Fighter’s Road is the mystery mode that is at first hidden by a row of question marks on the main screen. At first glance, you might think this was a traditional mix of the tournament modes of the past with a tower mode. However, in each of those traditional modes, once defeated, you return to the bottom or lose altogether.

Here, however, you just restart the fight, with no real consequence for losing and just another way to increase the longevity of the game. Unfortunately, there is a slight annoyance with obtaining this mode of the game: you have to complete the story of the game in order to unlock it for purchase. Not just Goku’s part of the saga either, this would seem the obvious way, since after you complete Goku’s part, you restart with various characters to get the rest of the story. Nearly every main fight and various objectives must be completed before tackling Fighter’s Road. To some, this could become tedious, especially if they are apt to scream “No fair,” “This sucks,” or “This game cheats!”

The camera will also create occasional moments when you want to break your controller. After performing a devastating attack on either side, sometimes the camera will swing behind one of the characters, and you will have to fight in that perspective until it decides to swing back around to the correct way. Thankfully, this is not as tedious as it could be considering they kept the same general formula of past DBZ games and made every character similar to control. That also seems to bring along the same frustration of the controls not being as responsive as you’d like them to be in some cases. They still work great, but if you are planning a big attack with several well-executed button presses, occasionally one or two of those buttons may not register.

Graphically, I have to admit I did a double take after the initial load movie. The graphics are crisp, vibrant, and gloriously represent the DBZ world, very closely rivaling the next-gen Burst Limit in representation. Dimps seems to have perfected the visuals of the DBZ universe on the PS2, and it is wonderful to look at. Unfortunately, the sounds are not that great. Don’t get me wrong, the voice work is from most of the voice actors and that is great. However, hearing the same repeated catch phrases, grunts, and cries of pain does get a little annoying, and you will turn down the volume just to save your ears.

Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World is a game for the fans that have yet to move up to the next-gen experience. It also delivers on a few fan requests of returning the fighting to the original Budokai format, without neglecting the fans of the Budokai Tenkaichi games. It doesn’t over promise nor does it under deliver. You won’t be disappointed even with the annoyances and objectionable ways you have to obtain certain things. It’s Dragon Ball Z the way you remember it and the way you love it.

By Matthew Walker
CCC Project Coordinator