Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu Ranking: A
I played this game back in middle school when I was a huge Dragon Ball Z fan and it’s always stuck out in my memory as a great game. It follows the story of DBZ closely from Raditz’s arrival to Frieza’s defeat. You control the Z-fighters and they level up as you fight random enemies – in the Vegeta series they consist of Saibamen and in the Frieza series they consist of advanced Saibamen with Frieza’s henchmen.
Gameplay revolves around different cards. When you attack, you choose a card to attack with and that card determines how effective your attack is as well as how effectively you defend against enemy attacks. Some special events, such as Gohan attacking Raditz, also use a special event card. Some cards allow you to change your “hand” of cards to try to get better attack or defense values. All in all, it’s a unique system and works pretty well.
Card values, though, only go so far. Another major determinant of a character’s effectiveness is Battle Power. If an enemy’s BP is too high, regardless of what cards come into play your attacks will literally do nothing and the game will tell you that the enemy is too strong. The reverse works as well, and if you grind levels like I did, in the late game your fighters will be too strong for Frieza’s henchmen to make any sort of dent in. And in the final battle, maxed Super Saiyan Goku with a BP-raising card will absolutely mop the floor with Frieza’s ass, just like in the show:
I played this game back in middle school when I was a huge Dragon Ball Z fan and it’s always stuck out in my memory as a great game. It follows the story of DBZ closely from Raditz’s arrival to Frieza’s defeat. You control the Z-fighters and they level up as you fight random enemies – in the Vegeta series they consist of Saibamen and in the Frieza series they consist of advanced Saibamen with Frieza’s henchmen.
Gameplay revolves around different cards. When you attack, you choose a card to attack with and that card determines how effective your attack is as well as how effectively you defend against enemy attacks. Some special events, such as Gohan attacking Raditz, also use a special event card. Some cards allow you to change your “hand” of cards to try to get better attack or defense values. All in all, it’s a unique system and works pretty well.
Card values, though, only go so far. Another major determinant of a character’s effectiveness is Battle Power. If an enemy’s BP is too high, regardless of what cards come into play your attacks will literally do nothing and the game will tell you that the enemy is too strong. The reverse works as well, and if you grind levels like I did, in the late game your fighters will be too strong for Frieza’s henchmen to make any sort of dent in. And in the final battle, maxed Super Saiyan Goku with a BP-raising card will absolutely mop the floor with Frieza’s ass, just like in the show:
I recommend this game despite its somewhat antiquated mechanics and amount of grind. In fact, I’d say it tops most, if not all, the DBZ games I’ve played in my life, which is sad considering how old it is.