
	Platform Playstation Portable Genre Fighting Publisher Namco Bandai Developer Spike ESRB T (Teen) Released October 19, 2010

- Combat is fun, for a while - Good multiplayer - True to the source material

- It feels like every other DBZ game - Combat not as deep as it could be - Too much reading for a portable game

Review: Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP) Review: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3 (PSP) Review: Secret Agent Clank (PSP)
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Dragon Ball Z Tenkaichi Tag Team

Score: 6.5 / 10

I was actually quite excited to get a PSP game. It’s been a while since I’ve dusted off one and I charged up my Darth Vader limited edition unit in anticipation of yet another Dragon Ball Z game. It could be great, I thought. After having the title update my PSP system in order to play, I got down to business.

One thing I could never understand about portable titles is how much they make you go through at times in order to progress into the gameplay. Now, I understand that the backstory and what not are important for many things but I thought the concept of a portable game is that you can play it in pieces byte sized pieces of fun

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while you are on the bus or waiting at the doctor’s office.

The screens you have to go through and reading are quite extensive. There is a voice over element for a lot of it – but not all of it. In my opinion, either you are all in or all out – in this case, that’s not true.

The missions have you flying around the game map to get to the next objective which is actually enjoyable and of

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course the meat of the game is the combat. In the story mode I felt the time in between the combat was a little excessive at times but when I finally did get to fighting it felt like every other DBZ game I’ve played before.

The “Tag Team” element is somewhat interesting. You can often switch back and forth between 2 of the 70 playable characters and use the strengths of each to defeat your enemies. In the end however it just feels a bit like a tacked on feature to an existing game. That’s just my take on it and you may find that you really enjoy this feature. It is certainly the biggest addition to the game that may hold your interest.

The Ad Hoc multiplayer mode works quite well and will allow up to 4 players to compete against each other and this works quite well.

The game, like many on the PSP, does have long load times. To combat this, the game features an option to install the main program data on your memory stick. While this feature is great and works well, I actually found myself enjoying the mini game that you can play while the game is loading. Much like Kaboom! on the Atari 2600, you move your character left and right collecting what is falling from the sky. I feel ashamed that I actually looked forward to the loading screen. This is disturbing to me on many levels.

Overall, the audio is well done although if you are a DBZ purist you may be disappointed to find out that the voices are English only. It’s not a big deal to me, but you may think otherwise. The graphics and presentation are all average or slightly above average so I have no real complaints here.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this title, it just feels like more of the same to me. I concede the tag team element is new and well done, I’m just not sure that it will be enough for the average gamer. If you are a big DBZ fan you’ve probably already picked this title up. If not, give it a try first before you take it home forever. Fight!

- Syd Bolton
(February 22, 2011)

Syd Bolton is Canada’s top video game collector with thousands of video games at the Personal Computer Museum (http://www.pcmuseum.ca) in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.