Fans of Dragon Ball Z in America had it rough. The show took forever to get localized, the action was edited, and the video games sucked. As a young kid though, it did not matter how bad the game was, we still played it a lot. Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the Playstation was no exception.
This game was one of the first localized Dragon Ball games to reach America but the problem with releasing a game like this based on an anime that hasn't been shown in its entirety leaves fans (who haven't imported or watched the subbed VHS tapes) clueless to half the characters in this game. The GT series aired in 2003 and this game was released in 1997 so it left me with many questions. Who is Cell and Buu? Why is there a Super Saiyan Goku and a Super Goku? Why is Gohan so old?
In actuality, none of this was important at all. It was a 3d one on one fighting game and that is pretty much all you need to know. And as a fighting game...it was broken. Glitches happened regularly, the controls responded like mud, some characters's moves were impossible to figure out, and the balance was a joke. Any of the 6 or 7 versions of Goku were unstoppable. I understand Super Saiyan 4 Goku is powerful and should be the best character but wow he is just cheap. To the game's credit, it tried its best to capture the feel of the shows battles with certain elements that took a while to get in modern Dragon Ball games. The meteor attacks are actually pretty cool looking sequences, and the beam battles were also pretty awesome. It also allowed you fly which couldn't be done in the more recent Budokai series (you technically could fly but it didn't matter as much).
SO SLUGGISH
As far as modes go, there are about 4 if I remember correctly. Arcade, Versus, Tournament, and a Build- Up mode. The first three mentioned are pretty much as you would expect but Build up mode was a pretty interesting idea. You select a character and start at level one. They give you about 10 characters to fight at first and you level up as you fight them gaining more health and strength. The lower down the list you go, the stronger your opponent is and each time you defeat all the characters on a specific block it unlocks a new character to challenge you before you can move to the next block. Then you rinse and repeat. The cool aspect about this is that whatever attacks you use are the attacks that get stronger. Throw fireballs and they become stronger. Use meteor attacks and they become more powerful. However, you can not build an even character though it just tends to tilt more to either throwing beam attacks or pummeling down your opponent.
Today, this game is unplayable, ugly, and a mess. Back then, it was pretty much the same but it was my first Dragon Ball game so it got a free pass. It also did have pretty cool music though.
Makes No Sense: When you fire a special beam at your enemy and they counter attack, the beam comes in front of their character and just stops right there and waits until they fire the beam to start the beam battle. It is rather funny to see.
Fun Fact: This game originally came out in 1997 and was pretty rare and expensive. There was no need to fear though because after the show aired in 2003 in America, Bandai re-released the game in 2004 with new cover art.
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