User:Poetic Decay/Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi (series) draft

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi, originally published as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! (ドラゴンボールZ Sparking!) in Japan, is a series owned by Spike. The series originaly started in 2005, and has since spawned two sequals.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi was released in Japan on October 6 2005, and had then been localized for several different nations afterwards, North America and Europe examples.

On October 2007, Spike is scheduled to release the third installment in the franschise. Due to the apparent pattern of Dragon Ball video game franchises including only three games, Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is expected to be the last.

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 English version is a rearranged version of tenkaichi budōkai (天下一武道会). 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 Dragon Ball Z: 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 doesn't take to long to master.