Platform: Xbox 360 (also on PS3)

Developer: Spike

Publisher: Namco Bandai

# of Players: 1 – 2 (Online 1 – 2)

ESRB Rating: T Teen

Official Site

Score: B (75%)

Bigger, meaner, louder and faster pretty much sums up each new Dragon Ball Z game that hits consoles on what seems to be a yearly basis, but this year’s DBZ game, Ultimate Tenkaichi, while spectacular looking and a thrill to play,  somehow drops the ball when it comes to character count. While there’s a character edit function here, it’s a bit limited and the overall number of playable fighters isn’t as impressive as last year’s Raging Blast 2. If you can manage to get over that disappointment (or could care lass about who’s in this game as long as it’s fun), what’s here is a total blast to dive into again and again as it still packs in many hours of exciting fighting action. A few elements, such as the emphasis on quick time events for some special attacks and interesting pattern-based boss battles that would feel more at home in a 3D platformer, may take a bit of getting used to for some younger players. But overall, there’s more than enough of the usual DBZ stuff here to keep you busy for quite some time.

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Granted, if you absolutely hate Dragon Ball Z and/or how the games always seem to retread the same story lines from the manga and anime to death, you’re probably not even reading this review. Me, I’m a sometimes fan of the games more than the show since the Famicom and Super Famicom days, so I’m pretty receptive to the series if the game tied to it is decent. UT is a more cinematic game than some of this generations previous entries and developer Spike deserves a ton of credit for coming up with a truly incredible-looking HD game that looks even better than the anime it’s based on. That said, since this one’s basically for kids and teens, it’s not exactly the deepest game on the planet unless you count the sheer amount of content on the disc.

While you’re getting yet another retelling of classic events from the show’s timeline (complete with scenes from the anime), the game nicely shortcuts things so you’re getting to the fist to face action faster. Playing out the familiar battles you’ve probably done a few times (and a few too many times if you’ve played some of the older DBZ games from the 90’s and onward) manages to be cool in UT because it’s the best-looking game to date and the cinematic camerawork can be downright awesome when it needs to. There’s a massive map to fly around and find stuff to do in and the game isn’t so focused on driving you to the ending that you’ll feel rushed one bit. It took me around 15 or so hours to take one character through the main mode, which is not bad at all. Multiply that by whatever characters you end up playing as in addition to who you start off as and yup, this is one LONG game should you decide to replay it a few times. Once was enough for me for now, as I’m backlogged with so many other games to get done.

As for gameplay, on the default setting, simplicity is the order of the day here. Yet the game is far from a total cakewalk thanks to the QTE events and boss battles. Then again, this isn’t supposed to be a highly technical brawler like Virtua Fighter at all. Every character controls pretty much the same, but they at least have some awesome-looking trademark moves that require precision to pull off. I’m not one of those folks well-versed in the whole power rating thing some fans rant on about, so I can’t tell you how “accurate” everything is when stacked up to the manga and anime. In a way, it’s not important at all, as you can’t apply any crazy rules of “reality” to a game where you’re punching opponents through mountains or shooting them with power blasts that create massive craters. That environmental damage is indeed fantastic, but it’s not permanent, which is too bad as it would have been great to see the results of all your button jamming after a huge battle.

Along with the spectacular-looking characters, the game’s sound and music also do their part quite well. My biggest complaint about the game are the loading times, or more precisely, the fact that you can’t do anything constructive with your time during the loading. Despite the game offering up a capsule-shooting mini-game here, you don’t actually EARN anything by clicking away on those capsules! It would have been great to gain some money to spend, special cards or other goodies for all that waiting and button pressing, but oh well… Perhaps in next year’s game? As I got my review copy before it shipped, no one was around to play online with. However, the versus mode was tried out and it’s pretty solid stuff. Just make sure the person you’re playing against knows what he or she is getting into. It’s tough to explain pretty much any fighting game while you’re trying to play and between all the screaming and scenery wrecking power blasts going on here, this one’s a doozy to yak about mid-battle.

Overall, Ultimate Tenkaichi is a decent game I’d say most DBZ fans will get into right away. Nitpickers will want more in the way of features and less in the way of some of the quirkier elements, but it seems that Spike is on the right path for the most part. Next year, let’s see a deeper character editor (add gals to the roster!), more RPG elements (hell, make it an action/RPG), fully destructible maps that STAY that way and perhaps some sort of co-op play and I’ll be back. Then again, if I have to replay another Vegeta vs. Cell battle next year (with even more cinematic angles and destruction going on), I just might turn into a Super Saiyan and punch a hole through my TV.