Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi, originally published as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! (ドラゴンボールZ Sparking! Doragon Bōru Zetto Supākingu!) in Japan, was released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan on October 6, 2005, and in North America on October 18, 2005. The game was developed by Spike and published by Atari and Bandai in the US and Japan respectively. The game features 58 playable characters with a total of 90 playable forms from the various TV series and movies. In addition, this game has fully destructible environments. In October/November of 2006, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 was released as the game's first sequel.
Name
The "Sparking!" in the Japanese title references both the first and last word in the first opening theme to the Dragon Ball Z TV series, "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" (performed by Hironobu Kageyama). However, the opening theme to the game is the TV series' second opening theme, "WE GOTTA POWER!" (featured in the Japanese version; the American version includes a different, non-vocal song), which also sung by Hironobu Kageyama.
The "Budokai Tenkaichi" title of the North American version is a rearranged version of tenkaichi budōkai (天下一武道会 roughly "Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament"). In the series, the Tenka-ichi Budôkai is a gathering of fighters in a competition for glory, fame, and prize money.
The game is not considered a part of the Budokai series of games, despite its misleading title. In addition to a completely different game engine, the game was developed by an entirely different company (Spike as opposed to Dimps). The game is also titled differently from the rest of the Budokai series in Japan. Were it a true Budokai game, it would have been Dragon Ball Z 4 in Japan. Speculation on the English re-title is that Atari chose to market the game as part of the Budokai series in order to capitalize on a pre-existing market of fans already familiar with said game series. The English version also uses a great deal of sound effects and background music made for the Budokai series.
Gameplay
The game is quite different from the often-compared Budokai series; it uses a "behind-the-back" camera perspective. Many fans say that the game feels like a combination of the Budokai series and the game engine from Idainaru Doragonbôru Densetsu for Sega Saturn and PlayStation. Although the engine is more like a typical third-person shooter, it is difficult to master.
Also different from the Budokai series (and more of a throw-back to games from the Super Famicom era), there are no "in-game transformations." Instead, each form is treated as its own character (as noted above), with varying stats, movesets and fighting styles, similar to Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors while free roam is similar to Dragon Ball Z Sagas.
Playable characters
Despite not being a part of the series, the vast majority of characters from the Budokai series once again make an appearance. Additional villains such as Zarbon and Dodoria from the first Budokai game (but not present in the two sequels) appear in the game's roster (though not present from the Budokai series are Kaiôshin, Uub, and Yi Xing Long). Some of the characters making their first-ever playable appearances are Janemba, the Oozaru, Baby-Vegeta, and Super #17.
There are various classes of characters with special abilities that alter the battle:
- Jinzôningen (Artificial Humans) - Will not show on radar unless locked on to. Cannot charge ki (unless ki gauge is full, then may charge as normal to enter Max Power mode). Energy absorption models gain ki by absorbing incoming energy dan attacks. Unlimited energy models constantly replenish ki at a consistent rate. The gauge can also be filled as normal by landing successful melee attacks, just like any other character.
- Large Characters (ex: Broly) - Do not flinch from smaller characters' melee attacks. The characters that have this "Brick wall" effect are Broly, Bojack, Super Saiyan 3rd Grade Trunks, Oozaru, Oozaru Vegeta and Android 16.
- Ôzaru (Great Ape) - Do not flinch from smaller characters' melee attacks, and cannot be thrown or hit with a Dragon Dash-type finishing move.
- Scouter (ex: Bardock) - Can lock onto an opponent from anywhere using the scouter, however it takes a few moment for them to turn the scouter on and then begin looking around, but the scouter is broken when the character takes a certain amount of damage. The characters that have scouters include: Raditz, Nappa, Scouter Vegeta, Dodoria, Zarbon, Guldo, Recoome, Burter, Jeice, Captain Ginyu and Bardock.
- Mr. Satan (Hercule in the edited FUNimation dub) - None of the other characters "flinch" when hit by his melee attacks. (not even another Mr. Satan)
In the game, a base character can have multiple "forms" to choose from on the character select screen (for example, Perfect Cell is a different "form" from 1st-form Cell, but they are both selected from the base Cell character). In total, there are 56 different "characters," with 90 different "forms" in total. The game had the largest roster of playable character in the franchise's history until Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2:
| Returning Characters of the Budokai series | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||
| New Characters to the Budokai series | |||||
Game modes
Evolution Z
7 slots for Z-items, but the stronger characters can have as little as 3 slots. There are Z-items that will increase a players Z-item slots, but the number of slots cannot exceed 7.
Z Battle Gate
The story mode of the game, Z Battle Gate, progresses similar to the story modes in previous games. Players can select battles from different sagas and proceed through the story of Dragon Ball Z. The battles are bookended with players are given an objective to accomplish (such as finishing the battle with a certain special move, or within a certain amount of time). The story mode branches out, allowing for a few battles that were not originally in the story. Dragon Balls can be found inside the destructible environment. After clearing some gates, an extra fight may or may not be unlocked. It also shows two new stories when the movie and Dragon Ball GT villains fight the Z-Fighters and a tournament which involves Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z characters.
Ultimate Battle
This new mode pits whichever fighter the player chooses against 100 characters. There are winning points and ranks in this mode. Depending on how the battle went, players get positive or negative winning points. However, if the player ends up with no winning points, the game is over and the player must start back at Rank 100 (the game starts off at Rank 100). Occasionally, a different fighter (always secret characters) will "break in" (interrupt the fight before it begins). Players get more winning points for defeating them, but lose more than usual if they do not defeat them. Also, if the player wins five straight normal fights, someone five ranks ahead will offer a challenge. Completion of this challenge moves the player five ranks up.
World Tournament
Similar to the same mode in the Budokai series, the player can enter a world tournament and try to win their way to the top. There are three levels of the basic tournament and a Cell Games mode (which is hosted by Cell). Since characters can fly, characters can leave the perimeter of the arena, but will be called for ringout if they touch the ground. There are no restrictions to the Cell Games mode, but the last match of the Cell Games mode is always against Perfect Cell. Since there is no money awarded in this game, the prize for winning a World Tournament is a Z-item. The World Tournament mode can be played with several entrants, but if there is more than one human player, then no prize will be awarded.
Character Illustrations
A unique feature not featured in any of the other Budokai games is Character Illustrations. They list English and Japanese voice actors as well as detailed profiles for all currently unlocked characters. The Character Illustrations reveals the Oozaru featured in Budokai Tenkaichi without armor to be a generic Saiyan warrior, and not any characters in the series (Goku or Gohan).
Voice cast
Localization differences
"DBZ: Sparking!" cover
Further confusing fans in North America, Atari's domestic release of the game does not feature the same music found in the original Japanese version. While Sparking! features actual music from Dragon Ball Z (and two other pieces from the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT where appropriate) as composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi, the American release of the game features recycled music from the Budokai series (composed in Japan by Kenji Yamamoto).
While no official explanation was ever given for the musical differences, as FUNimation Productions did not use the original Japanese score in their "reversioning" of the TV series for an English dub (though they did indeed use it for their English dub of the original Dragon Ball TV series), many fans speculation that contractual issues came into play.
Despite not featuring the original Japanese music, the American release of the game allows for selectable English (FUNimation Productions cast) and Japanese voices, while retaining the English-language written dialogue (as adapted from Steven J. Simmons' translation from the original Japanese version's script). However, there are known (un-fixed) bugs in the American version that cause pieces of English and Japanese spoken dialogue to cross over into whichever selection the player is using at times. (Super Saiyan Trunks in his battle suit(Fighting) speaks Japanese during the Finish Buster and when SS4 Goku defeats SS4 Vegeta he speaks Japanese). A second language related bug causes the game to start with the English voice track upon every bootup, regardless of the user's preferences towards the matter. Although if the user previously selected Japanese before saving their game data, the Japanese track will indeed be highlighted as active during the next play session, despite being very much inactive. As a result, users favouring the Japanese voicework are forced to unselect and then reselect the Japanese language option every time they turn on the game.
Other bugs include textual mistakes such as the Character Illustrations, with one example being the misplacement of the word "how" where the word "who" should have been in one of the profiles. Instead of saying it was Bibidi who made Buu, they said Babidi, who was Bibidi's son. And strangely, even though the game uses Dub names (For example, Launch as opposed to Lunch), Bulma's daughter is referred to Bra rather than Bulla. It also states that Fat Buu is killed for good when he absorbs Bebi's Revenge Death Ball in GT, instead of stating that he fuses with Uub and forms Ubuu/Majuub. Also, there is a mistake which refers to a dub voice actor, under "Kid Goku's" profile it states that the American voice is played by Sean Schemmel, when he is actually played by Stephanie Nadolny.
Also, in addition to the obvious language translation, the game's cover art and logos are different in each country (apart from the Japanese and European versions, in which the only difference is the Sparking/Budokai Tenkaichi name labels).