Dragonball Z Tenkaichi Tag Team is basically Budokai Tenkaichi 3 in portable form, with one major change: as the title implies, it now features true tag team action wherein 4 players can fight in the arena at the same time. BT3 only has 1 vs. 1, with the ability to switch to different characters.Graphics-wise, they chose to forego cel-shading and just went with the traditional textured polygons, which sadly made the game look rough and less anime-like, especially when compared to the other series of Dragonball games on the PSP, the Shin Budokai series. It still looks good so it’s not a dealbreaker. It just feels like a step down visually.
Gameplay remains largely the same. You fly around a large stage and have the option to use ki blasts, gigantic beams, or melee the heck out of your opponents. All of the combat features that you would expect from a Dragonball game are there – in-game transformations, beam struggles, teleports, meteo attacks, etc. You won’t miss anything if you’re approaching this game straight from Budokai Tenkaichi 3. However, there’s one minor change that kind of breaks combat a bit: your opponent can now move while you’re in the middle of launching a super attack.
In the past Budokai Tenkaichi games, once you launch one of your super attacks, the opponent can’t move while the camera is focused on your character. They can still dodge, but they’ll have to do it in the split second before and/or after you launch the super attack. With Tenkaichi Tag Team, being able to move while the camera is focused on your character will allow your opponents to stay away from majority of your super attacks, quite easily at that. It seems like a very minor tweak to the gameplay, but once you play you’ll realize that it makes it that much harder to hit opponents with the supers, and it’s practically impossible to get certain attacks like Broly and Android 16’s melee supers to connect, because they need you to be within melee range of the opponent.
When it comes to content, it’s understandable that the UMD disc won’t be able to hold as much as a DVD disc, so there are a lot of content that was cut down. There’s less characters, less stages, and some of the characters no longer have any transformations (Broly, for instance.) But don’t let that keep you away from this game. It’s still got a TON of unlockable content and preserves most of the modes that gave BT3 a lot of replay value, such as the character customization, the What If scenarios, etc. Despite being unable to measure up to its console big brothers, Dragon Ball Z Tenkaichi Tag Team still stands as one of the most enjoyable games on the PSP, whether you’re a dragonball fan or not.
