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The DragonBall Z franchise has always had a debateable
success rate when it comes to videogame releases. Early in the
‘90’s, titles such as DragonBall Z: Legendary Warriors on
the SNES helped to define one-on-one Beat-‘Em-Ups even without
ever receiving a western release.  The Game Boy Advance renditions
have tried to continue this level of ingenuity, but have often been
a little more hit-and-miss than most would like – inventive ideas,
let down by not being thought through to their completion. DragonBall
Z: Budokai has set itself aside as a franchise in its own right.
From the first title through GameCube updates and right until DragonBall
Z: Budokai 3 Collector’s Edition, the series has
continually reinvented itself with a huge amount of thought being
put into not only how to convert such a ridiculously violent cartoon
into playable videogame, but also how to make it fun to play.
DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is the fifth title in
the DragonBall Z: Budokai franchise and with brings a strong
wind of change. The ability to fly to you battles seen in DragonBall
Z: Budokai 3 was a nice edition to the franchise – but
wouldn’t you prefer to be flying through high-in-the-sky battles?
DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi changes  the pace for
one-on-one Beat-‘Em-Ups with a quick flick of its golden curly
locks, offering an evolutionary change so natural and drastically
simple, it makes you wonder why it’s never been done before. The
premise of the game is still huge, lightning-fuelled, high-contact
brawls – but now, instead of having a quick fight, you play part
in a DragonBall Z war. The camera is the main adjustment
within the title; now taking its place behind your character
until within a short distance of the enemy, at which point it
diligently takes an angular position beside the action. Hugely
expansive and destructible arenas offer a huge scope of movement and
tactical play and, although far more limiting, the smaller arenas
create space for some very tight combo versus combo-breaker action.
With such a seemingly simple system allowing such an immense scope
for tactical play, DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is clearly
an innovative title with a retrospective mind. Taking its influences
from the likes of Super PunchOut, the new perspective seems
to ridicule rival Beat-‘Em-Ups launched earlier this year - such
as Tekken 5
and Dead Or Alive: Ultimate - without such
a push on the boundaries; while others seem willing to continually
remake and refine an already over-crowded genre, DragonBall Z:
Budokai Tenkaichi has taken it upon itself to break down the
boundaries and update the flagging genre for what seems to be
the first time in the last ten years.  New ideas are fantastic –
new techniques built solitarily for these ideas are what break the
mould.
The title features a variety of play options – each
offering a slightly different fighting experience. Z Battle Gate
gives you the opportunity to play through over 20 of the Sagas, each
consisting of around fifteen to twenty-five battles with certain
victory conditions; i.e. cleanly winning, winning within a set
time-limit, defeating your opponent with a desired Finishing Move or
simply surviving. Completing a mission in a different fashion to
that required often still results in progression through the Story,
but may not be as beneficial towards your Z Items list or unlocking
new characters. Ultimate
Battle
sees you fight through a series of challengers on a Ranking System.
Winning a Match under various conditions will see you increase your
Winning Points, and in-turn your Ranking. Fighting through the
hundred Matches available without losing certainly takes some
dedication, but is a more than rewarding experience.
World Tournament features a league system, in which you fight
through successive three, four and five match tournaments before
challenging the final series, and Duelling acts as an Exhibition
Match feature for single bouts against the computer or a second
player.
ATARI have thought long and hard about the tactical nature of
the title and constructed the characters and arenas in such a way
that every player will be able to develop some basic ground rules
for their performance with ease; technical fighting works not only
for the construct of a Match but also in the way you fight – combo
punches order can be varied, energy blasts can be used as powerful
weapons, combo links or merely stalling devices – Super Attacks
can be used at the end of combo strings to add a bit of devastation
to your opponent’s already pained face. Larger environments offer
a larger scope for customised play and it’s often easy to tailor
Matches for two-player wars – half-hour scraps using distance and
height are by far the most intense of the battles. However, it’s
clear that the AI doesn’t agree, often resulting in a two-minute
match of repeatedly being chased and pummelled  when simply trying to
provide sufficient distance between your opponent and yourself for
some more varied, skill-based action.
Featuring unbelievably huge environments and an expensive
character list – although often it seems a common Super Smash
Bros. Melee annoyance has crept into the proceedings, with many
characters being merely variations of earlier characters with slight
attribute differences – DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
pushes the PlayStation2 far further than most games would dare to,
even with such a technical diversion from the very stale genre that
spawned it, the title has managed to bring some brilliant character
model animation, draw distances and destructible scenery to the
ground. The special effects are never less than competent and the
now rather common cel-shading technique has been used to good effect
with real-time light sources.
DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is a good, solid title
in Single-Player. In Multi-Player, it’s a revelation as to how few
truly innovative ideas have hit the one-on-one Beat-‘Em-Up genre
since the move into 3D – which is why it’s so puzzling that the
title doesn’t feature a four-player option. DragonBall Z:
Budokai Tenkaichi is the definitive DragonBall Z
companion and more than a mere must-have for the series’ fans. As
a Beat-‘Em-Up title, it’s hard to deny DragonBall Z: Budokai
Tenkaichi any gratification for all the unique ideas on display
within the title and begs the question: why has it never been done
before? Almost a natural evolution of the one-on-one, DragonBall
Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is a title that more than merely
demonstrates the creative input to the genre, the title is telling
us what fighting games should become, let’s just hope
someone picks up the mantle and runs with it. 
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