Genre: Anime Fighter
Developer: Spike
System I played on: Playstation 2
Year: 2005
So, I thought I’d go back and review all the DBZ games in my collection. But since I’m missing the first two Budokai games, I thought I’d jump right into the Tenkaichi series. For those confused, the first three big name Dragonball Z games in America were the Budokai games. Since got a lot kids who watched the show to play, and they were good games, and for those who didn’t know the entire series like me, they filled the holes where we were confused on what happened in the storyline. And then years later as DBZ became my guilty pleasure, and then as I stopped giving a shit, became something I admitted I loved, and introduced me to anime. But while it was still a guilty pleasure, I traded a game with a friend to get this. (I regret this because I had no idea what Shadow of the Colossus was, and I was an idiot) Anyway, let’s get into it. When this game hit, there was big changes to the DBZ Budokai games. Before it was the left to right traditional fighting scheme, just they could fly and use big moves. Now with this game following the best DBZ game so far, there was a little more expectation. But they completely ditched most of what the series was known for. The left to right fighting pattern was replaced with a more free behind the shoulder camera on a normal map that can be touched anywhere. The character roster increased as usual, and they stopped the item buying system and replaced it with a Z Item Fusion, which was how you would get characters. (For instance after obtaining one half of SS4 Goku and the other half SS4 Vegeta, you can obtain SS4 Gogeta). Not to mention the storyline which was getting better and better, was replaced with a saga play through where you would just play through each saga separately, some like the movies would only be one match. Let’s start with the biggest improvement, the fighting. The new fight system destroys the old one in my book, and although the old one is still playable, it just doesn’t compare to the more realistic fighting in the Tenkaichi games. This made the fighting scenes seen in the anime playable, and was a huge improvement. Not to mention this was the first time you could smash through buildings, go under water, and fly up and down at free will. The characters, also another huge bonus. The full GT roster definitely helped, but I still don’t know why some character like SS3 Goku and SS4 Goku have such crappy moves, and feel dumbed down. The roster is still and up, and having characters like the Great Ape feel like big moves for how hard they must have had been to be added. As for the first bad thing, I wanted to keep the capsule move buying system. This made money valuable, which it hasn’t been since this move has been ditched. And no, having all the moves from the beginning isn’t an up. This should have stayed with all the games, and shouldn’t have been ditched. The Z Item Fusion was a cool way to get unlocked characters, but it’s not as a fun interactive system as buying moves. If I had it my way, we’d have both, which wouldn’t be hard at all. Also, the story mode is another step down. It’s not shit, and more memorable then the other Tenkaichi games on the PS2, but when the Budokai games were just getting better and better with their story modes, this feels kind of like a step down. Don’t get me wrong, the new story has some ups. Going through each saga will take a good amount of hours, and there are even some good what if sagas that really focus on the enemies, all following Frieza, Cell, and Buu through their triumph if they had won. And even some sagas like Trunks going into the future to fight the androids have added what if battles like if he went back to the past and fought SS4 Gogeta in the World Tournament. (And since GT is optional canon to me, that very well could have happened) And it’s still good, just a step down from the very awesome free roaming Budokai 3 complete with tons of extras. Also, it has a good amount of modes. The usual World Tournament is there, but the interesting new mode covers a ranking system. You pick a character, and fight to the top as that character, going from one-hundred all the way up to number one. This mode is actually very bad ass, and will keep you invested as much as a story mode, just you know, without the story. In the end, this is still a very good game, and definitely might be better than Budokai 3. (Which I will review eventually) It can compete for best DBZ game, and a great title for DBZ fans, and even non DBZ fans might want to at least try it if it comes your way.
Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi Review
