Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden

Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden Dragon Ball Z: L'Appel du Destin
Japanese box art
Developer(s)	Bandai
Publisher(s)	Bandai, Ecofilmes (Portugal)
Series	Dragon Ball
Platform(s)	Mega Drive
Release	JP: April 1, 1994
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously

Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden (ドラゴンボールＺ 武勇烈伝, Doragon Bōru Zetto Buyū Retsuden, Dragon Ball Z: Intense Martial Transmission), released as Dragon Ball Z: L'Appel du Destin (Dragon Ball Z: The Call of Destiny) in France and Spain and as Dragon Ball Z in Portugal, is a fighting game released for the Mega Drive based on the Dragon Ball franchise. Due to the great popularity of the Dragon Ball Z anime in these European countries, it was released in Japan on 1 April 1994^[1] and in Europe (France and Spain) in June 1994.^[2] The French/Spanish version was renamed Dragon Ball Z: L'Appel du Destin and has the game translated to French language and the instruction booklet in French and Spanish languages. The game was also distributed in Portugal in 1996 where it is simply called Dragon Ball Z. The distributor, Ecofilmes, would take Japanese copies of the game, replace the cover and the manual (but keep the cart), and sell the game as is, promising a free converter cart as the Japanese cartridges cannot fit into European Mega Drives. When the French version came out, they switched to using that version instead.

Development

Because the Super Famicom dominated the Japanese market, most licensed game titles based on manga and anime properties were released for this platform.^[3] But that did not happen in Europe, where in most territories the Mega Drive sales were even higher than the Super NES. Due to the popularization of the Dragon Ball franchise in countries like France and Spain, the original Super Butoden for the Super Famicom were well-received so Bandai decided the development of a Dragon Ball game for the Mega Drive.^[3] The time of development was even higher than the Super Butoden series with an outstanding result.^[3]

Gameplay

A screenshot of the game featuring Goku and Gohan in the Room of Spirit and Time

The gameplay is quite similar to the Super Butoden games for the Super Famicom. It features the split-screen that allows the player to stay so far from the opponents and performs an energy ki blast although is not necessary to stay away from the opponent to perform it. When the ki blast is performed far away, the opponent has very little time to defend from the ki blast. The game is a typical fighting game. "A" punches, "B" kicks, "Up" jumps, and various combination moves can be done by holding the various controller buttons together. The "C" button is used to switch between staying on land and flying in the sky. A unique feature in this game is that both characters will always be on-screen simultaneously — leading to the game doing vertical split-screen with scrolling, rotating split screen, and various other neat tricks the Mega Drive was not known for doing (accomplished using various tricks with VDP layer management). This feature is in fact required by some of the strongest moves (which require both players to be far away from each other).

The playable characters are Goku, Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo, Vegeta, Captain Ginyu, Recoome, Frieza, Future Trunks, Android 18, and Cell.

Reception

The games was generally well received. The graphics are remarkable for a Mega Drive game.^[3]

References