Dragon Ball Z: Super Butouden

To do: Unused graphics. Regional Differences

Dragon Ball Z: Super Butouden is a fighting game and the first one in the Super Butouden series. Featuring ten playable characters and a campaign mode among other typical contents, it released to mostly positive reviews and sold over one million copies!

Interestingly, due to Dragon Ball's popularity in a few European countries, versions for France and Spain were released a few months after Japan. In North America, it was never released... until 25 years later as a pre-order bonus for the Nintendo Switch version of Dragon Ball FighterZ.

Extra Characters#

Press Up + X + Down + B + Left + L + Right + R twice during the intro (sound effects will play after the first and second successful entries) to unlock extra characters in Tournament Mode.

However, the developers also included an easy way to bypass the button code. ROM address 0x00FFA1 (offset 0x007FA1 in an unheadered ROM) can be set to 01 to require only one entry of the code, or 02 to bypass the code entirely and automatically unlock the extra characters.

CPU vs. CPU#

Setting ROM address 0x00FFA3 (offset 0x007FA3) to 00 (Game Genie code DDEC-ADA7) will enable CPU vs. CPU matches in battle mode. Highlight "1P VS 2P", then press Right a second time to select the (invisible) CPU vs. CPU option.

When selecting characters, the first CPU player's name will initially read "Player 9"; after playing at least one match, it will change to display the number of wins and losses.

CPU Usage Meter#

Setting ROM address 0x00FFA4 (offset 0x007FA4) to 00 (Game Genie code DDEC-AFD7) will enable a CPU usage meter which turns Layer 1 on and off to indicate the amount of CPU time currently in use. The more background is visible, the more CPU time is being used.

Debug Mode#

ROM address 0x00FFA0 (offset 0x007FA0) controls which mode the game first enters when starting up. The default value, 04, corresponds to the intro; changing it to 00 (Game Genie code DDEC-ADD7) will allow you to enter the debug mode when starting the game.

To do: Explain all of the available options.

Use the D-Pad or A when "debug mode 1" is highlighted to cycle through debug modes 1 and 2, as well as the game's regular options menus.

Debug Mode 1#

Character View#

This screen displays all of the frames associated with two selected characters. Use both D-Pads to cycle through the available frames, and press Start to return to the menu.

Debug Mode 2#

Debug Mode 3#

Used to adjust various values associated with either Player 1 or 2, depending on which controller is used to access it.

To do: Explain the various values.

Object Viewer#

This is another screen used to view player graphics. Use A / B to cycle through available frames. The flashing yellow dot under the character sprite represents the bottom center of the character's hitbox.

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

Japan	France / Spain

Revisional Differences#

To do: Rip/compare the SFC and re-release soundtracks.

• The Nintendo Switch re-release received a completely new soundtrack due to a scandal with the original musician, Kenji Yamamoto, where it was discovered that most of his music was derived or plagiarized from existing commercial music.