It may say Budokai but it sure isen't a Budokai

Author's Rating:

Pros: a game that captures the intense fights of the dragon ball series

Cons: hard to learn controls, bad camera angels.

The Bottom Line: 
not a bad game but I liked 3 better.

Author's Review
I got Dragon Ball Z budokai Tenkachi several months ago when I found it used for 40 dollars. I have been playing it off and on and I got to say it isn’t the best Dragon ball game out there, it’s far from the stellar Budokai 3 but it does try to be different.

Story.
The game main story gate once again follows the flow of the series. Each saga is open by a little dialogue from King Kai and closed. Other then that you have a quick little conversation between each fight. But if you want to know the whole story behind Dragon Ball Z better check out the manga or anime. There are also bonuses portals that have you play through the villains story has well.

Graphics.
Everything changed in Tenkachi including the graphics and the graphics sprites. Cel-shading is still the order of the day and the game does look a lot like the anime a lot of the time. The effects used for the explosions of some of your super moves are great and the environments and backgrounds are top notch. The only problem with the graphics is the camera angel. It doesn’t follow smoothly enough for when you’re dashing around and is to easily gets stuck in the corner when you battle in tight spots.

Sound.
The only thing that the last 3 budoaki games have in common with this one is the music. The music is the same has the last 3 budokai games. All the English VA’s are hear to do the voices and inless you got the player choice version of Budokai 3 it will be the first time you get to be able to turn it to Japanese. Yes they also have the Japanese VA’s doing there voices on the disc to, anime fans salivate now.

Gameplay.
Ok the biggest mistake that Budokai Tenkachi made was using the name Budokai. If your expecting anything like the last 3 Budokai games then your going to be disappointed, has this is nothing like the Budokai games developed by Dimps. Completely different fighting engine is used. ‘

Unlike the last games Budokai Tenkaichi is full 3d fighting you can pretty much run around anywhere on the battle field. Hide under rocks and destroy terrain to get to the opponent. You can also fly at will this time by pressing the R1 and R2 buttons. Fighting is done by pressing the Square to punch and the triangle to shoot small ki balls and the O to block. The moves change a bit when you do get into hand to hand combat, pressing X while doing a punching combo can paralyze an opponent long enough to continue the combo, or you can press triangle and propel them long distances so you can charge up a super move and throw them at them.

Now there are two types of special moves that can be done. Favorite moves and Super moves. Favorite moves are done by filling up a favorite meter. This is filled up a bit by hitting the opponent or by blocking there ki waves. When filled your allowed to do favorite moves which don’t attack the opponent but allow you to get an edge on them. Power up to the very limit lets you power up your ki bar to max, while explosive wave gives you a shield for a couple of seconds. Also if you one bar filled of your favorite meter you can charge to full power. In full power mode you have unlimited amount of ki for a short time and your greatest super move can be done.

Super moves are of course are your attacks and these take the ki bar. These are done by pressing L2, the control stick up or down and the triangle button. These moves are like Kamahmea (of course) and the sprit bomb. These do the most damage to the opponents life bar.

While DBZ Tenkachi does give us a competent fighter that tries to deliver the high speed action of the series. It’s not without it’s problem. First comes the fact that it’s not very user friendly. Unlike Budokai 3 which was the closet a fighter can ever come to being pick up and play, Tenkaichi’s controls take a lot of practice and getting used to just to move around the field. While there are tutorials none of them are interactive rather there just videos of fighting with the controls listed.

Then comes the super moves with the exception of a few moves they can be pretty much categorized into 4 types of move. Big ki ball, bunch of ki balls, beam, and dash. Also the effects of some of these moves can be annoying against the computer. A big move like Vegeta big bang attack fill the screen with a white out affect, unfortunately the game doesn’t stop when the white out effect is on and often when your screen goes back to normal you’re being pummeled by your computer opponent.

Another problem I have with the games story mode is some of the retarded stuff you have to do in order to complete. Sure beating the opponent is good and I don’t mind having to finish him off with a special move but whoever invented the survival matches is an idiot. These matches are done when you take control of a character who looses in the story so instead of beating your opponent your supposed to run away from them and hope they don’t find you and beat you into oblivion. Sound innovated and fun, it’s not it’s more frustrating and tedious then it’s worth cause often a lucky shot from the computer is all that it takes to kill you. This goes to please the hard core dragon ball fans but has a hard core gamer I don’t care if Vegeta gets killed by Frieze I want to clobber Frieza not get kicked around by him.

Finally the customization in the game isn’t has good. The money and the upgrade items you found in the previous Budokai games are now gone. Instead you win upgrade items from each fight you win. But instead of moves or other fancy tricks you get items that just increase your stats. While I am all for being able to customize stats I wouldn’t mind being able to swap moves in and out like in previous budokai games.

Other modes.
Out side of the games main story mode there are a variety of different modes.

Tornament mode.
This plays a bit like the tournaments in other budokai games don’t fall out of the ring and don’t die has you compete in a tournament. But since there is no cash to be won this mode is pretty useless.

Ultimate battle.
Choose a character and battle over 100 characters. You collect points for each person you beat and you loose points for each defeat. If your points hit 0 you loose. It’s not a bad mode to keep the game outside of the story mode and you get to choose the character you want to play with and you don’t have the restrictions tournament battles do. In short it’s a good mode.

Duel.
This is the 2p VS mode for this game. Since this game allows for free range of motion a 2p game will be done in split screen.

Practice.
You practice your moves and watch tutorial videos.

Z-gate.
Customize your characters stats with Z items you won in previous battles.

Character illustrations.
For each character and character transformation you unlock you get a bio of them along with a character illustration. If you haven’t watch the anime or read the manga it’s not a bad way to get acquainted with the gaps that the story mode leaves out but you’re still better off getting into the anime.

Final Recommendation.
Budokai Tenkachi does a lot of things right, the freedom of movement, being able to take off and fly around the arena are all things necessary for a great DBZ battle. Unfortunately the controls are really confusing and the lack of moves really shows. Add in a cruddy camera angel and you have a game that is full of frustrations. That said now that it is available for 20 dollars it’s definitely worth a pick up if you’re a dragon ball fan but only if you haven’t played through Budokai 3. Hopefully Tenkachi 2 will give us a bit of a better fighter engine, better camera and cut out some of the lame missions in story mode.