Instead of light, heavy kicks and punches the game uses the everything but trademarked Namco Bandai fighting mechanics. If he tries hard enough, any fighter can defeat an elite in battle.Įxtreme Butoden looks like a 2-D fighter but it doesn’t play as such. What was a funny scene in the anime is now just reduced to a lackluster piece of text. Even the Omega Shenron the main villain and supposed final boss does the same thing.It’s literally one of the dumbest things ever and shows that Extreme Butoden shouldn’t be played for the story. And on the easier difficulty most of the time the AI won’t use the assist so it basically boils down to a fight that has nothing to do with the conversation. the main problem is that most villains are assist characters so what happens is the bad guy smack talking followed by the player fighting a character that has almost nothing to do with said smack talk and the bad guy himself is then used as an assist. One problem with this mode is that most of the dialogue involves a villain greeting Goku and recalls the last time he’s seen him and vowing that this time he will kill Goku. When the player gains control they get dropped on a map that they must travel trough and fight the opponents with a specific side objective that’s only necessary to obtain an S-rank.
The story only serves as an excuse to make Goku go all over the world to fight and meet characters from his past again. So it’s up to Goku to find the ultimate Dragon Balls and seal the Shenrons in them forever. In this story mode the negative energy of the Dragon Balls has released Omega Shenron and his posse who in turn are somehow warping time and space to bring back every bad guy Goku defeated. Once players go trough the ten battle they will unlock the main story mode. It’s kind of baffling that the game shows no effort to tell the story even decently so that begs the question as to why it’s even in the game. It’s an incredibly cheap and more importantly unimpressive way of conveying your story. Instead, the scenes are explained in text boxes that take away, not only any emotion but, even reaction the player would have. While most games would use lightly animated cut scenes or even drawn stills, Extreme Butoden doesn’t even bother with that. Before and after every battle, text boxes explain what happened. After that, the player unlocks a few “what if” scenarios that aren’t really what ifs but just the same story told over and over again while playing as a different character. Goku and friends prepare to set out on their quest to find the Ultimate Dragon Balls.Įxtreme Butoden’s story can only be accessed after completing ten fights covering the complete story of Dragon ball Z. However, this time around it didn’t pan out as Bandai Namco probably would have wanted. Extreme Butoden tries to follow the safe but succesful routine. While most games aren’t masterpieces they were playable and relatively fun. Dragon Ball Z has always gotten fairly decent efforts in the video game industry.