Difficulty:

Very Easy

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Waste of time"

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Game Title: Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22
Platform: PlayStation
Developer: TOSE Software Co
Publisher: Bandai, Atari, Infogrames
Genre: Fighting
Age Rating: ELSPA: 11+
Release Date: July 28th 1995 (Japan), July 1996 (Europe), March 25th 2003 (USA)
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Game Score: 1.5/10
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Summery:
Warning to all hardcore and casual Dragon Ball Z fans, stay away from Ultimate Battle at all costs because it's one of the worst of it's kind.
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With the Dragon Ball Z episodes dubbed by Funimation and is catching it's eye on the audience really well, video game adaptations are mostly great by the fighting games like Super Butouden, Hyper Dimension and of course the Budokai games. It's not to say that Dragon Ball Z had it's own case of bad games as well and of the worst of the bunch is Ultimate Battle 22 for the PlayStation.

Believe it or not it was done originally for English release in Europe but how about this, Bandai decided to re-release it in 2002 for the popularity of the show as well as Budokai as well as Americans getting the game in 2003. Whatever you played this game before back in 1996 or today leaves a warning to all hardcore and casual Dragon Ball Z fans, stay away from Ultimate Battle at all cost it's one of the worst of it's kind.

The game has about 5 different modes, One mode where you face off against computer controlled opponents and one mode where you can challenge another player locally. There's a Tournament Mode where a Max of 16 computer controlled characters or players can complete against each other in a one-on-one battle. Lastly there is the RPG based Build Up mode where you can Level up your character that you're playing as, the problem is that the way that you develop your characters abilities doesn't make a whole lot of sense unlike other RPG's. To basically explain if you use punches your punches get stronger but if you use a certain special move and that move you keep using will get stronger. Since you have quite an extensive move list you'll never be able to balance out your character out. Once you have a strong character you can take that character against the other players character locally in Build Up Battle. You can set the level of the computer from Easy to Difficult. Ultimate Battle 22 has got a good set of modes but however the gameplay doesn't even make one simply gameplay mode even worth it.

Untimate Battle 22 has about 22 different characters with their own skill set, you can use a secret code which unlocks 5 more characters. The character list goes from the Frieza Saga up to the Buu Saga. The fighting arena works in a one plane battlefield where two fighters use their abilities to defeat their opposing enemy. Square Button Punches, X Button Kicks, Circle Button does a KI blast and Triangle makes your character into the air and pressing it again descends back down. You can also do a quick slide which are done by using either the L1 or R1 buttons but however it doesn't damage your opponent. Using KI moves drains characters KI meters and holding the Circle button can recharge the meter so using KI moves while the meter is low can leave you fatigued.

Each character has their own move list but however some of the moves are either difficult to pull of they just don't seem to work at all. Even if you can pull a special move energy waves like the Kamehameha all use the same sprites which is a badly pixelated ball of energy. It almost looks like a fireball to the untrained eye. I was able to beat the game with Vegeta and Goku using the same Quarter Circle + Punch motion for all my fights and it has worked well for me which means that an entire playthrough can be won by mindless button mashing.

In addition to difficult to pull off special moves, you'll also have to deal with sluggish controls like moving, jumping or just grabbing the other fighter when in close range which can sometimes happen at random. The AI can sometimes be stupid which leaves them open to your attacks. Overall the gameplay in Ultimate Battle 22 just hasn't done any improvement from the SNES titles and just breaks them down completely.

Ultimate Battle 22 is so awful to look at, the animated intro is unimpressive, backgrounds resembling locations from the series are plain low resolution polygons and the energy blasts as already mentioned are just pathetic and it's the same for all KI attacks and finally what's stupid is that when characters get knocked back the camera shifts clockwise along with the characters. I know this probably doesn't make sense to anybody but I swear when Darbura uses an attack where he launches spears before following up with a sword slash attack, the camera shifting is just so annoying that all that shifting makes no sense. The only thing that this game has that's good is the character sprites which are impressive at first look and their animations are not bad at least for 1995. The worst of the graphics production is before a Tournament fight where the announcer explains the next showdown. His animations when talking is just like "Wow, the developers where just so lazy."

The soundtrack is very forgettable and also no one decided to translate the voices so you're left with the original voices which can sound very silly when they're knocked back.

Overall, Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22 is one of the worst ways for Bandai to get a quick buck on the license when Sony's old PlayStation system has had it's last legs. With the Budokai games on the PS2 and Gamecube out in stores, simply stay away from this trash at all costs as well as Dragon Ball Final Bout. This is no doubt one of the Worst Fighting games for the PlayStation, Worst game for the system and also one of the Worst DBZ game EVAR!!!!! Bandai should have known better not to release this game so late in the system's life and should be ashamed for this.
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The Good Points:
1. Detailed Animé Character Sprites

The Bad Points:
1. Slow, Sloppy and Sluggish controls and most of the special moves don't work.
2. Camera's annoying, Backgrounds are awful and Energy projectiles like the Kamehameha look like pathetic energy balls.
3. The way you develop your character in Build Up Mode makes no sense.
4. Forgettable Remixed Soundtrack from other DBZ Games
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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