Take to the skies and battle in fully-destructible, free-roaming 3D worlds!
Just as Bandai will never rest in their mission to bring as many DragonBall Z games as they can to every console, Atari will never fail to bring those games over here to Europe. As many a Shonen Jump magazine fan will tell you, DragonBall Z is considered old (if venerable) hat, and has been supplanted in popularity over the years first by YuYu Hakusho and Yu-Gi-Oh, and more recently by One Piece, Naruto and Bleach.Having been created in 1984 though, nobody could doubt the richness of the DragonBall Z universe, and the familiarity of the characters has continued to drive the production of some faithfully made videogames. Now comes the ultimate in the Budokai series of fighting games: DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi. This is the culmination of the years of Budokai fighting game releases. It is, if you like, the Capcom vs. SNK 2 of DragonBall. The game features 50 characters in 60 forms, an extremely impressive amount for a 3D game. The style is the most satisfying and attractive yet, with the hand-drawn, cel-shaded style truly appearing to have leapt from the pages of the comic book or TV screen. But at the same time, the 3D is more involving than ever before, with new perspectives and dynamic camera movements drawing you into the universe as never before. The illusion is strengthened by real-time damage to the characters, and destructible 3D environments. And the world of the cartoon series is honoured with totally faithful character recreations, the voices of the original Japanese cast, and an amazing 147 cut-scenes.With few characters omitted, and no effort spared in bringing the world of DragonBall to life, Tenkaichi is truly the culmination of years honing the franchise. If you're only going to buy one more DragonBall game, make it this one.