Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden

About This Game

Gameplay

Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden is a fighting game similar to Street Fighter II. Players fight against other characters in one-on-one matches and the fighter who manages to deplete the health bar of the opponent wins the bout and becomes the winner of the match. The game features three modes of play, a roster of 10 playable characters and their respective transformations with one additional transformation being unlockable via cheat code. Characters available are Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, Frieza, Android 20, Android 18, Android 16, Cell, Trunks and Gohan. Super Butōden uses a customizable six-button control scheme. Special moves are present in conventional format, with most commands consisting of button combinations. Characters can also dash back and forth by pressing L and R respectively. Unique to the game is the split-screen feature; when one of the two combatants moves far away in the playfield, the view is split to keep both fighters shown in a single screen while their positioning is kept via an on-screen radar.

History

Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden served as both the first full-fledged fighting game in the Dragon Ball franchise and the first entry in the Super Butōden sub-series. Its development was helmed by producer Toshihiro Suzuki, with Akihumi Kubota and Shinsaku Shimada serving as co-directors. Kinya Takehana and Koji Shimizu co-designed the game with additional design work by Design Office D&D while artists Hirokazu Tamai, Masayuki Takahashi, Seiichiro Shiino, Shinichi Iidawere and Shōko Arai were responsible for the pixel art, in addition to Maruko Papa and "Maruko" acting as programmers. Both music and sound design were handled by Kenji Yamamoto of Hyper Entertainment and Yuki Sabakuma respectively. Other people also assisted with its development.