Even the energy wave attack, which is a Dragon Ball Z signature that brings a sense of incredible power to the fights, feels hollow here. But, even once you've purchased all of the additional abilities, the gameplay still just feels sloppy and unresponsive, with bad collision detection and animation that regularly forces you to wait several seconds while a futile piece of animation plays out before you can continue fighting.

You start off with basic punch, kick, and energy attacks, though you can eventually earn more combos and abilities by picking up coins found throughout the game. It's really a blessing in disguise that their patterns are so predictable, since your own attacks are pretty limited. The game couches the story in a series of arrow-straight beat-'em-up levels populated with enemies that even the game itself cannot avoid referring to as mindless. The last episode of Dragon Ball Z was aired in Japan almost a decade ago, and even most American Dragon Ball fans have moved on to Dragon Ball GT. These stories have been done to death, but this particular retelling is especially limp, relying on 30-second montages cut together from the DBZ cartoon to relay a whole season's worth of story. Hopefully, those same fans are ready for yet another rendition of the same Dragon Ball Z stories, starting with Raditz and ending with the Cell Games. Sagas has the look and feel of a quick cash-in. But alas, Atari has quickly turned around and churned out Dragon Ball Z: Sagas, a short, ugly, slightly buggy, and brain-dead beat-'em-up that all but nullifies the good work of the Budokai games.

No longer would the license carry the weight for shoddy gameplay and slapdash presentation! In fact, the games would be good enough that you wouldn't even have to like Dragon Ball Z to enjoy the games. Last year's Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 for the PlayStation 2 seemed like it could be the herald of a new era for games bearing the Dragon Ball Z license. And things seemed to be going so well for Goku.

Dbz sagas game