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Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22

Dragonball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 is a 2-D fighting game from Bandai, which was released in Japan in '96, but never saw a North American release. Structurally, it's quite similar to the standard fighting game; The modes of play include Tournament, Versus, a pseudo-storyline mode, and a Build-Up Mode, with the Build-up mode being the only unique concept. It's a mode of play where your character advances through a string of enemies, getting stronger with each win, and increasing the power of your most commonly used techniques. Nothing really spectacular, although if you have a friend with a character, your Build-up Characters can do battle. On the surface, the game is most similar to the original Street Fighter genre. Simple combos, special moves, and a super (ki) meter are pretty much the only ways of fighting, with the only innovation being the ability to fly depending on which character you are. Unfortunately, this game engine is extremely lacking when compared to some of the more recent entries. The fighting is rigid, and the controls aren't as responsive as they could be.

Graphics: While the 3-D backgrounds tend to be a bit on the plain side, the characters themselves achieve their primary goal: They look exactly like their anime counterparts... In fact, it almost looks like someone cut and pasted cels directly from Dragonball into the game! It was a nice thought, but they clash so horribly with the backgrounds, it tends to be distracting! I must say though, the anime movies scattered throughout were a nice touch. Graphics: 7 out of 10.

Music and Sounds: Nothing much here... Fans of the U.S. Dragonball Z series might be a bit confused by the voices though, which are more similar to the original Japanese voice actors than anything else. The background music is above average for a fighting game, and there are a few tracks that seem truly inspired. (Mirai Trunks' theme, "Hikari no Will Power" is my fave!) Sounds: 7 (The typical grunts, yells, and Japanese rambling...) Music: 8

Gameplay: This is where the game truly suffers. The fighting is too simple to appeal to some of the more advanced gamers, and much too rigid to compare with some other 2-D games like Street Fighter. Overall, however, it's not the most horrible experience, and after a while you even get used to it! The sheer number of unique characters (27 with the code) also makes for some interesting battles, and some of the special techinques are quite amusing! Gameplay: 6.5 (Not bad enough to stop you from playing, but after you've found and seen all of the super moves, you may put this on the shelf for a while...)

Fun Factor: Ah...Now we get to the interesting part. I can put this quite simply. If you're a fan of Dragonball Z, you'll probably *love* this game. There are tons of characters, and they're all quite faithful to the anime. The vast majority of the moves make sense, and if you're a lunatic otaku, (Like me!) then you'll find yourself and your friends crafting battles according to the storyline, and supporting your favorite ones... On the other hand, if you're *not* a fan of Dragonball, then you'll probably spend the entire time scratching your head, and wondering where all of the crazy moves are coming from.... Fun Factor, If you're a fan: 10. Period. It's Dragonball, 'nuff said. Fun Factor, If you're not: 6.5 (It'll be cute, but not cute enough...) All in all, for a game of this type, I'd usually advise to rent before you buy. However, due to the foreign nature of this game, you'll probably have a hard enough time finding it to BUY, let alone rent. So I'll sum it up like this: If you're not a fan, I'd recommend skipping this one. It's fun, but these days, there are more than enough new ENGLISH fighting games with smoother graphics and gameplay to choose from. If you *are* a fan, then I strongly suggest that you look into buying this game! Just seeing Mr. Satan take out SSJ3 Goku is worth the price! (Well, almost...) And I'd have to recommend this over DB: Final Bout. I think it was a nice attempt, but if nothing else, UB22's character selections ALONE beat out FB's. (I mean, I love Saiyajins as much as the next guy, but FB just went overboard...)

Reviewer's Score: 7 / 10