DBZ games since Budokai have been limited in their customization, restricted to abilities and boosts, but this still made for a good degree of picking and choosing. Namco Bandai games announced that in Ultimate Tenkaichi, you will indeed be able to create characters.
Those not in the know, the Tenkaichi games of the Dragonball Z series have an engine that allows for easy execution of flight, teleportation attacks, special moves, and a roster of virtually every incarnation of all DB, DBZ, and DBGT characters in all their forms. And yes, they are excellent games.
Ultimate Tenkaichi contains new graphical and environmental designs, improved terrain destruction, and generally superior gameplay over the already-excellent Tenkaichi series.
As I had said, the features list from Namco Bandai includes the following taken directly from the site.
- Complete Character Creation & Customization – Appearance and attributes can be customized such as model body, face, hair, attire, fighting style and more! Additionally fighting style and special moves can be selected.
- Enhanced Battle Mechanics – Impact Break system allows large scale environment destruction. Improved mechanics allow for faster long-to-short range fights. There is also an added health recovery system and a vast collection of more cinematic camera angles.
- Deeper Brand Representation – Fight presentations more closely mirror the animation series. Battle against a new group of giant bosses as in the animation series. Experience 15 animated scenes with bosses up to 15x the size of playable characters! Also enjoy bonus level from movie and Dragon Ball GT series!
When Tenkaichi came out, I called it the best DBZ game ever. When Tenkaichi 2 improved on it several times over, I called that the greatest DBZ game possible. Then came along Tenkaichi 3, which I could only describe as a Dragon Ball Z Simulator of the highest caliber.
This however is further one-upping it. This game will one-up the previous DBZ games the same way Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann one-upped all the previous mecha in the series. This isn’t a DBZ game. This -IS- Dragon Ball Z. How it should be.
I certainly hope the difficulty of the game was sharply rebalanced. I always found the Tenkaichi games to be too easy, and in some cases I could win the survival battles by defeating my opponents.
Ultimate Tenkaichi will be available in October of this year.
