Goku Ultimate: Budokai Xenoverse

The game still plays like a stripped-down 3D fighter, with basic punch, kick, and energy attacks that can be strung together for more powerful combos. Players can't actually jump, but there are certain attacks that will launch your opponent into the air, at which point you can fly up to him or her and continue your battle in the sky. If you and your opponent both try to attack each other at the same time (with certain moves), you'll enter burst mode.

Here, both characters unleash a flurry of punches and kicks and mashing buttons is the only way to come out on top. The most significant addition that Goku Ultimate: Budokai Xenoverse makes to the fighting system is the fusion technique, which allows you to merge your fighter with another for a short period of time while in midfight, thus greatly increasing your power. While the fusion technique is definitely a nice touch, the game still lacks any sort of power-struggle mechanic where players just try to overpower one another by using huge beams of energy.

Goku Ultimate: Budokai Xenoverse really outdoes its predecessor in the graphics department, which appears to be spent a majority of its development time. Budokai had a fairly cartoony look to it, but Goku Ultimate: Budokai Xenoverse ups the ante by rendering all the characters with a cel-shading effect. Though it's not the greatest looking cel shading we've seen, it definitely works to the game's advantage by giving the characters even more of a hand-drawn feel. The character models appear slightly more detailed and display more prominent creases in skin and cloth. A little bit of the glossy shine effect, which the characters took on in the latter parts of the series, is even apparent. The game also features actual shadows, which replace the black dots that the characters cast in the original

The visuals aren't entirely new, though, and the game borrows a fair amount from its predecessor. Virtually all the in-game animations are reused from the first game, and many of the characters themselves share identical animations. The game also recycles sound from the first game pretty liberally, and players of the first game will probably notice a lot of familiar music, menu sound effects, and voice clips. To its credit, though, the game does include a fair amount of new voice acting