Impressive graphics and an epic feeling during battles, but it doesn't have all the charm the other Budokai games do.
The first thing you'll notice is the camera angle and overall appearance of the stages. The camera will be watching your opponent over your shoulder this time, creating a more "Dragonballish" feel then the others did although there will be moments of awkwardness. There's even more Dragonball tinglyness when you see the large 360 degree stages that come packaged with near complete destructibilty. They also provide a lot of places to hide when you're in a jam and gives you that feeling that you're a powerful warrior that has absolutely no respect for the environment. Sadly, the stages aren't THAT big, and you're more than likely to run into a rainbow colored barrier. It's even sadder knowing that there's this huge rock formation in front of you and the developers didn't feel like letting you touch it.
Then, the second thing you notice is the graphics. The graphics are improved greatly in this game, with the character models looking exceptionally polished. However, the characters don't seem to have a single expression in their repetoire (all their faces can do is move their mouths). It sticks out the most in story mode and depending on what you care about, you'll find the cutscenes incredibly unsatisfying. Everything else, however, looks sharp, moves fine and appears as if a lot of effort was put into it.
Now, you'll want to know about the game play and trust me, it's incredibly different. You'll be given the abilty to fly at a moment's notice, speed up and perform lot's of cool stuff to get around the field. DBZ fans will be thrilled by this prospect although regular fighting game fans might not be so excited ny the feature. When it comes to fighting, things get a tad bit lamer. You really don't have much options in close range fighting, which many may be disappointed by. Each character may attack differently but it can be hard to notice as there's really like only two combos to perform. There are charge attacks and shockwaves and such but it fails to hide the fact that a lot of characters (which is made worse by the fact that there are 87 characters in total) are kinda the same in terms of close range combat.
Special attacks, are a whole different story.You'll get all the signature moves you could ever want and there are also some extra, regular special attacks to fill in the void. Like the previous games, you can perform these special attacks with the right amount of ki that do varying amount of damage. However, the attacks are bigger and more dangerous and you can't perform them as often as the last games. Unfortunately, they're also very easy to avoid, even the ultimate attacks, so don't rely on them too much.
You can also use favorite techniques that mixes things up a little bit. They don't really do damage but they do have special effects that can turn the tide of the battle. These are performed by filling up a meter by performing certain actions or just waiting. When this meter is filled, you get a point but you can only have three points at a time. Using these techniques is simple but they prove very effective when done right. They range from temporary parylasis to warping or even creating barriers (although the barrier won't protect you from everything).
Also like the last game, there are different gameplay modes to choose from. You'll recognise the World Tournament, Practice, and several other modes. There's also Ultimate Battle and Z Battle Gate but Ultimate Battle isn't very groundbreaking, so we'll move on to the latest version of story mode, Z Battle Gate.
Z Battle Gate is quite similar to the first Budokai's story mode, in fact, almost identical. You get to choose which saga you want to play in and what battle you want to relive. Unfortunately, the mode isn't that great of an achievement. You'll find a horrible lack of things to do in most sagas and only the main sagas in Dragonball Z last for more than an hour. The cutscenes are also horrendous. It's always two characters talking to each other before they fight and it leaves you with the impression that the characters are just flying around looking for a fight. The lack of tension and drama the anime or manga has combined with the lack if life in the characters leads to a dull experience.
Speaking of dull experiences, let's get on to music. The music in this game is mostly rehash from the old Budokai games along with several new ones. This isn't a bad thing as the music was superb and fast paced and got your adrenaline pumping. Unfortunately, this is ruined when the music suddenly seems to end in the middle of a fight. Then you're left with 15 seconds of awkward silence that ruins some of the experience.
There are also some blank spaces left when it comes to sound effects. You'll notice that some pieces of sound are missing such as several characters beam blast that spoils the fun of beating someone up with it. Voice acting is also a bit strange. Some are superb and sound just as you expect them to sound but others seem off. One of the biggest is Android 19, who sounds like his voice box volume is on VERY low. Of course, that could just be me going deaf.
Overall, the game makes you feel like it needed a couple of months to make it a supreme game. So I suggest to all the nitpickers and especially complex fighting loving gamers to stay away. If you're a DBZ fan however, you find this game a wonderful experience. Just don't expect to see this game to be nominated for game of the year.