Not a bad game, but doesn't live up to its predecessors.
The original Budokai was a standard sidescrolling fighter: You had normal attacks, you had supermoves. And since it was DBZ, you could fly and transform. Pretty standard. There were also some story challenges, like lining yourself up for you and Raditz to get killed by Piccolo, or charging up your power so you could kill Goku and Raditz as Piccolo. But it was a fun game.
Tenkaichi took things to a whole new angle, literally. The open world behind the back deal was a lot of fun, and it really opened up gameplay alot.
Now we've gone back to 2-D views with Burst Limit, and honestly, I'm not too thrilled about it. The gameplay seems to have a lot of kinks and annoying things in it:
Pros and Cons:
Normal Attacks: Normal attacks are normal attacks, nice and reliable, and you gotta be right next to the guy to hit. But if the guy's guarding it, you might as well be spitting on him, because it will do an equivalent amount of damage.
Supermoves: The Supermoves are pretty cool, and you don't lose any ki unless you execute your ultimate one. Unfortunately, neither does your opponent, who can also interrupt your attack.
Ki Blasts: Ki Blasts are nice long ranged attacks. They're also totally useless unless you're the world's greatest game master, or the game's computer.
Guarding: Guarding is a nice way to reduce damage. Unfortunately, this is all the computer does, so you're **** when it takes a break from superguarding and deflecting your ultimate attack to launch one of its own when you're not ready.
There were some new elements introduced as well:
Aura Spark: Aura Spark allows you to harness your full strength when your Ki bar is full (ie: every 10 seconds) to pull some serious badassery. Every hit of yours is like a full charged attack (so the game claims) and you can do one of those awesome fight sequences where you fly around punching and blocking each other. Of course, the computer is a lot better at it then you, just like everything else.
Drama Pieces: Drama Pieces seem to be more like Crap Pieces, as they're randomly triggered events (the game claims there's criteria for them to occur, but I have no **** clue what it is, and you usually have to be almost dead for it to happen) that just temporarily raise a stat. If you're lucky, you may have picked the one where Piccolo and Cell regenerate and get a health bar, but that's it. Overall, not really worth it, and they're like unskippable cutscenes.
Now it's time to talk about the game's selling point: It's Dragonball Z.
If you're new to the series, you're in luck. The game currently comes with a bonus DVD featuring the first seven episodes of DBZ. Sadly, this only informs you during the three parts you fight with Raditz. Afterwards, you're screwed again.
That's right: The game tells the story terribly. The Budokai Tenkaichi games had the decency to give you a narrator so you had a **** clue what's going on. Burst Limit jumps around from one important fight to the next, skipping battles and giving you no explanation for who Freeza is, why Vegeta gives a **** or why you play the game as these characters the whole time and then start brutally destroying them as Brolly, the king of Steroidville. If you care about DBZ's story, and don't want to, say, read the manga or watch the TV show, stop reading this and go buy and play Budokai Tenkaichi 2. The game took me 48 hours to beat, 41 of which was gameplay, 6 of which was storytelling, which was actually really good and the other one of which was saving, buying **** and going on this site to find out how to unlock people.
Then there's the characters. We got Saiyan Saga Goku and Goku who can go Super Saiyan. Of these, you want the second. Then we have Kid Gohan and Teen Gohan (this doesn't go through the Majin Buu saga. BL2 anyone?) where once again, you want the second. We have Krillin, who's just Krillin, Picollo, Androids 16, 17, and 18, Cell and his forms, Frieza and his forms, Vegeta, Trunks, Bardock, Raditz, Nappa, Yamcha, Tien, and Brolly. This is stunningly small for a cast for a DBZ game, and it must have taken them all the restraint they had at Bandai/Namco to not make this game have 100 characters (don't worry, it will in the sequel). Still, it's a decent cast for anyone just looking for a game, and unless you're a die-hard fan who wants to play as obscure characters like Devil Man or Nail (like I did, and got my wish in BT3), you're going to be a very happy person with this game. Sadly though, no Giant Monsters. Just Brolly, who's really **** big. Pit him against Kid Gohan. Hilarious.
Overall, this isn't a bad game on its own. If you don't give a **** about the story and just want a good game, but know nothing about DBZ, get it. It's decent. I really do like it a lot. I just don't like it in comparison to the Tenkaichi games, which I loved. I also don't like its terrible storytelling, but I can live with it. Anyway, if you're looking for a good time, and don't want to call the number the creepy rapist wrote on the bathroom stall door, get this game. And despite the bad things I've said, make no mistake: I will get the sequel.