Monday 3 February 2014
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The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series, originally published as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! (ドラゴンボールZ Sparking! Doragon Bōru Zetto Supākingu!) in Japan, is a series of fighting games based on the anime and manga Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama. Each installment was developed by Spike, while they were published by Bandai in Japan and Atari in all other countries, up to Ultimate Tenkaichi. From Raging Blastonwards, Bandai's role will now be filled by the merged Namco Bandai Games and Atari's PAL distribution network has been absorbed into Namco Bandai Partners. Namco Bandai will also handle developing in North America for Raging Blast and all other games beginning in 2010, effectively ending Atari's involvement.
The "Sparking!" in the Japanese title references the last lyric found in the chorus of the first opening theme to the Dragon Ball Z anime series, "Cha-La Head-Cha-La", performed by Hironobu Kageyama. However, the opening theme to the game is the TV series' second opening, "We Gotta Power" (featured in the Japanese version; the English version includes a different, non-vocal song), which is also performed by Kageyama.
The "Budokai Tenkaichi" title of the North American version is a rearranged version of Tenkaichi Budokai (天下一武道会 Tenka'ichi Budōkai, roughly "Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament"). In the series, the Tenka-ichi Budōkai is a gathering of fighters in a competition for glory, fame, and prize money.
Despite its title, the "Budokai Tenkaichi" series is not a continuation of the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series. 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.
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