Dragon Ball Z UK Magazine Game Reviews

[DBZimran]

I was digging through some old stuff when I discovered a magazine dating back to December 2002. It includes reviews for Budokai 1 and The Legacy of Goku. I sent these over to Kanzenshuu to be submitted to the press archive. I'll post it here for anyone who wants to see them too.
Magazine Cover for GamesMaster Dec 2002 Issue 127:

Spoiler:

Budokai 1:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

The Legacy of Goku

Spoiler:

Some fanart of Gohan somebody submitted (They called him Goku though ):

Spoiler:

If any of the text is hard to read I posted up some close up scans: https://imgur.com/a/cKC6e

[90sDBZ]

Good stuff. I remember Games Master giving BT1 a score of 80% and then giving the 2 sequels lower scores which was pretty crazy.

[NitroEX]

Wow, it's nice that you hung onto those. I remember reading GamesMaster magazines for my gaming news as a kid although I don't recall ever owning this issue. Despite their flaws, LOG1 and Budokai 1 are still two of my fondest memories playing DBZ games. I love the fact that PAL Budokai 1 properly introduced me to the Japanese cast in fully animated cutscenes (which I still think hold up pretty well graphically) and I'll never forget my excitement upon first discovering LOG1 on store shelves by complete accident, I had no clue a GBA game even existed at the time.

[DBZimran]

I didn't have much Dragon Ball stuff. So a magazine with Goku's face on the cover was a small treasure for my 7 year old self. I didn't even own a Ps2 or Gba until years later. But that's what it was like being a fan in the UK for me, we didn't have many figures or merchandise so whatever I found I kept safe. What I didn't have I just made paper cut outs of the characters to play with.

[NitroEX]

I remember there being a fair bit of DBZ stuff available at the time in the UK, I recall a Panini sticker album with collectable stickers being sold in quite a few shops.

There were those cheap figurines available in places like Woolworths and Toys R Us. They must've been selling quite well because local comic shops and markets used to stock rare imports from America such as this which I don't think ever got sold in the large retail chain stores. Around 2000 or 2001 I had bought a Broly figure which in hindsight was quite a while before I even got to see movie 8, I also remember buying a Jakks Pacific SS4 Goku in 2004, both came from small comic shops at that time.

Some of those comic shops also stocked Funimation's TGC, I had stumbled upon a Buu starter deck in 2003 and bought at least one booster pack. They were never made widely available for some reason and quickly disappeared. Cards that were widely available though (at least to my memory) were those cheap trading cards that were sold with bubblegum in pretty much every corner shop. They looked like bootlegs to me but it wouldn't surprise me if they were official.

Ultimate Battle 22 and Dragon Ball Final Bout were, of course, available for the PS1 around that time with LOG1 and 2 coming out for GBA, although I don't remember them actually marketing any of the games on television until Budokai 1 hit.

VHS and DVDs are where they really dropped the ball, only releasing those three lousy Big Green movie dubs at the time, such a wasted opportunity.

Speaking of magazines though, I did remember having a Cartoon Network magazine of some sort that had DBZ images in it. Here's a cool printed ad I found online.

Edit: I'm pretty sure there were a few manga volumes sold in book stores around that time as well. These ones more specifically: https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/AS ... 46-1418044

[DBZimran]

Wow! Thank you for this post you've sent me down memory lane here. I didn't have any comic book stores nearby, but did get some of those figurines from Argos back in the day. That Cell promo picture you found, where did u locate it. I've never seen that image before. Also it has a actual date for when the Imperfect Cell saga aired. Would have been September 3rd 2001.

[Jodaku]

Wow, talk about a blast from the past, I had that issue of Gamesmaster magazine with the Budokai 1 review. Unfortunately, my copy is long gone.

Thanks for reviving that memory.