I KNOW IT CAME OUT IN OCTOBER DEAL WITH IT.
I am a HUGE Dragonball Z fan. I have the complete series, all the manga, shirts, cards, action figures, video games, all of KAI, etc. So it's no duh that I flipped when it came out. However, it was sold out in all of the Best Buys in Southern CA, so I had to wait three whole months, and when I got the game, it was NOT worth the wait...
Over two decades since the legendary anime series made its debut, Dragonball Z is still inspiring new video game adaptations. The latest game in the franchise is Dragonball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi. Developer Spike has went to great lengths to capture the spirit of the Dragon Ball Z franchise in all of its over the top glory, but in doing so made a number of sacrifices in the gameplay department.
I’m going to assume that you’re a Dragon Ball Z fan. I’ll assume you know who Goku is, what a Super Saiyan is, and what a Kamehameha looks like. If you don’t, then you can safely stop reading right now. This game is not for you.
Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi is the latest in a surprisingly long line of Dragon Ball Z fighters. Like most of the recent entries, this one features characters from the entire run of the series. From the arrival of Raditz to Goku’s battle with Buu, characters from every saga of the anime are represented here. The cast is comprised of a respectable 41 characters, not including transformed versions of certain characters.
Ultimate Tenkaichi is far and away the best looking Dragon Ball Z game to date. The character models are beautiful. They perfectly match the look of Akira Toriyama’s original drawings. This may actually be the best that Goku and his merry gang have ever looked. The animation in Ultimate Tenkaichi is incredibly smooth, and each character moves exactly as you’d expect; Android 16 attacks with powerful heavy handed blows while Cell attacks with quick insect-like strikes. Seeing Vegeta pull off his Final Flash attack is a joy to behold.
Most Fighting games allow the gamer to easily learn the figghting controls with not any difficult. However, Ultimate Tenkaichi is a bitch to master. Ultimate Tenkaichi relies heavily on what it calls the clash system. After you land a few hits on your opponent, you will engage in a clash. During the clash, you and your opponent each press one of two buttons. If your opponent chooses the same button as you, he will counter your attack. If you each choose a different button, you’ll be able to knock your hapless opponent all across the stage in a very DBZ like clash sequence.
I want to touch base on this because it seemed to me like a guessing game. The original Budokai series was very reliable on techniques and combos. If you wanted to beat your buddy, you had to fight for it. Ultimate Tenkaichi requires only button mashing and pure luck. Hell, my stoned cousin who never played a Dragon Ball Z game kicked my ass cause he button mashed faster. If crack addicts can succeed in a fighting game while high then you know there's a problem with the game.
During battles, you’ll have to keep your eye on two different meters. Your spirit meter will charge as you deal damage, and it is used to activate super moves. Your ki meter can be charged by pressing down on the d-pad and is used to defend against enemy super moves. When an opponent uses a super move, you can use your ki to guard against it, attempt to dodge it with a few well timed button presses, or try to counter it with a good old fashioned button mashing competition.
Another problem is that once you get a handle on what moves are available to you in each situation, things become very simple. In fact, things become too simple. In any given situation, you’ll only have one or two different options at your disposal. This means that the game is rather shallow. It’s great that Ultimate Tenkaichi captures the spirit and energy of the TV show, but the battle system relies too much on luck and hardly on skill. Fans of the series will have a blast reenacting epic fights, but fighting game aficionados will be sorely disappointed.
While the game supports a large roster of characters, each character plays exactly the same. There is no appreciable difference between Majin Buu and Yamcha aside from different animations. Tien’s Tri Beam Cannon may look different from Android 16’s Self Destruct Device, but they function the same way. Character variety is typically lacking in Dragon Ball Z fighters, but other games at least feature some small amount of variation between different fighters. I want variety not vanilla every damn time.
The roster of characters however, offer plenty of characters for the game to be enjoyable. It isn't overflowing with unnecessary characters like Frieza solider or Devil man like it did in the Tenkaichi series. Every major character you'd want to see is in there with a few exceptions such as, Goten and Trunks. (I can never figure out why in the recent games you can play as Saibaman. He's pointless!)
Fans of the series will be happy to know that the game has a fairly robust story mode. Players can play through the entirety of the Dragon Ball Z series, going all the way back to Bardock’s battle with Frieza. The story is told through a combination of in game cut scenes, clips from the anime, and scrolling text sequences. The text sequences go by slower than molasses and there's no way to speed it up. However, if you are a veteran fan of the show who knows as much as I do, you can simply skip them.
One thing I noticed is that the anime sequences look the exact same as the show but a lot more clear and vibrantly colored with a better attention to detail. Why didn't Funimation do that for Kai? However, one thing I noticed is that the English voices are too off sync with the mouth movements of the characters. I think the mouth movements are identical to the Japanese VA's but I'm not sure
Speaking of Kai the voices of Frieza, Gohan and a few others feature the voices for the KAI VA's as well as the original Z VA's. Although it's confusing at times when Linda Young's voice and Greg Aryes's voice for Frieza constantly switches for Frieza, it's a nice touch.
In the story mode you’ll engage in pretty much all of the major battles of Dragon Ball Z. In addition to standard battles, you’ll also participate in boss battles against larger enemies, like Vegeta’s ape form. These battles combine an altered version of the typical fighting engine with quick time events. While they provide a nice change of pace from the normal battles, the small input window on the QTE systems may be frustrating, especially for younger gamers.
Besides the main story mode there is Hero Mode. In Hero Mode you can create your very own Dragon Ball Z fighter and play through an original story. The character creation is a little bit on the shallow side. At the outset of your journey you’ll have access to a grand total of three different outfits. As you go on, you’ll unlock more customization options. Once you create your character, you can engage in a series of battles to earn new super moves and upgrade your stats. There is a story about hunting Dragon Balls going on, but the story is just an excuse to string together a series of battles. For me, it seemed lacking, I thought it needed more development and more attention to plot. It seemed a little rushed at times.
Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi does an amazing job of capturing the look and feel of the TV show, and features a robust single player mode. Unfortunately, the battle system is too shallow to hold the attention of anyone but the youngest or most rabid Dragon Ball Z fans. I don’t expect a Dragon Ball Z fighting game to be as deep as a Street Fighter or Soul Calibur game, but Ultimate Tenkaichi doesn’t even live up to the standards set by other DBZ fighters. Younger gamers who entered the franchise with Dragon Ball Z Kai will probably enjoy this game a lot. More discriminating fans should probably look elsewhere for their Dragon Ball Z fix.
And before you ask, no, Yamamoto's Kai music is not featured in DBZ UT. What I did hear is that is was in it originally, but the music scandal, (See my Kai review) caused the game to be delayed and the music was scraped and redone. It's not bad, buuuuuuut it's not Dragon Ball Z like at all.
What are your thoughts?
-Snelling
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