Dragon Ball Z Shin Budokai: Another Road – PSP – Review

Dragon Ball Z is the franchise that
clearly refuses to fade away. Even though this franchise is not as popular as it
was a couple of years ago there are still numerous games being developed and
released for it. The main reason for this is that the game is easy to jump into
and get your fighting action craving satisfied quickly.

There are several different game
modes which you can partake in as you play Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai – Another
Road. First up is the story mode. Unlike many other games based off this
franchise, the story for this game allows you to play through a new Dragon Ball
Z adventure that is setup by a bunch of “what if” scenarios. You will take up
the battle with Trunks in an alternate future where many surprises await you.
Next mode you can play in is the arcade mode, which allows you to grab a figher
and fight to your hearts content; the more battles you win, the more money you
get to spend in the shop.

The Z Trail mode consists of battles
with various conditions. First up is the survival mode, where you face off
against myriads of opponents to see how far your skills can take you. Then there
is the time attack where you must defeat enemies as fast as possible. Another is
the challenge mode where you must complete a specific task in order to beat that
boss. If you want to sharpen up your fighting skills the first place you need to
visit is the training mode. This is a great place to get to know your moves in
order to beat the computer in all of these other game modes. The very last thing
mode that you can partake in is the multiplayer mode. If you and your friend
have a copy of this game you can battle against each other over the wireless
network.

The controls for this game are just
as good as they were in the previous game, maybe even tightened up somewhat. The
only problem is that the fighting engine is still pretty basic, especially if
you compare it to other fighting games out there. Fans of the series will get
the high number of charging up your power, power blasts, flying around, and
various other super moves that help make up for the lack of variety in fighting
moves, so in the end they balance each other out nicely.

The graphics for this game looks
identical to the last game Dragon Ball Z game that was released for the
PlayStation Portable. This is not really a bad thing, but it is a disappointment
that the graphics were updated only slightly. That being said, the characters
look really close to their anime counterparts from the detail on their clothing
to the various character animations. The various environments that you will be
forced to do battle in are also nicely done, but again do nothing to really
stand out. One thing that I liked is that the camera held up and always kept the
players in on the action instead of zooming way out or something else that would
distract from the fighting.

The developers like to have a sense
of continuity in the games to match with the TV shows and movies. With this
being the case they got the voice actors to reprise their roles again for this
game. If you like their portrayal of these characters then you will enjoy this
portion a lot. There is very little changed with the music for this game, it
fits well with the entire universe, but it does not pop out as new. The same can
be said of the sound effects; they get the job done, but nothing too out of the
ordinary.

Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai –
Another Road is rated teen and contains violence.

Gameplay: 7.1
This is a straightforward one-on-one action
fighting game. The bad thing about this game is that each of the fighters
handles the same, so other then the attacks and devastation that they cause,
there is little need to fight as some of the “lesser power” characters.

Graphics: 7.5
The graphics are crisp and look nice on the PlayStation Portable
screen. Although the graphics were not updated from the previous game, so it has
a been there seen that feeling to them.

Sound: 7.5
Just like in all of the previous games, the voice actors from the
English speaking version are back again. If you are a fan of them then you will
enjoy this section. The music and the sound effects are decent and fit well
within this franchise universe, but they are not spectacular.

Difficulty: Easy
This game is really easy to start playing with, especially if you have
played any of the previous games because very little has changed.

Concept: 6.5
The various branching storylines is nice and helps with the reply
factor, but overall there really isn’t anything added to this game that you
haven’t done in previous games.

Multiplayer N/A
At the time of this review I was unable to test out the multiplayer
portion of this game.

Overall: 7.1
Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai – Another Road is more of the same game
that you have already played numerous times in the past, but with more subtle
improvements. Fans of the franchise will not care and eat this game up, but
overall this game doesn’t offer much that you haven’t seen already.