Haven store in a town nearby my own, looking for a new Dreamcast to replace my THIRD one that broke (yes, I’ve torn through three Dreamcasts, and all of them crapped out), but before we bought the Dreamcast, we looked around for a bit. Let’s face it, people; used game stores like Game Haven have awesome deals! I found nothing I wanted that was cheap enough until I found Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for $9.99 in the PS1 section. You see, I had been looking for that game for quite a while, and it’s pretty rare, even selling at $200 on eBay! At first, I was a little unsure about my purchase, since the game was supposed to be crap, but then I told myself, “Hey, I liked Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 and it’s supposed to be worse!” so I swallowed my fear and bought it. The day went on, and I also ended up buying Ninja Warrior Musashi (which I still haven’t played yet), and soon we went home.
The first thing I did was hook up my shiny new Dreamcast and pop in Sonic Adventure 2. About three hours into SA2, I looked at Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout sitting on the bed beside me and thought “Hey, I’m gonna play that game!” So I finished the stage I was playing, and started up Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout on my PS2.
Okay, now that the silly back-story is over, we’ll move on to first impressions. When you boot up Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, you are treated to a kind-of-crusty-but-still-cool-to-watch FMV where all the characters fight. Once you either press Start to skip it or watch it all the way through, you are taken to a screen with Goku posing in front of a desert background. Once you press start, three squares come up on a screen with Super Saiyan Goku. Choosing one will either take you to Battle Mode, Build-Up Mode, or Options. Battle Mode is a simple campaign mode where you choose a character and continuously battle characters until reaching the final boss, Super Baby. In Build-Up Mode, there are several blocks where you fight other characters in an attempt to level up the character you chose.
Goku...or Goku...who do you think will win?
And what do you do now? Well, you choose a mode (I chose Battle Mode), and choose a character, then do whatever you need to do for that mode. Gameplay is similar to the Budokai games. Punch, kick, use Ki, use Special Moves…you know the drill. Control is fairly simple, and, in general, is very similar to the Budokai series as well. D-Pad moves, square punches, X guards, circle kicks, and triangle shoots an energy blast. Pressing up on the D-Pad jumps, and pressing down on the D-Pad lets you duck. Using the R1 button in combination with up lets you fly, and holding the R1 button while pressing right or left lets you dash. Press square and X together to charge your Ki. Okay, that was simple. So, how the heck do you use Special Moves? Also similar to Budokai, sadly, is the clunky system of using combos to initiate a Special Move, but unlike in Budokai, you can’t look at your character’s Special Moves during gameplay. You’ll have to look at the “Characters” section of the manual before you have any idea how to use them. There are also some things that the manual goes into vague detail about, such as how to use Meteor Attacks or how to counter your opponents’ Special Moves, which they do just about every time you use one of your own. Yeah, bad. But I still found the gameplay fun and generally good.
Super Saiyan 4 Goku is about to spank Super Baby's butt!
Another problem is difficulty. Many a time, all I had to do to defeat my opponent was to get up close to them and repeatedly press square before they had time to react. Of course, before you level up some in Build-Up Mode, you can hardly do that without getting owned. That mode is probably the most difficulty this game has to offer.
Yet another problem, though it doesn’t affect the gameplay, is the character voices. When this game came out in the US, Dragon Ball Z had just started airing here, so Ban Dai used their own voice actors. Why couldn’t they have hired the voice actors for the show like Dimps did? Just because it just started airing doesn’t mean you can’t use the same voice actors for the cartoon! If it was just that, it would have been okay, but the voice actors they chose are TERRIBLE! Piccolo sounds like Shadow, Vegeta sounds British, and Pan sounds preppy! Possibly the only voice I liked was Kid Goku’s.
Graphics are that of the typical PS1 3-D game. Looking at the back of the case, I thought it looked almost exactly like DBZ: Budokai 1 (which looked liked a PS1 game itself), but a closer look revealed that it was a lot crustier and more pixilated than I thought, but, in general, it was good as far as PS1 games go.
Despite all its bad points, Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout is a fun Dragon Ball brawler and is definitely a lot better than people say, and I recommend it to anyone who likes Dragon Ball Z/GT. Its name really might as well be Dragon Ball GT: Underrated Bout. I’m not a diehard DBZ fan; in fact, I haven’t really liked Dragon Ball Z since I was 8. Too much talk, too little fight. Too much “uh…uh-uh-uh…” (a.k.a. taking a crap, as me and my family call it), and too little fun. Overall, the show is just TOO BORING to hold my attention anymore. I’ve always liked the games, though, since the games are entirely comprised of action, and no silly crap-taking, or stopping to chew the fat in the middle of a fight. It’s just all action, and that’s good enough for me! So, good-bye, and remember:
Kamehameha!!!
Rating: Pretty Good
Like my site? Let me know! E-mail me at tmansgames@gmail.com! But remember: I’m 11 years old, so, please, don’t use bad language else I’ll delete your e-mail. My father checks over e-mails to make sure there isn’t anything bad in them.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Anyway, about a week ago, I went to a Game Haven store in a town nearby my own, looking for a new Dreamcast to replace my THIRD one that broke (yes, I’ve torn through three Dreamcasts, and all of them crapped out), but before we bought the Dreamcast, we looked around for a bit. Let’s face it, people; used game stores like Game Haven have awesome deals! I found nothing I wanted that was cheap enough until I found Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for $9.99 in the PS1 section. You see, I had been looking for that game for quite a while, and it’s pretty rare, even selling at $200 on eBay! At first, I was a little unsure about my purchase, since the game was supposed to be crap, but then I told myself, “Hey, I liked Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 and it’s supposed to be worse!” so I swallowed my fear and bought it. The day went on, and I also ended up buying Ninja Warrior Musashi (which I still haven’t played yet), and soon we went home.
The first thing I did was hook up my shiny new Dreamcast and pop in Sonic Adventure 2. About three hours into SA2, I looked at Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout sitting on the bed beside me and thought “Hey, I’m gonna play that game!” So I finished the stage I was playing, and started up Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout on my PS2.
Okay, now that the silly back-story is over, we’ll move on to first impressions. When you boot up Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, you are treated to a kind-of-crusty-but-still-cool-to-watch FMV where all the characters fight. Once you either press Start to skip it or watch it all the way through, you are taken to a screen with Goku posing in front of a desert background. Once you press start, three squares come up on a screen with Super Saiyan Goku. Choosing one will either take you to Battle Mode, Build-Up Mode, or Options. Battle Mode is a simple campaign mode where you choose a character and continuously battle characters until reaching the final boss, Super Baby. In Build-Up Mode, there are several blocks where you fight other characters in an attempt to level up the character you chose.
Goku...or Goku...who do you think will win?
And what do you do now? Well, you choose a mode (I chose Battle Mode), and choose a character, then do whatever you need to do for that mode. Gameplay is similar to the Budokai games. Punch, kick, use Ki, use Special Moves…you know the drill. Control is fairly simple, and, in general, is very similar to the Budokai series as well. D-Pad moves, square punches, X guards, circle kicks, and triangle shoots an energy blast. Pressing up on the D-Pad jumps, and pressing down on the D-Pad lets you duck. Using the R1 button in combination with up lets you fly, and holding the R1 button while pressing right or left lets you dash. Press square and X together to charge your Ki. Okay, that was simple. So, how the heck do you use Special Moves? Also similar to Budokai, sadly, is the clunky system of using combos to initiate a Special Move, but unlike in Budokai, you can’t look at your character’s Special Moves during gameplay. You’ll have to look at the “Characters” section of the manual before you have any idea how to use them. There are also some things that the manual goes into vague detail about, such as how to use Meteor Attacks or how to counter your opponents’ Special Moves, which they do just about every time you use one of your own. Yeah, bad. But I still found the gameplay fun and generally good.
Super Saiyan 4 Goku is about to spank Super Baby's butt!
Another problem is difficulty. Many a time, all I had to do to defeat my opponent was to get up close to them and repeatedly press square before they had time to react. Of course, before you level up some in Build-Up Mode, you can hardly do that without getting owned. That mode is probably the most difficulty this game has to offer.
Yet another problem, though it doesn’t affect the gameplay, is the character voices. When this game came out in the US, Dragon Ball Z had just started airing here, so Ban Dai used their own voice actors. Why couldn’t they have hired the voice actors for the show like Dimps did? Just because it just started airing doesn’t mean you can’t use the same voice actors for the cartoon! If it was just that, it would have been okay, but the voice actors they chose are TERRIBLE! Piccolo sounds like Shadow, Vegeta sounds British, and Pan sounds preppy! Possibly the only voice I liked was Kid Goku’s.
Graphics are that of the typical PS1 3-D game. Looking at the back of the case, I thought it looked almost exactly like DBZ: Budokai 1 (which looked liked a PS1 game itself), but a closer look revealed that it was a lot crustier and more pixilated than I thought, but, in general, it was good as far as PS1 games go.
Despite all its bad points, Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout is a fun Dragon Ball brawler and is definitely a lot better than people say, and I recommend it to anyone who likes Dragon Ball Z/GT. Its name really might as well be Dragon Ball GT: Underrated Bout. I’m not a diehard DBZ fan; in fact, I haven’t really liked Dragon Ball Z since I was 8. Too much talk, too little fight. Too much “uh…uh-uh-uh…” (a.k.a. taking a crap, as me and my family call it), and too little fun. Overall, the show is just TOO BORING to hold my attention anymore. I’ve always liked the games, though, since the games are entirely comprised of action, and no silly crap-taking, or stopping to chew the fat in the middle of a fight. It’s just all action, and that’s good enough for me! So, good-bye, and remember:
Kamehameha!!!
Rating: Pretty Good
Like my site? Let me know! E-mail me at tmansgames@gmail.com! But remember: I’m 11 years old, so, please, don’t use bad language else I’ll delete your e-mail. My father checks over e-mails to make sure there isn’t anything bad in them.
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