Dragonball Z – Ultimate Battle 22 (USA)

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22^[a] is a 1995 fighting video game developed by Tose and published by Bandai and Infogrames for the PlayStation. Based upon Akira Toriyama‘s Dragon Ball franchise, its gameplay is similar to the Super Butōden sub-series, consisting of one-on-one fights with a main six-button configuration, featuring special moves, as well as five playable modes. It is referred as “Ultimate Battle 22” or “UB22” by fans due to the roster of twenty two playable characters from the series.

Announced early in 1995 as part of the Super Butōden sub-series, Ultimate Battle 22 shares the same character sprites as with another Dragon Ball Z fighting game developed by Tose for the Sega Saturn called Shin Butōden. The game garnered mixed reception from European critics but negative response from North American critics; Reviewers criticized for the slow gameplay, controls, lack of story mode and visuals but some commended its large roster of 27 playable characters. The title sold approximately between 260,942 and 320,000 copies during its lifetime in Japan.

Gameplay

See also: Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden § Gameplay

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 is a fighting game similar to the Super Butōden sub-series. Players fight against other characters in one-on-one matches and the fighter who manages to deplete the health bar of the opponent wins the bout and becomes the winner of the match.^[1][2] The game features five modes of play, a roster of 22 playable characters and their respective transformations with five additional characters being unlockable via cheat code.^[1][2][3] The title is notable for using actual cel drawings from the animators as character sprites and cutscenes before the fights,^[2] which were a novelty at the time of its original release in Japan but theses cutscenes were removed on the European and North American releases.

Development and release

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 was first announced early in 1995 under the working title Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden PlayStation Version.^[5] Ultimate Battle 22 shares the same character sprites as with another fighting game developed by Tose for the Sega Saturn called Dragon Ball Z: Shin Butōden, which is regarded to be the better between the two games but never received a western release.^[2]