Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi

"A very nice attempt was made to bring the series closer to the show, I just wish it was done better. Still fun? Absolutely."

With Dragonball Z being possibly the most successful anime of all time, it's no wonder a plethora of DBZ games have been released over the years. Most of which, have been decidedly awful. Still, one series dared to take the licensed games in the right direction: the Budokai series. The first and second Budokais were essentially the building blocks of the series and as a whole felt incomplete. Budokai 3 was widely regarded as the best DBZ game to date with it's expansive list of playable characters, over the top finishing moves, and sheer fun factor. In all three of the previous Budokai games, they were treated like standard fighting games in a 2D format with 3D Backgrounds. This is what Budokai Tenkaichi (almost) successfully changes.

In the hands of a different developer, Budokai Tenkaichi is a completely different game. In an effort to make gameplay feel more like the actual show, gone are the restricting 2D battlefields and in it's place, a globe shaped arena is where the action will ensue. If anything, Budokai Tenkaichi has been accurately called a "spin-off" as opposed to an actual sequel, and with good reason.

The Budokai series has widely been criticized for its lacking combat system. I feel that Budokai Tenkaichi does a pretty good job in adding SOME depth to the standard system, however some technical problems do detract. In the previous games from the series, there were punch and kick buttons to be utilized in hand to hand combat. Budokai Tenkaichi scraps the kick button altogether and replaces it with a dash button. You see, combat in Budokai Tenkaichi is now in 3 dimensions and dashing around the arena can be a critical element to success. Think Zone of the Enders, Armored Core 2, basically any arena combat game and place a Dragonball skin on it. This is a great idea with questionable execution. First of all, the arenas are far too small to contain these over the top combatants. Far too often will you be running into a rainbow colored wall that makes you stop and think "Huh?" Also, dashing is very tough to get acclimated to, as it takes considerable practice before you'll be moving in the direction you want to each time. This is caused by the fact that locking on to your target (pressing L1) will completely change the directions you dash as opposed to free roaming.

Now when you dash into your opponent and initiate hand to hand, you'll be repeatedly pressing the square button to launch your initial combo. BT does a wonderful job of allowing you to do whatever you want at any point in the combo. You can stop, throw a press of the dash button and launch a stun attack. You can teleport behind your opponent at any time (so long as your timing is sharp), you can throw them and you can press and hold the square button to charge your next blow. In addition, at any time you can send your opponent soaring away from you by holding the Ki button and kinetically blasting them into the stratosphere. With a nice touch you can then dash toward their drifting body and issue another devastating blow (just like the show, good stuff). Even the blocking system has been greatly improved, now utilizing directional blocking. It actually feels and looks very similar to the show and I really think the new hand to hand system is a huge step up.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the Ki attack system which I personally think is a solid step in the wrong direction. Gone are all the flashy special attacks, and in their place are short, unspectacular versions of what the actual attack should look like. This is where Spike got lazy. B3 had it right. Why? Because I actually felt like I was watching the show when I would get myself all pumped on pulling off an ultimate attack such as a spirit bomb and watching the devestation unfold in a spectacular manner. In BT, most finishing techniques are mundane and anticlimatic. Also, most of them look nothing like the show (They were CLOSE with B3) and far too many of the attacks are too similar amongst characters. Another annoyance is how ramped up energy attacks are now. Hand to hand does minimal damage compared to energy attacks. You can easily win a match (actually too easily) just by standing back and firing energy volleys. I would have rather seen attacks be more proportional, where ultimate moves would do HUGE damage, and standard attacks like a normal Kamehameha wave would do DECENT damage. As it stands on the strongest characters, ultimate moves are barely twice as strong as the more standard moves and equating to a life bar, that's barely 1/5th.

The visuals I think are, for the most part, outstanding. I would swear I was watching the cartoon which is a wonderful thing. The characters look just as they should, smoothly cell shaded and the environments closely resemble that from the show. Almost everything in the environments are destructable, although I don't much like how craters and destroyed buildings and rubble just simply dissappear. Another thing is that the levels absolutely should be at LEAST doubled in size. While looking at the awesome environments, I really don't want to see a rainbow forcefield...

The audio is really a mixed bag. Although it's nice to choose between Japanese and English voiceovers, the voiceovers themselves lack quality. The characters aren't vocal enough when firing off special attacks, and the energy attacks sound rather bland. The hand to hand combat does indeed sound nice, but everything else could have greatly been improved.

One thing to note is that unlike any of the other Budokai games, there are no in- game transformations. Each different transformation is handled like an entirely different character. While many people dislike this, I think it causes more focus on the action itself which is a good thing. Besides, nobody every transformed mid fight in the show anyway, and I think this was overall a good system. The detrimental side of this is one of the core problems with the game. Movesets! The character's movesets are TOO SIMILAR, especially the varying transformations of certain characters. Not only do the names get overwhelmingly repepative, but the visualization of the move is almost exactly the same too. Honestly, this is all Spike being lazy.

Another example of Spike being lazy, the critical absense of certain characters (Shenron, Pikkon, Bebi himself, etc). It doesn't make sense for a game that boasts about it's character selection from the show to not include some big named characters and instead include probably some of the least popular characters from the show. (Ginyu force anyone? Although Burter is awesome, what is the little green guy doing here in place of someone more popular?) To me, it just doesn't make any sense.

Overall, I'm impressed what Spike did with the hand to hand combat system and I hate them for what they did with the Ki attack system. No longer is hand to hand combat mundane and lacking in depth. However, no longer are there impressive energy attacks and special move visuals, so it's really a trade off. The new 3d environment system is very nice and definitely makes the game feel more like the show, however the levels easily needed to be at least twice as big to make it feel less limiting. Regardless, the game can be a lot of fun and at times will really make you feel like you're "playing the show." I would recommend this game most strongly to DBZ fans (obviously) and really anyone who wants to check out a different kind of fighting game. Honestly, if you aren't a DBZ fan, the Ki attack innaccuracy and lack of visualization really won't bother you at all, so you'd probably enjoy the game more. Ultimately, Budokai 3 was a better made game with better visualized movesets and a little more accuracy. Budokai Tenkaichi has a better fighting system and a more show-like feel.

Eventually, a Dragonball game will be made where everything is nailed spot on, until then, enjoy Budokai Tenkaichi and Budokai 3 as they are far and away the best Dragonball games to date.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/25/05