A step in the right direction

User Rating: 9.1 | Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi PS2
A new Dragon Ball game, but this one is completely different from the others. The first Budokai game was quite nice: 3d characters, 3d environment, but it was still kind of 2d fighting. The last of the series, Budokai 3 (since this one isn't really part of the Budokai series), looked more like the series on tv and you could recreate the speed you saw there. Every character had different moves and combos, the environment could be destroyed and in the story mode you could fly all over the world.

This time there are much more characters than in any other Dragonball game. Not only that, but you can also see more stories. It has always been Saiyan saga, Frieza Saga, Android Saga and Majin Buu Saga, but now there are more plots, more fights and more action. That alone makes this game worth your money, whether you buy it or rent it.

For the first time you can move in literally every direction and use your surroundings to your advantage: you can hide behind trees or hills, or you can destroy every object on the field so your opponent has nowhere to hide. You can use counter-attacks, throws, almost anything you can think of.

Though all of this sounds like true Dragon Ball fighting, most characters have moves in common. It's as if they lost their individuality. You cannot edit you fighters' move set, instead you can edit their strength, defense, speed, etc. Another thing that's missing is the ability to transform during a fight. Instead the transformed character is a character on his/her own.

There are some other new features in this game, but I won't spoil them. It's a good game overall, but not quite perfect. If you're looking for a new experience of gameplay, this is a game to get.