Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World

Did You Know?

• Producer Riyo Mito stated the title Infinite World implies the immense gameplay of the epic Dragon Ball universe within the Dragon Mission mode.
• The game was specifically chosen for the PlayStation 2 to target fans without access to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles for the previous title Burst Limit.

Gameplay

The mechanics are essentially the same as those of the Budokai series, with some elements carried over from Burst Limit. Players control and battle characters from the Dragon Ball franchise; forty-two characters are playable, compared to Budokai 3's thirty-eight. The story mode, Dragon Mission, uses a map with objective mission icons that retell battles from the manga and anime. Players control a Goku avatar, walking or running to available mission icons. Missions include standard and timed endurance battles, as well as mini games such as on-foot searches, races, timed button sequence responders, and first person shooters. Skill capsules from the Budokai series return, allowing customization with special techniques and attributes. Capsules are bought with Zeni, and buying more of the same capsule strengthens their effects, differing from the Budokai series where skills had to be placed multiple times. A mode called Fighter's Road becomes available after certain goals, offering battles on four Dragon Mission maps and rewarding Zeni per victory.

Music

The licensed soundtrack was composed by Kenji Yamamoto and Kanon Yamamoto, credited as Kenz and Canon respectively. Twenty-two pieces were created exclusively for the game, with the rest carried over from the previous three Budokai games. The theme songs Hikari no Sasu Mirai e! and Dragon Ball Party were written by Yuriko Mori and performed by Hironobu Kageyama. The North American packaging only lists Kageyama as a contributor, and the instruction manual does not list music credits, leading some in the gaming community to believe Kageyama was the composer. Some game critics cited the music as the superior part of the game. The new music was released as Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World Original Soundtrack by Lantis on January 7, 2009, while the theme songs were released as a single by King Records on Christmas Day 2008. The single, Hironobu Kageyama's sixty-ninth, peaked at 200 on Oricon. It includes the closing theme Dragon Ball Party and the English version of the opening theme We Gonna Take You There. The Japanese version of the opening was used, contrasting with Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and Burst Limit, which used English versions of their opening themes.

Reception

The game sold 200,000 copies in Japan and 80,000 copies in the United States as of August 2010. It became Japan's second top-selling game in 2008, selling 76,452 units in its first week behind Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. Infinite World received mixed reviews; many felt it was identical to Budokai 3, while others found the story mode and mini games too daunting and geared toward hardcore fans. It earned aggregated scores of 48/100 on Metacritic and 50.80% on GameRankings, and IGN gave it a 3.5, lower than Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22. The soundtrack received mixed reviews, with critics misstating Kageyama as composer due to the packaging. IGN's Greg Miller called the music repetitive, while sites like Gamer Temple and Game Radar cited it as the only good part. Ben Dutka of PSXExtreme found the music disconcerting, suggesting it mocked the game.