Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road

Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road followed on from the first portable Shin Budokai and brought its own non-canon detour from the well-known manga and anime story. Studio Dimps, which was behind most of the Dragon Ball fighting games of the time, this time let the player experience an alternate timeline – Trunks travels back in time to the period of the fight with Cell, where events, due to his intervention, take a completely different direction than in the show, opening up room for battles the source material never offered.

The gameplay built on the tried-and-tested system of 3D arena battles with fast combos, ranged energy attacks, and character transformations into their more powerful forms, including Super Saiyans. Fights took place in enclosed arenas with the ability to destroy the surrounding environment and dodge off the movement axis, which had been the series' standard since the first Shin Budokai. The "another road" campaign let the player experience battles that never took place in the original series, offering fans a fresh take on well-known characters in unfamiliar situations without disrupting the continuity of the main story.

The game remained primarily a Japanese and European affair, rounding out the rich lineup of Dragon Ball Z-licensed fighting games on the PSP at the time, which was served by several parallel sub-series simultaneously, from the arena-based Shin Budokai through the more tactical Tenkaichi to collectible-card spin-offs.

Why play it: An alternate story detour for Dragon Ball Z fans who want to see their favorite characters in battles outside the show's canon.