Past DBZ game haven't been as good as the ones from the Tenkaichi series, but this one is for the hardcore fan.
Story: There isn't one this time around. Instead, you get Galaxy Mode. A collection of fights with various conditions for each character. Since there are about 70-100 characters, it may get tedious trying to unlock everyone, but it is certain to erase some of your time. Missions can vary from starting a battle at near death, or your opponent's heath constantly regenerating, but some missions have "Perfect Actions" and if you complete them all, you get an item that can negate these effects, but not always. However, instead of a dramatic storyline, they have been replaced with in-game dialogue exchanged between two characters when certain conditions have been met. The problem with this mode is that newcomers will be left clueless about the story.
Roster:
This won't take long. There are a lot of characters, every character from the Saiyan Saga to the Majin Buu Saga, along with new characters never before seen in a DBZ video game. Some of them play the same as others, but the more the merrier.
Gameplay: From the first Raging Blast, the cancels have been toned down, and replaced with followups using the face buttons after a smash attack. The new melee system emphasizes combos like its PS2 counterpart, Tenkaichi 3, but it may seem to reward buttonmashing a little too much. True, people can just press random buttons to pull off combos and not know how they did it, but it is still deep enough for the fighting fans to get some enjoyment out of it. There are also some new additions to the fighting. Now, you can get a tie in Blow. and Shot exchanges, but the biggest inclusion is Raging Soul. A last-ditch mechanic where you hit the right bumper or R1 when your ki is charged at max, and you enter a state where your physical damage and defense is significantly increased, but at the cost of not being able to use your supers or ultimates. It is not exactly a comeback mechanic, but if used correctly, can turn the tide of a battle. One more thing, upon entering Raging Soul, the background music changes to the game's main theme, and can be changed to whatever track you like by wishing for it.
Sound:
This may be a little hard to explain, but this game has two soundtracks: the original Raging Blast 2 music and the Tenkaichi 2 music; this depends on what copy you get. The thing is, the composer for the music, Kenji Yamamoto, got into a little trouble for copyright infringement for using other people's music, so they fired him, and replaced the music. Whichever copy you have, the soundtrack is good and will not disappoint you.
Other Features:
Outside of Galaxy Mode, there is Battle Zone, Training, Tutorial, Versus, World Tournament, Online Battle, Ultimate Customize, and Gallery. First, let's start with the battle zone. It's sort of like an arcade run where you fight a series of opponents, then you fight a boss. Some zones have handicaps to make it harder for you, and has a stamp system where you earn stamps by completing battles with certain objectives, like not using supers, not equipping any stat-bonus items, etc. If you win, you may unlock accessory items such as halos, auras, ability down items,and other stuff.But if you lose, you have to start over again, so make sure you don't lose. The world tournament has been expanded and gives you more options, like ring-outs, health carrying over between battles, team tournaments, and other criteria. Customization is a bit limited, because you now have two types of restictions, only ten slots for items, and limit points. Only one is necessary, but both of them serve to keep players from making cheap and overpowered characters. Online battle has some changes made to them as well. If you quit in ranked, it counts as a loss, and battle points are deducted from your score, punishing disconnections. While at the same time, has no problem differentiating a disconnection from lagging out. Gallery consists of images from the original anime earned through Galaxy Mode, Battle Zone, and World Tournament, movies, and even a short film titled: Plan to eradicate the Super Saiyans, which includes a bonus if you watch it, so everyone who has this game get the movie in the gallery.
The Bad:
No game is perfect, and this game is no exception. There are occasional glitches that can take you out of the experience that can be small annoyance to huge problem. If your opponent vanishes a super attack in front of you, if you walk into it, you won't take damage, some characters have a tendency to glitch while transforming, and turn into other characters. The biggest problem is that playing against the computer on the highest difficulty is a joke. It will just stand there when you fire an ultimate and not even try to guard. It can get frustrating at times, but if you use the handicaps, AI types, and customs for the computer, it can make it a little more challenging, but there is room for amping up the difficulty for the computer.
Final Thoughts:
I'm not going to give this game a score for everyone else, because my opinion of the game is not going to determine whether you buy it or not, but I can tell you this: for newcomers, this game is worth a rental, but the deepest hardcore fan will be pleased by this game. It offers countless hours of gameplay and a ton of content that will please DBZ enthusiasts alike.