Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Disappointing"

-- Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi

-- Dragon Ball Z is one of the greatest television series I had ever watched. The drama, the characters, the punching. Needless to say, there are countless fighting titles based on the series now days. The only Dragon Ball Z fighting games I have ever played are Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and Budokai Tenkaichi 3. They were both some of the greatest full 3D fighting games ever created, it's a shame people ignored it as just another generic crappy 'Anime-Fighting Game'. But that's not on the menu.

-- So I got Ultimate Tenkaichi for the PS3. It TRULY IS the Dragon Ball Z game that captures the feeling of the series most; it is intensely cinematic. The game will slow down and turn black and white when their fists slowly close in on each other, huge blasts will trigger adrenaline pumping 30 second scenes, etc, etc. And that's Ultimate Tenkaichi's biggest flaw. It's too cinematic for it's own good. Seeing a cool 30 second scene is cool at first, but sickeningly monotonous after you see it 50 times. The action keeps pausing when you are to close to your opponent, readying you for a rock-paper-scissors punching duel. That brings me to our second massive flaw. Close combat punching is handled via a random chance 'pick A or B!' sort of thing. So forget getting good at the game, some 5 year old kid will beat you into a plup if you get unlucky.

-- The 'making your own character' feature is stripped-down, the story mode is bare bones, but at least the online play is relatively lag-free. The graphics are nice, but a touch bland.

-- All in all, I would not recommend this game to anyone, unless he was ABSOLUTELY a hardcore Dragon Ball Z fan.