Dragon Ball Z: Sagas

An adventure of Saiyan proportions.

NA release: 22nd March 2005
EU release: N/A
JP release: N/A
Developer: Avalanche Software
Publisher: Atari
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

With my limited knowledge of Dragon Ball Z, I had heard of the Budokai games as they generally got a good reception from fans of the show. Sagas, however, I hadn’t heard of. And I can certainly understand why. Like the first Budokai game, you play through an abridged version of the show, but this time round instead of enhancing the game, it just makes the game look worse.

This is a fairly simple beat’-em-up. You have simple combos of bashing the same button five times and can hover slightly, which is mainly used for collecting coins and power-ups. The coins can be used to buy upgrades, which are shared across all the characters you play (who all control exactly the same). The levels are short and you’ll fight a main character at the end, although they just have more health and some annoying attacks.

During this, clips from the show will play. All it does is highlight how what you’re doing in the game is nothing like what is happening in the show, it just creates an odd juxtaposition. There are also levels where you need to find all the Dragon Balls – the mythical objects that grant wishes. Turns out they’re all just out in the open all near each other.

Poor

In the end, Dragon Ball Z: Sagas fails in all departments. It’s nowhere near as fun or functional as the Budokai games, and completely fails in taking the series into a new direction. Admittedly, the concept sounds fun. Assuming the role of your favorite DBZ character and running amok in free-form environments sounds like a damn good time. Unfortunately, improper execution detonates any fun Sagas potentially contained.
Juan Castro, IGN

Remake or remaster?

Only in a comprehensive Dragon Ball collection.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Dragon Ball Z: Sagas.