Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi
Technical info-
Developer: Spike
Publisher: Atari
Genre: 3d Fighting
Release Date: US: October 18, 2005 Japan: October 6,2005
ESRB Content Descriptors: Cartoon Violence
Number of Players: 1-2
Only on PS2
-----------------------------------------------------------
Atari is the company that began the series and was with the series every step on the way.The fact in this game is that it isn't by Atari but it is now by Spike,which leads to a whole lot of ups and downs in the features of this game.Now on with the review-:no:
Graphics
Now some of us here are already familiar with the T.V series,the only thing here is that its the same thing......but in 3d. Believe me , they are breathtaking.
All over the years we have seen Atari do its best with each installment and graphics vise,it did more than that. Budokai 3 had awesome graphics and what Spike did in Tenkaichi was that it made it look more realistic in certain ways like when you do a ki blast and it misses your opponent,it explodes against the ground and there is a lot of dust flying around. It basically made some enhancements with the environment. It being more destructable in many ways like trees breaking, big boulders of rock crumbling down and splashes of water etc.
The faces have more detail like when you are hit,your player closes his eyes and makes a painful expression, when you shoot a ki blast there is a hint of seriousness and anger in your player's face.
Now as you all know that this game is based on a 3rd person perspective, it has some flaws with the camera. There will be times in the game in tight places when the camera is just facing somewhere else and not in the direction your opponent is in , this could be quite bad because it freely allows your opponent to attack you, you are like a sitting duck. Sure you can block him but its only a guess because you won't be able to see your opponent.
Sound
Sound in this game is incredible. The sound of the blasts and punches,kicks,blocks are totally like it was in the anime. You will for the first time have the option to change the voice acting to the original japanese voices of the characters. The BGM is of Budokai 2 and does not have the track of Budokai 3 which was far better as it made you really get in the fight but even these tracks shouldn't dissapoint you.
Gameplay
Gameplay in Tenkaichi is awesome. It is one of a kind and the battlefield is huge. There are plenty of arenas where you can choose to fight and they are really big adding the area above the surface where you can fight and fly.Thats right , you can really fly in this one and you dont have to be punched,kicked or blasted to get into the air like in previous games. There are many actions and moves you can combine to make a combo and drain a large amount of your opponent's health. You can punch,you can kick ,you can ascend and descend,dash and super dash and there are many more things you can do in your environment. You can also hide in the game in areas underwater, behind boulders, behind buildings and wait for the time when your opponent looks away and quickly attack him. This is one of the best features that makes this game feel more realistic. Though it has many actions ,it still can't compare with the speed of Budokai 3. The speed is fine and fast when you are flying around but when it comes to laying down punches and kicks ,it feels a bit incomplete. Another new feature is the ability to fight underwater. This feature adds more DBZ type atmosphere to the fights and makes you really feel that you are playing the ultimate DBZ game because many fights in the series are fought underwater. This game also features a whole new roster of characters. There are alomost a 100 characters! counting all the transformations ie in this game you dont have the option of transforming between battles. You choose a transformed state at the character selection menu.Each character and transformation has his own moves.
There are plenty of different modes in the main menu as well like the Z battle gate where you go through Shenron's memories, it is basically a story mode where there are different sagas and there are a lot of sagas in this game like Frieza saga, Majin Buu saga, android saga ,Broly saga and many more. It also has the Dragon Ball's World Tournament saga.
The next mode is Ultimate Battle where you choose your character and you get him to rank 1 by fighting all the battles from rank....100!
The next is a World Tournament where there is a tournament and you fight opponents and if you win you get a special prize.
Then there is the usual Dueling and practice modes where you fight for fun against another player or against the CPU.
The A.I in the game sometimes acts a bit dumb but its quite good as well because the CPU comes at you with everything and its pretty hard. The CPU also uses many tactics like not coming close to you and when you are charging or just searching for a dragonball on the level, it attacks you head on.
The dragonballs are only found in the Z battle gate and if you collect all seven of them, you get to make a wish to the Eternal Dragon!
Well, thanks for reading my review and I reccomend this game to everyone and especially to all DBZ fans.:hap2:
(THE END)
Technical info-
Developer: Spike
Publisher: Atari
Genre: 3d Fighting
Release Date: US: October 18, 2005 Japan: October 6,2005
ESRB Content Descriptors: Cartoon Violence
Number of Players: 1-2
Only on PS2
-----------------------------------------------------------
Atari is the company that began the series and was with the series every step on the way.The fact in this game is that it isn't by Atari but it is now by Spike,which leads to a whole lot of ups and downs in the features of this game.Now on with the review-:no:
Graphics
Now some of us here are already familiar with the T.V series,the only thing here is that its the same thing......but in 3d. Believe me , they are breathtaking.
All over the years we have seen Atari do its best with each installment and graphics vise,it did more than that. Budokai 3 had awesome graphics and what Spike did in Tenkaichi was that it made it look more realistic in certain ways like when you do a ki blast and it misses your opponent,it explodes against the ground and there is a lot of dust flying around. It basically made some enhancements with the environment. It being more destructable in many ways like trees breaking, big boulders of rock crumbling down and splashes of water etc.
The faces have more detail like when you are hit,your player closes his eyes and makes a painful expression, when you shoot a ki blast there is a hint of seriousness and anger in your player's face.
Now as you all know that this game is based on a 3rd person perspective, it has some flaws with the camera. There will be times in the game in tight places when the camera is just facing somewhere else and not in the direction your opponent is in , this could be quite bad because it freely allows your opponent to attack you, you are like a sitting duck. Sure you can block him but its only a guess because you won't be able to see your opponent.
Sound
Sound in this game is incredible. The sound of the blasts and punches,kicks,blocks are totally like it was in the anime. You will for the first time have the option to change the voice acting to the original japanese voices of the characters. The BGM is of Budokai 2 and does not have the track of Budokai 3 which was far better as it made you really get in the fight but even these tracks shouldn't dissapoint you.
Gameplay
Gameplay in Tenkaichi is awesome. It is one of a kind and the battlefield is huge. There are plenty of arenas where you can choose to fight and they are really big adding the area above the surface where you can fight and fly.Thats right , you can really fly in this one and you dont have to be punched,kicked or blasted to get into the air like in previous games. There are many actions and moves you can combine to make a combo and drain a large amount of your opponent's health. You can punch,you can kick ,you can ascend and descend,dash and super dash and there are many more things you can do in your environment. You can also hide in the game in areas underwater, behind boulders, behind buildings and wait for the time when your opponent looks away and quickly attack him. This is one of the best features that makes this game feel more realistic. Though it has many actions ,it still can't compare with the speed of Budokai 3. The speed is fine and fast when you are flying around but when it comes to laying down punches and kicks ,it feels a bit incomplete. Another new feature is the ability to fight underwater. This feature adds more DBZ type atmosphere to the fights and makes you really feel that you are playing the ultimate DBZ game because many fights in the series are fought underwater. This game also features a whole new roster of characters. There are alomost a 100 characters! counting all the transformations ie in this game you dont have the option of transforming between battles. You choose a transformed state at the character selection menu.Each character and transformation has his own moves.
There are plenty of different modes in the main menu as well like the Z battle gate where you go through Shenron's memories, it is basically a story mode where there are different sagas and there are a lot of sagas in this game like Frieza saga, Majin Buu saga, android saga ,Broly saga and many more. It also has the Dragon Ball's World Tournament saga.
The next mode is Ultimate Battle where you choose your character and you get him to rank 1 by fighting all the battles from rank....100!
The next is a World Tournament where there is a tournament and you fight opponents and if you win you get a special prize.
Then there is the usual Dueling and practice modes where you fight for fun against another player or against the CPU.
The A.I in the game sometimes acts a bit dumb but its quite good as well because the CPU comes at you with everything and its pretty hard. The CPU also uses many tactics like not coming close to you and when you are charging or just searching for a dragonball on the level, it attacks you head on.
The dragonballs are only found in the Z battle gate and if you collect all seven of them, you get to make a wish to the Eternal Dragon!
Well, thanks for reading my review and I reccomend this game to everyone and especially to all DBZ fans.:hap2:
(THE END)
