Dragon Ball Z Buyū Retsuden[a] is a 1994 fighting video game developed and published by Bandai and Ecofilmes for the Sega Mega Drive. Based upon Akira Toriyama‘s Dragon Ball franchise, it is the only game in the series released for the Mega Drive, following the Frieza and Cell sagas. Its gameplay has been described as a combination of the original Super Butōden and Super Butōden 2, consisting of one-on-one fights using a three-button configuration, featuring special moves and two playable modes.
With the popularity of the Dragon Ball franchise in European regions and the positive reception of the first Super Butōden entry on Super Famicom, Bandai decided developing Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden for the Mega Drive but its creation process lasted longer than the Super Butōden sub-series. Buyū Retsuden proved popular among players and garnered generally positive reception from critics; Some reviewers praised the addition of characters not featured in the previous Super NES games, split-screen mechanic, audiovisual presentation and gameplay, but other stated it was not on par with both Street Fighter II: The World Warrior and Mortal Kombat, criticizing certain design choices and slow pacing.
Gameplay
A match between Krillin and Recoome on the planet Namek
See also: Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden § Gameplay
Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden is a fighting game similar to Street Fighter II.[1] Players fight against other characters in 1-on-1 matches and the fighter who manages to deplete the health bar of the opponent wins the match.[1] The game has two modes of play; Story and Versus.[1] The roster features 11 playable characters:[1] Goku, Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo, Vegeta, Captain Ginyu, Recoome, Frieza, Future Trunks, Android 18 and Cell. Gameplay is quite similar to the Super Butōden entries for SNES;[2][3] it features the split-screen mechanic that allows the player to stay far from the opponents and perform an energy Ki blast.[1] When a Ki blast is performed far away, the opponent has very little time to defend themselves from it. Buyū Retsuden uses a three-button control scheme;[4] “A” punches, “B” kicks and “C” switches between staying on land or sky. Special moves can be performed via button combinations.[1]
Development and release
Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden was first published in Japan by Bandai on April 1, 1994,[5][6] then in France and Spain in June 1994 under the name Dragon Ball Z: L’Appel du Destin,[1][7] and two years later in Portugal by Ecofilmes under the name Dragon Ball Z.[8][citation needed] The French/Spanish release features a French translation,[9] while Ecofilmes would take Japanese copies of the game to replace both the cover and manual (but keeping the cartridge) to sell the game as is by promising a free converter cartridge, as the Japanese cartridges cannot fit into European Mega Drive units, but later switched to using the French release instead.
Reception
Reception
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Beep! MegaDrive | 6.5/10[12] |
| Consoles + | 85%[2] |
| Famitsu | 24/40[13] |
| HobbyConsolas | 89/100[14] |
| Jeuxvideo.com | 10/20[7] |
| Joypad | 83%[15] |
| Mean Machines Sega | 81/100[17] |
| Mega Fun | 59%[16] |
| Player One | 80%[9] |
| Superjuegos | 91/100[18] |
| Super Game Power | 4.0/5.0[3] |
| Mega | 77%[19] |
| Mega Force [fr] | 80%[20] |
| MegaTech | 75%[21] |
| Sega Power | 64%[22] |
| Sega Pro | 62%[23] |
| Sega Zone | 82%[24] |
Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden received generally positive reception from critics,[13][12] though most reviewers noted similarities with previous Dragon Ball Z fighting games on Super NES.[16][25] Public reception was also positive: readers of Mega Drive Fan magazine and the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine voted to give the game scores of 21.3 out of 30 and 7.3415 out of 10 respectively, ranking at the number 229 spot in a poll of the former publication, indicating a popular following.[26]
