SNES DBZ games.

[Freeza93]

I recently bought a SNES (PAL) and while I was getting me some Mario action, I was wondering; what were the best DBZ games on the SNES? And, what do I have to do to the system so I could play imports?

[SSj_Rambo]

I recently bought a SNES (PAL) and while I was getting me some Mario action, I was wondering; what were the best DBZ games on the SNES? And, what do I have to do to the system so I could play imports?

Here's an awsome list of all of the Dragonball games for SNES http://www.kanzentai.com/guide/video_ga ... micom.html

Big thanks to Kanzentai for supplying us with this list and all of their other information.

*Edit: I fixed the link!

[Shenron]

To make it short :

The first Super Butoden sucks. It's awful, and the gameplay is horrible.

The 2nd is ok, but the french translation is terrible.

The 3rd is quite lame, since there is no Story Mode.

Hyper Dimension is the best DBZ fighting game of the SNES, but the Story Mode of the JP version has been removed in the PAL version, which is a shame.

And I heard that DRAGON BALL Z: Super Saiya-jin Legend is quite a good game, but there are too much random fights near the end of the game.

My advice : You should play these games with an emulator, there are translated versions of the JP games.

[NeptuneKai]

For a second opinion-

Butoden 1- I actually liked the story mode, it ranges from end of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai to the end of the Cell Games. The game play is somewhat hard but I think people over-exaggerate a tad. If you practice up on your moves this game isn't too bad. It also has an awesome tourney mode and a lot of bizarre character choices for the time. (Dr.Gero, 100% Freeza etc.) I'd say buy it but don't give up right away, you WILL loose a few times before getting the hang of it.

Butoden 2- An awesome story mode that starts at the Cell games and veers off into a “What if” story line full of clones, Bojack and Brolly also make an appearance in this game along with Zangya, although the story mode won't do you much good if you don't know Japanese. However the combat has improved dramatically. Moves are MUCH easier to pull off and everything is generally cleaner and nicer to look at. The difficultly is toned down from the first game. I'd say this is a definite buy.

Butoden 3- No story mode this time around due to the show being in limbo between sagas at the time. However the combat system is cleaned up from Butoden 2 a lot, plus you get some awesome Buu saga characters such as Goten, Trunks, Fat Buu and even Supreme Kai. Cleaned up controls and everything looks amazing. I’d say look for a deal on this one because I wouldn't buy it for too much due to its lack of replay value having no story mode n' all. Not to mention almost everyone is blond in this game...not that it matters.


Hyper Dimension- This is a MUST buy, this has to be the best DBZ fighting game on the SNES by far, awesome graphics. Superior complex game play an in-depth story mode that has just the right level of difficultly as you progress, a bunch of awesome characters LOADS of stages. You can even fight in mid-air! Not to mention everyone has super flashy attacks that look astonishing. May I add the music is phenomenal too, definitely get this.


I also like Gokuden 1 and 2 but you will NEVER be able to play those if you don't know Japanese. They are basically choose your own adventure” games.


Edit: As for what you have to do to your SNES to get it to play Japanese games that is simple, rip those two gray tabs out of your system. The SNES had a hardware lockout instead of a software one. I believe there is a Daizex podcast that goes more in depth about this.

[Daburcor]

Hyper Dimension is the best of the SNES games, in my opinion.

[VegettoEX]

Edit: As for what you have to do to your SNES to get it to play Japanese games that is simple, rip those two gray tabs out of your system. The SNES had a hardware lockout instead of a software one. I believe there is a Daizex podcast that goes more in depth about this.

http://www.daizex.com/general/podcast/i ... shtml#0059

http://www.daizex.com/general/podcast/m ... ming.shtml

If it's a PAL system, though, keep in mind that JP games are NTSC are you'll run into other issues.

[finnishjuoppo]

the first butouden is really assy, but it has more characters then butouden 2 and 3 combined.

2nd butouden is in my opinion so far the best game of the butouden series, it has great story and Broly!

3rd is lame because almost every playable character is blond!

Hyper Dimension is the shit! its the best snes dragonball game so far

Dragonball z: legendary super saiya-jin (or something like that) is okay card-based game, but it is too slow

[Freeza93]

Thanks for the help . Did they release a PAL version of Hyper Dimension? I am thinking of getting the console modded, but it would cost £25, more than I payed for the console.

[finnishjuoppo]

Thanks for the help . Did they release a PAL version of Hyper Dimension? I am thinking of getting the console modded, but it would cost £25, more than I payed for the console.

well there is the french version that works I think :S but it doesnt have a story mode so the japanese version is superior, bloody hell!

[Shenron]

Butoden 1- I actually liked the story mode, it ranges from end of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai to the end of the Cell Games. The game play is somewhat hard but I think people over-exaggerate a tad. If you practice up on your moves this game isn't too bad. It also has an awesome tourney mode and a lot of bizarre character choices for the time. (Dr.Gero, 100% Freeza etc.) I'd say buy it but don't give up right away, you WILL loose a few times before getting the hang of it.

The story mode is interesting, but the controls are really bad, especially in the PAL version, which is slower since it is in 50Hz. Honestly, if it wasn't a DBZ game, nobody would have cared about it.

[NeptuneKai]

Butoden 1- I actually liked the story mode, it ranges from end of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai to the end of the Cell Games. The game play is somewhat hard but I think people over-exaggerate a tad. If you practice up on your moves this game isn't too bad. It also has an awesome tourney mode and a lot of bizarre character choices for the time. (Dr.Gero, 100% Freeza etc.) I'd say buy it but don't give up right away, you WILL loose a few times before getting the hang of it.

The story mode is interesting, but the controls are really bad, especially in the PAL version, which is slower since it is in 50Hz. Honestly, if it wasn't a DBZ game, nobody would have cared about it.

I've only played the Japanese version of the game so you might be right about the PAL ordeal but I didn't think the controls were that awful, maybe it's because I'm not a huge "fighting game" expert but I didn't find really anything wrong with Super Butoden other then it's insane difficulty (mainly because the CPU can pull off specials in the blink of an eye.) As for nobody caring about it if it wasn't a DBZ game that may be true but that doesn't stop it from being a good game, look at the Sparking series, those games would be rated so low if they didn't hold the "DBZ" name but people still love them.

[Shenron]

I have to disagree, the Sparking Games are very good, even without the DBZ license : gameplay, graphics, animation, everything is above standards.
It just wouldn't have been necessary to put so much characters if it wasn't a DBZ game.

But Super Butoden is quite bad compared to the other fighting games for the SNES. The graphics are dull, the musics are not fantastic, and the gameplay is seriously bad : it takes 1/2 second for the character to react after you've pushed a button, it's way too much. Any of the Ranma 1/2 games is better than this one on this subject.
There were some good ideas, like the split screen, but it's not enough to make a good game.

[NeptuneKai]

I have to disagree, the Sparking Games are very good, even without the DBZ license : gameplay, graphics, animation, everything is above standards.
It just wouldn't have been necessary to put so much characters if it wasn't a DBZ game.

But Super Butoden is quite bad compared to the other fighting games for the SNES. The graphics are dull, the musics are not fantastic, and the gameplay is seriously bad : it takes 1/2 second for the character to react after you've pushed a button, it's way too much. Any of the Ranma 1/2 games is better than this one on this subject.


There were some good ideas, like the split screen, but it's not enough to make a good game.

Of course you must be talking about the PAL version because every version I played had an immediate reaction.The Sparking series had dull game play and stiff animation IMO. It looked like stop motion figures especially the facial expressions and while that's not a big deal, in this day and age people shouldn’t always have the same expression on their face in a fighting video game while they are being hit by a giant fucking cannon of destruction. (Sparking 3 did sort of fix this but not by much.) People defend it because of its bright flashy colors, I really see no redeeming values of that game other then it’s so simple anyone can pick it up and play. ( I believe someone called it A+B FOR KAMEYAMEYA syndrome.)


Sparking is dull for modern fighting games seeing as everyone plays the exact same way with an exception here and there. Even the music suffers due to the length of the BGM tracks being too short (talking about the Japanese version here) the English version's music was just...awful. Of course I find music to be 100% subjective and there is no way in HFIL I’m arguing over something absolutely opinion based so different stroke’s on that side I suppose.
( I’m not turning this into a “let’s bash DBZ: Sparking” thread, I’m simply comparing it to Super Butoden which is relevant to a topic where a person wanted to know more about the game.)

On an unrelated note how good are the French translations for these games?

[Shenron]

I don't see the Sparking games as "real" fighting games", since the gameplay is too basic (if we compare it to Soul Calibur or VF of course, because I still discover new moves after several hours in BT3). I like to compare them to Virtual On, which is one of my favourite games ever.

And I don't give a damn about the facial expressions. When I watch Burst Limit trailers, I can only think "oh my god, this is awful and nothing like Toriyama's style". I'd rather never see the fighters' faces. In the Sparking games, close ups are ugly but the game is beautiful otherwise. I'm fine with it.

Anyway, the french translations of the Super Butoden games are really terrible. They had to keep the same number of characters in the speeches, and so 1 kanji = 1 letter. It would be ok if the guy who made it knew how to speak french, but it seems he didn't.

Super Butoden 2 is the worst, since some sentences don't even make sense, and it's really hard to understand the plot.
I don't remember how is the translation of Hyper Dimension, I only play the english version of the rom.

And there is still something wrong with the french translation of DBZ Games : the names. In BT3, we still have the AB names, like Sangoku instead of Son Goku. It really annoys me.

[Thanos6]

The combat in Legend of the Super Saiya-jin is really fun, but the leveling up, oh GOD the leveling up...