Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi

Beautifully flawed.

At the end of the day, Dragonball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is an interesting game that provides plenty of fan service. If you have never played the series before, you might be confused by the over the top battles that for me is reminiscent of the excellent TV series Monkey Magic. Unfortunately like most Dragonball Z games, Ultimate Tenkaichi is a little like rock paper scissors when it comes to combat that focuses more on luck opposed to skill. Nonetheless, it's a fun romp through the Dragonball Z universe!

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is an interesting evolution for this epic franchise. Spike did a great job trying to create a combat system as simple as dynamic, but the result of this operation is the lack of variety in the final experience. This could be the first step for a brand new saga about the Dragon Ball universe.

Spike says goodbye to the series Dragon Ball Z with a flawed but interesting episode, which clearly surpasses the insipid performance Raging Blast 2. The gameplay is irregular and its fighting system will appeal to some players but will be a disaster for others. Matter of taste.

Fun but flawed. While the anime cutscenes are awesome, the story is more often told through extremely slow moving walls of text. While the characters all have their original voice actors (or very similar voice actors in the case of some of the villains), the music is very generic. While the battles have lots of satisfying quick time events and cutscenes, the load times in the game are absolutely criminal.

Without doubts, Ultimate Tenkaichi is the best Dragon Ball game in terms of contents and visual appeal, but it's still a shallow fighting game where luck and fate are more important than players' skill.

In the end, I found myself sticking to the story mode more than anything (which was short, but decent enough), but I just couldn't get into the game. I have to commend Spike on replicating the look of the anime, but I felt I was left with a shallow experience. Hardcore DBZ fans will probably find it the game worth it and battling fellow fans online might be a good way to pass the time.

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is an unbalanced synthesis of a painstakingly recreated vision of the Dragon Ball universe and a rudimentary fighting game.

Maybe it is time for the series to go all Super Saiyan and change things up a bit. [Holiday 2011, p.79]

Not even high production values can save a game that isn't fun to play. Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is a game that want's too much and fails with a lot, except the beautiful graphics.

In theory Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is the perfect Dragon Ball game. The gorgeous visuals, wealth of content and characters spanning Z and GT will delight fans. Unfortunately there's no escaping the fact that the core of the game, the actual fighting, gets boring very quickly and dissolves into the same few moves time and time again.

Essentially, Spike could've developed a better game if they used some kind of fusion to merge the original Raging Blast's gameplay with Ultimate Tenkaichi's stellar graphics. But the end result here just falls short of being a memorable experience.

Not even Shenron can grant us our wish of enjoying a great Dragon Ball game this generation. It's unclear if Spike tries its best or if they gave up, but "Ultimate Tenkaichi" can't compare to what we have seen in PlayStation 2. Another forgettable game in the franchise.

It doesn't become the ultimate Dragon Ball game we have been expecting for years, although it brings something new and different which adds freshness to the series. Unfortunately, its great graphics cannot hide a system too simple and repetitive.

Finally, they improved the camera! Sadly, this is the only thing about Ultimate Tenkaichi that doesn't make a Dragon Ball Z fan want to out of his second story-window.

Having covered this game since it was announced I was really hoping to find a great DBZ game. After all, the graphics look great and the presentation during the fight scenes is top notch. The problem is that the actual gameplay is so bad that I can't recommend Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi to even the most hard core of DBZ fans.

A lack of realistic fighting dynamics stops the game living up to its visual spectacle. [Jan 2012, p.89]

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is a beautiful-looking game on the outside but downright ugly on the inside.

We must admit that there are some nice ideas, but overall, the game does more harm than good. In the end, the gameplay is what completely ruins everything.

Unfortunately, Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi looks and plays more like a spectacular movie, than a fun game. The characters operate far too repetitive and technically there are just too much irritations, like constant loading times. Moreover the Boss Battles and the Chasing Battles are disappointing and the Hero-modus has in fact no reason to be.

Quotation forthcoming.

It's a shame that now that it would be possible to do a great Dragon Ball videogame we only find products like this that only exploit our love for the manga/anime.

At least it's pretty to look at. I went in with low expectations and this game somehow tripped and fell over the bar before crashing and burning in an explosion of terrible. I don't know who thought this was fun but the DBZ cast deserves a lot better.

A game that slashes gameplay in favor of dynamic visuals, very true to the anime. But the illusion of pretty graphics quickly disappears, revealing dull combats, repetitive gameplay, and other shortcomings. Even the most hardcore fans will not find this fun for a long time.