Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi is a great step forward in emulating the epic battles made famous by the anime and manga.
The Good: Incredible amount of playable characters and customization, the best story mode yet in the franchise with realistic power levels and difficulties, a fighting style truer to the anime, great graphics, original Japanese voice actors, Fully destructible 3-D environments, and a good selection of modes.
The Bad: Difficult to learn at first, and the training mode doesn’t help much, since you read how to do things with a visual demonstration, but don’t get to try it out. The computer is extremely difficult on the normal mode, until you get a feel for the game. The more comfortable with the game you get, the easier Normal and Hard modes become. The animations for the specials have been cut down, making the finishers less MEGA, as they were in Budokai 2 and 3, but they do flow better into gameplay. Original American Voice Actors….ugh….
Overall, Budokai Tenkaichi is branching off from the mostly 2-D fighting style it used in the past to better recreate the true feel and style of the battles from the anime and manga. It has a ridiculous amount of playable characters, and a great story mode. Since this game is changing styles in certain areas, there is room for improvement and tightening up, which usually comes with sequels. And since this franchise updates its entry annually, you can be sure that there will be improvements in the future. If you are a Dragonball Z fan, you must own this game. If you liked the other Budokais, give this one a try, take the time to learn it, and you will love it. If you haven’t been interested in the previous games, then this might not be the game for you.