DBZ: Ultimate Battle
22
System: Sony
PlayStation
Release Date: July, 1995
In this, the first
Dragon Ball Z fighting game for a 32-bit video game system,
you can fight as any one of 22 different characters from the
Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z television series, including Songoku,
SonGohan, SonGoten, Chibi Trunks, Gotenks, Mirai Trunks, Piccolo,
Kuririn, Tenshinhan, The Great Saiyaman, KaiOhShin, Vegeta,
Zarbon, Recoom, Ginew, Freeza, Android No. 18, Android No. 16,
Cell, Darbura, Majin Boo, Super Boo. With a secret code entered,
you can also play as Mr. Satan, Kame-Sennin, Gogeta, SonGoku
as a child, and Super Saiyan Level 3 SonGoku. That's 27 characters
in all!
The number of characters
you have to choose from in this game is unprecedented. Animation
sequences precede every battle and change depending on who is
fighting who. If it is a major battle from the series, such
as Gotenks vs. Super Boo, then it mimics the occurance on the
show. The character sprites are all cel animated by the show's
actual animators. The scenery is 3-D rendered. Rather than using
a line to split the screen when the characters are far a part,
the characters are scaled down.
There is a tournament
mode as usual, as well as a build up battle in which you can
play through the game over and over, building up your chosen
characters strength and then saving it to a memory card. Then
you can battle it out with a buddy and his built up character.
The best thing about
this game, however, is the opening animation, which shows all
of the characters contained in the game. When the cheat code
is entered, a special animation showing the 5 new characters
is revealed.
The problem is, Ultimate
Battle 22 's just not that fun to play. You can't really get
very far away from your opponent, and the scaling of characters,
while innovative, is less than effective. Special attacks do
not stop all motion like they do in all other Dragon Ball Z
games, and are not very spectacular. I really wanted to like
this game, but it just falls short. It's not a terrible first
generation fighting game for the PlayStation, but it's not that
great, either.
FAQs
and Codes at gamefaqs.com
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- Characters drawn
by animators from the TV series
- 27 different characters
to choose from
- 3D environments
- Great opening
movie
- Just not a very
good fighting game
- Characters only
look different... they control about the same
- Special attacks
look wimpy
   
Expect some soon.
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