What is your favorite DBZ video game opening?

Shineman · Post by **Shineman** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:27 pm

My Favorite dbz game opening would have to be Dragonball Z: Sparking!

It just look epic: Such as Goku beating the shit out of Buu and Vegeta getting pwn by villain like always.

And the Funny as scene between Goku and Vegeta at the near end of the opening.

What about you guys?

Li'l Lemmy · Post by **Li'l Lemmy** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:52 pm

I get the feeling that a lot of the replies are going to revolve around animated openings like Ultimate Battle 22 or Budokai 3, which we don't see much of anymore since Sparking went CG on us.

~Da Lemmy

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 1:15 pm

Best and worst is Budokai 3's opening.

Worst for the scene where Broly and Gogeta punch each other and Gogeta goes flying.

Best for the scene where Gogeta obliterates Broly with a simple Kamehameha.

Li'l Lemmy · Post by **Li'l Lemmy** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 1:35 pm

Now, now. If Gogeta wasn't sent reeling by Broli's attack, then DragonBall Multiverse wouldn't make any sense.

~Da Lemmy

Conan the SSJ · Post by **Conan the SSJ** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:06 pm

Li'l Lemmy wrote:I get the feeling that a lot of the replies are going to revolve around animated openings like Ultimate Battle 22 or Budokai 3, which we don't see much of anymore since Sparking went CG on us.

~Da Lemmy

Good point. Though in regard to the topic, what's your favorite opening?

Mine's Infinite World's, absolutely love the song, while the CG animation is pretty dang neat and not as meh-ish looking as the Sparking! games' ('heave heavin', ki-spammage, randomness ahoy parakeet Cell'). I love the 2D animation of Budokai 2, 3, and Sagas' to death, but something about Infinite World's opening which nails it... Must be the song. I also wouldn't mind a DBZ special done in such CG animation.

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:11 pm

The Tenkaichi openings are great for how completely nutty they are.

NeptuneKai · Post by **NeptuneKai** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:59 pm

I always liked Final Bouts opening. Very nice classic 2D animation that looks like it came straight out of the show.

Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi · Post by **Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:10 pm

I'm not sure why everyone hates the original Spaking's CG. Compared to the other Sparkings, and even Infinite Worlds, its beautiful! If it wasn't for the lack of a new song to go along with it, I might've preferred it over the Budokai 3 opening.

Super Sayian Prime · Post by **Super Sayian Prime** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:24 pm

Sagas, it was so gorgeous.

SSJmole · Post by **SSJmole** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:56 pm

Final Bout. This is just awesome :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4iQf1OwqMU

Kaiser Gogeta · Post by **Kaiser Gogeta** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 12:00 am

Budokai 3, and then Budokai 2.
They were really nice IMO, I favor the animated openings much more than the CG ones.

Adey · Post by **Adey** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:59 am

All of the non 3D intros are just awesome. Final Bout's is a lot better than Ultimate Battle 22, as for the PS2 games I think Budokai 2 might win it, it has Goku shooting the moon in half!

RoarkVegeta · Post by **RoarkVegeta** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:01 pm

I <3 Budokai 3's opening. Smexy new/old? animation.

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:28 pm

Adey wrote:I think Budokai 2 might win it, it has Goku shooting the moon in half!

Post by **VegettoEX** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:32 pm

I'm going to split this up into pre-PS2 and post-PS2, because there's a lot to be missed, otherwise.

In terms of really old-school games, there wasn't much in the way of "openings" to the games. There might be some quick text narration (Saiya-jin Zetsumetsu Keikaku) or hints of a little action or someone doing something (Super Butoden 2), but in all of these cases, it's about setting up a *mood* by combining the music and very limited visuals. None really blew me away, but the aforementioned Super Butoden 2 sets up a really good, triumphant, grand-scale mood with Gohan flying toward Kami's palace and its opening theme.

Once we get to 32-bit, we get genuine FMV and "openings". The only real clunker here is probably Idainaru.../"Legends". The compression is noticably worse than the game that came before it (Ultimate Battle 22)... and... well... it doesn't really make any sense... plus, the song is just too short to do anything with. Ultimate Battle 22's opening always seemed more fluid to me than Final Bout's ended up being, but they both have their perks. The former's song is a perfect-length instrumental piece that lends itself well to splitting up the opening with all the characters, while the latter got us VOCALS! Shin-Butoden was just a re-arranged version of the Ultimate Battle 22 OP played in a small window due to the Saturn's lack of internally-coded, proper video playback... so that one loses, too.

I'm pretty sure Julian and I have gone back and forth on whether we like the Budokai 2 or 3 theme song the best. 2 had the distinction of being the first new Hironobu Kageyama / DBZ music since Final Bout in 1997 and rocked it out with Tower of Power, but 3 brought back in KÛKO and YUKA with the overall musical feeling of nostalgia. Each of the corresponding animations had their share of problems (some slightly off-character models, strange pair-ups, etc.), but were hardly a detriment to the experience...

... unlike the entire Sparking! series. Don't misunderstand me (, Kakarotto~)... I would be totally fine with really sexy 3D sequences if they didn't look so gosh-darn awful. The characters are lifeless, rigid, and have no soul. It's sad, considering that the music was the exact opposite of that. While the first two games recycled (great) old songs, METEOR brought it back in style with a rockin' tune almost like a new extension of the Budokai 2 OP. It could have paired up amazingly had the backing animation been... err... moderately acceptable.

Strange how during all this, in comes Super DBZ proving itself to be the lone wolf in every respect, using the in-game engine for its opening theme. The camera zoomed and panned all over the place, characters moved as they should... it again went for a somewhat "nostalgia" type of feeling (as the entire game did, being manga-based) with a remix of the first DBZ TV OP... ah, good times.

(Sagas didn't really have an opening, I guess... just that "Chapter One" intro... and Infinite World was a step-back to the 3D animations, though nowhere near as terrible as the Sparking! series, and had a pretty fun song...)

Then we have hints of "next-gen" (now current-gen) stuffage with Burst Limit (bringing it back with in-game engine animations) and now the new Wii and PS3/360 games...

So what am I getting at?

It's probably the final two Budokai games. The combination of hearing a familiar voice come back with animation updated in a classic style is what really defined that exciting new era, and that's what I look back so fondly on with a huge smile on my face. It's only been ~six years since that time, but it's just enough to hit that "fond memories" area of the brain.

A stupid Goku smile certainly helps:

Fuujin · Post by **Fuujin** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:06 am

Hyper Dimension. I still remember playing that game for the first time... "Holy crap, Goku is staring wistfully into the distance! This is going to be SO EXCITING!"

Serious answer - Budokai 2. They managed to covey the spirit of the show (goofy humor + awesomely exaggarated fighting) and the personalities of almost all the characters in a short clip, without any dialog. Great animation and music helps too.
Compare to B3, which was a series of badly directed mash-ups between fanboy favorites.

Thanos6 · Post by **Thanos6** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:21 am

I'm also gonna have to side with Budokai 2. Loved the entire heroic cast hunting Dragonballs with comedic results.

Anonymous Friend · Post by **Anonymous Friend** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:23 am

I actually really like the first Sparking opening even with the crazy character designs. It was the first game I bought for my Playstation 2. It was before I started frequenting Dragonball forums. I had only watched the series on Cartoon Network and bought a couple of movies. So, it was my first "big" Dragonball purchase.

Jackal puFF · Post by **Jackal puFF** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:51 am

Anonymous Friend wrote:I actually really like the first Sparking opening even with the crazy character designs. It was the first game I bought for my Playstation 2. It was before I started frequenting Dragonball forums. I had only watched the series on Cartoon Network and bought a couple of movies. So, it was my first "big" Dragonball purchase.

Mine was budokai. That game got me into dragonball. After that I bought movies 3, 7, trunks special and bardock. Yeah I watched it out of order, Then i saw dragonball piccolo saga and dbz saiyan saga on cartoon network!

SweetCosmicPope · Post by **SweetCosmicPope** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:11 pm

I'm going to say Final Bout. Just a great animation, and the song is awesome!

Kanzenshuu

What is your favorite DBZ video game opening?

What is your favorite DBZ video game opening?

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