"Watered Down, But Still Great"

This is my very first review ever that I've written, but I think I know the basic concepts. Stating the good and bad, giving my opinion, and not to use any spoilers (though I may have to once in a while)

The Good- For the most part just being a DBZ game IMO is a good thing, although there have been some DBZ games that were utter disappointments (Sagas.) Other things that I felt were good about this game was defnitely they story-line, but more on that later. This game has all the key elements to the Budokai series (Tenkaichi wasn't an official Budokai game.) Although there are only 18 characters, I somehow felt that that was perfect. Having a huge variety sometimes gets you thinking on who to pick. Online multiplayer battles are awesome too.

The Bad- Well...I'd say that I don't really like the ranking system in this game. Your battle rank consists of 3 things: Time, Tech, and Life. The shorter amount of time you defeat your opponent, the higher your Time ranking. Tech I'm not so sure about, as I've beaten an opponent in about 20 seconds and got about half the rank for Tech. Life is an obvious one. The more life you have at the end, the higher the ranking for this category. Now depending on how you score in the categories, you can get one of these ranks: Z, S, A, B, C, D. I've never ever experienced a C, so you won't have to worry about that. The higher your rank, the more zenie you recieve. I'll explain the zenie part later.

Controls- For not having as many buttons as the PS2 controller, the PSP sure did find a good way to revamp the controls so everything works smoothly. I'll explain some differences from Budokai 3.
Since there's 2 shoulder buttons instead of 4, transforming and specials are a bit different. For example: To transform now you press Down on the D-pad + O. Don't worry either because Hyper Mode has been taken out of this game. Its been replaced with Aura Burst, which is activated by pressing the R button (right shoulder.) With Aura Burst you can move quickly, perform a swift punch, and a guard-blocking punch (this looks tight too.) With some people I love how you can add extra power to moves. With Teen Gohan, if you have 6 Ki bars and use your Super Kamehameha (special [Up on the D-pad + O]) and while its hitting your enemy you press Up + O again, you perform the Father-Son Kamehameha.

10/10

Graphics- This is the watered down portion at the most. But the graphics still look stunningly like Budokai 3. The auras of course look great, nothings changed with them. Specials and moves still look great too.

9/10

Story- I love the story! Its a nice change from going through the Saiyan Saga-Buu Saga. There's a few plot twists that make the story nice, and being able to choose different ways to go gives it some replay value. I'll just say it right now: If you want to try and complete Dragon Road (the Story mode) in one sitting, be prepared for many many battles. There are a total of 59 battles in Dragon Road, and I'm sure you won't win all of them your first time around.

10/10

Characters- I know how this doesn't really count as a category for a review but I felt I should include it. You see, for only having 18 characters, it still feels like you have plenty to choose from. I'll name all the choosable characters: Goku, Teen Gohan, Gohan, Vegeta, Trunks, Piccolo, Krillin, Android 18 (stupid), Pikkon, Gotenks, Vegito, Gogeta, Cooler, Frieza, Kid Buu, Broly, Perfect Form Cell and Janemba. Most of the characters have transformations but the stupid but cool thing is that you can only choose one transformation for each character for battle.

9/10

Thats all for my review but before I go I remember I said I'd talk more about what the Zenie is used for. With each save file of Shin Budokai, you create profile cards. These basically help to show your creativeness, and they show your PL (Power Level) and username. Your PL goes up with each multiplayer battle won and goes down for each one lost. With your overall PL your Max Health goes up in Arcade and Z-Trial Mode as well as your starting Ki. With your profile card, you create your own with stamps from the store and sheets (backgrounds)

Hope this review helps!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/06