Why does Infinite World get overlooked?

[WittyUsername]

In terms of the Budokai series, Infinite World is pretty much the blacksheep of the series. People have always talked about how great Budokai 3 is, but Infinite World just seems like the kind of game that people have either ignored or forgotten about. Why is this?

Honestly, in terms of the game as a whole, I would say it’s better than Budokai 3. Sure, it didn’t have beam struggles or a tournament mode, and some of the mini games were annoying, but it had a better capsule system, more characters, more moves, and no rock-paper-scissors mechanic with the Dragon Rush.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I think a big part of it was timing. If I recall, didn't it basically get made/come out at the time that the PS3 already had access to Burst Limit, so it was basically a stop-gap measure for people that only had PS2's (like myself at the time). Think of it as basically the same reasoning as to why, around the time Budokai was released, we got re-releases of Ultimate Battle 22 and GT: Final Bout for PS1 here; to give people on the previous console generation something to do.

Beyond that though, a lot of the stuff that got removed, me personally? I liked and wish it had stayed. Dragon Rush could get a bit gimmicky, but it was fun enough, and the beam struggles were always a lot of fun to pull off right. That said though, Infinite World also did a few things right that I wish had carried over into later games (and would still love to see comeback in something now), namely the mini games. I loved actually running down Snake Way and chasing after Bubbles. It was a fun moment of escape from just constant battles.

The mini-game where you have to hide from Piccolo as first-form Cell can go to hell though. :I

[90sDBZ]

I agree the game is very underrated and overlooked in general. I think it's because of a few things. It came out after BT3 which conditioned fans to expect a huge roster, and also after Burst Limit which had better graphics and also pushed many fans to move on to 7th gen systems.

Releasing in late 2008 it would have been among the last PS2 exclusives, and many people still don't know it even exists. I also think many people tend to care for more superficial stuff like roster and graphics over gameplay, which is a shame as it beats both BT3 and Burst Limit in that department.

To be fair it was a budget release, which is why it appears to be Budokai 3.5 on the surface.

Also the game was unforgiving as hell to newcomers, with a tough CPU that would bust out cancel combos like there was no tomorrow. Really you needed to be good at Budokai 3 first. Still as a long time Budokai fan I was both overjoyed and pleasantly surprised when it got announced, welcoming with open arms one last Budokai game to end the great PS2 era. It only felt fitting that a Dimps Budokai game should end the PS2 era as that's also what kicked it off back in 2002.

[Jord]

The game itself was fine but really felt like an alternate, cheap version of Budokai. There were new characterrs but we also lost a lot of characters. Little stuff like the narration on the menu's were gone and a lot of the assets like music were recycled. GT Goku was basically the same model as Kid Goku from B3, only tanned.

A lot of people missed this release so it isn't that much remembered. I for one only picked up a copy a few years ago.

[SSJmole]

It looked cool but I never played it at the point it was out I think I had a PS3 , 360 and Wii had got rid of previous gen consoles ( I trade them in when I have all the new ones or they'd just be taking up room)

[WittyUsername]

The game itself was fine but really felt like an alternate, cheap version of Budokai. There were new characterrs but we also lost a lot of characters. Little stuff like the narration on the menu's were gone and a lot of the assets like music were recycled. GT Goku was basically the same model as Kid Goku from B3, only tanned.

A lot of people missed this release so it isn't that much remembered. I for one only picked up a copy a few years ago.

In terms of characters that were removed, it only got rid of four characters from B3, and two of them were a Cell Jr. and Shin. I do wish that they didn’t get rid of OG Dragon Ball Kid Goku, but I guess they figured that GT Goku would make the former seem pointless in comparison,

[Jord]

The game itself was fine but really felt like an alternate, cheap version of Budokai. There were new characterrs but we also lost a lot of characters. Little stuff like the narration on the menu's were gone and a lot of the assets like music were recycled. GT Goku was basically the same model as Kid Goku from B3, only tanned.

A lot of people missed this release so it isn't that much remembered. I for one only picked up a copy a few years ago.

In terms of characters that were removed, it only got rid of four characters from B3, and two of them were a Cell Jr. and Shin. I do wish that they didn’t get rid of OG Dragon Ball Kid Goku, but I guess they figured that GT Goku would make the former seem pointless in comparison,

Weird, I recall it being more characters. Has been a while though. It's too bad that they removed Kid Goku though since he had a different move set from GT Goku and was fun to play as. One thing I think IW improved was the Story mode with its cutscenes and mini games (although I was disappointed with the sparse amount of GT cutscenes) It was a nice mode to play and better than B3's 'Fly over the overworld and enounter speech bubbles' mode.

[DBZAOTA482]

It was released as a budget title (at least in the states) for the PlayStation 2 when most gamers had already moved onto the 7th gen consoles.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Well, that's because a lot think of it as Budokai 3 (2.0 or 3.5 whatever you wanna go with) or an expansion to Budokai 3 in some ways rather than its own game. I've got it but have never really played it, but want to.

[Hellspawn28]

It was a bargain bin release and people stop caring about the PS2 by 2008.

[Yuli Ban]

It was a bargain bin release and people stop caring about the PS2 by 2008.

This.
Whenever I think of Infinite World, I think "DBZ shovelware." It's really not that bad, but it's not the kind of game I'd return to. To compare it to an actually great game, think of Grand Theft Auto 3. One of the greatest games of all time, a revolutionary classic of media let alone video gaming. Yet out of all the GTA games of that generation, it's the one most people don't choose to return to because the next two were better, had more features and style, and were more memorable.

Infinite World is sort of like that. Everything it did had been done by previous Budokai games, and a lot of it had been done better. It didn't have the best music or graphics. The gameplay was more refined over Budokai 3, but it wasn't a big draw. And the story was the Raditz to Boo spiel that had gotten tired and played out five games ago, but with worse voice acting and major chunks of the story left out (though it actually did have cutscenes, which is more than B3 had). The only thing it really had was a few more characters, like Janemba. But it also had a Superman 64-esque "run through hoops" minigame that completely canceled out any awesome wrought by the inclusion of Janemba.

Beyond that, it was pretty much just Budokai 3 Director's Cut. If you already had Budokai 3, there wasn't really any reason to get it. It came out for the PS2 in 2008, because there's always that one Dragon Ball game that comes out after a last-gen console has effectively retired itself from mainstream attention. For a last-hoorah of the PS2 era of DBZ games, it ended on a resounding "meh" because it just didn't do anywhere near enough differently from Budokai 3. The roster was barely changed, the story was the same but presented better, we got rid of Dragon Rush but added whatever that dumbass mode was, and there were a couple gameplay tweaks.

Compared to what the Budokai games had been improving, it should have increased the roster size substantially, added plenty more what-if modes, completely refined gameplay to be more in line with a mainstream 2D fighter (it came out the same year as Street Fighter IV, IIRC), and built off B3's additions.

Alas... it's kind of the ultimate "Dragon Ball Z" game, if you know what I mean. Exactly the kind of game people think about when they bring to mind a licensed DBZ game from the late 2000s, one that is virtually identical to a previous game and the next game and plays through the story of Z and movies with nothing new added.


Edit: You know how people called Xenoverse 2 "Xenoverse 1.5" when it first came out, before all the DLC? Infinite World was like Budokai 3.5.

[sunsetshimmer]

I never liked Budokai in the first place (i hate fighting system) but if i were to play single game from series then i would pick Infinite World for sure. It had pretty fun minigames in story mode and cool roster with GT Vegeta being playable in base and SSJ forms, not just SSJ4 like in most games. It also had better transformation mechanics. But as far as i remember it lacked tournament mode which was big downside.

[90sDBZ]

It was a bargain bin release and people stop caring about the PS2 by 2008.

This.
Whenever I think of Infinite World, I think "DBZ shovelware." It's really not that bad, but it's not the kind of game I'd return to. To compare it to an actually great game, think of Grand Theft Auto 3. One of the greatest games of all time, a revolutionary classic of media let alone video gaming. Yet out of all the GTA games of that generation, it's the one most people don't choose to return to because the next two were better, had more features and style, and were more memorable.

Infinite World is sort of like that. Everything it did had been done by previous Budokai games, and a lot of it had been done better. It didn't have the best music or graphics. The gameplay was more refined over Budokai 3, but it wasn't a big draw. And the story was the Raditz to Boo spiel that had gotten tired and played out five games ago, but with worse voice acting and major chunks of the story left out (though it actually did have cutscenes, which is more than B3 had). The only thing it really had was a few more characters, like Janemba. But it also had a Superman 64-esque "run through hoops" minigame that completely canceled out any awesome wrought by the inclusion of Janemba.

Beyond that, it was pretty much just Budokai 3 Director's Cut. If you already had Budokai 3, there wasn't really any reason to get it. It came out for the PS2 in 2008, because there's always that one Dragon Ball game that comes out after a last-gen console has effectively retired itself from mainstream attention. For a last-hoorah of the PS2 era of DBZ games, it ended on a resounding "meh" because it just didn't do anywhere near enough differently from Budokai 3. The roster was barely changed, the story was the same but presented better, we got rid of Dragon Rush but added whatever that dumbass mode was, and there were a couple gameplay tweaks.

Compared to what the Budokai games had been improving, it should have increased the roster size substantially, added plenty more what-if modes, completely refined gameplay to be more in line with a mainstream 2D fighter (it came out the same year as Street Fighter IV, IIRC), and built off B3's additions.

Alas... it's kind of the ultimate "Dragon Ball Z" game, if you know what I mean. Exactly the kind of game people think about when they bring to mind a licensed DBZ game from the late 2000s, one that is virtually identical to a previous game and the next game and plays through the story of Z and movies with nothing new added.


Edit: You know how people called Xenoverse 2 "Xenoverse 1.5" when it first came out, before all the DLC? Infinite World was like Budokai 3.5.

While I agree it's a shame they didn't have more of a budget to make more changes, I don't see how turning it into a 2D fighter would have helped the Budokai series. The series was always 2.5D in that you could sidestep (you could arguably call it 3D), so if it were made to be 2D it would basically cease to be a Budokai game which would have turned off returning fans. And increasing the roster substantially at that point would make it harder to have characters play uniquely. The roster was 42 playable characters already, so going much higher than that would be a bit too much. Tekken Tag 2 had 59 playable characters and actually turned players off because there were too many.

Seeing as how both Infinite World and Burst Limit get complaints for being "lacking", maybe they should have pushed Burst Limit back a year so they could've put more time and resources into Infinite World first rather than developing both in the same year. Or perhaps they should have just made Infinite World for 7th Gen systems with a better budget.

As it stands it's still a solid DBZ game, easily better than anything from the 7th Gen consoles. For me Fighterz is the first game to top it since it came out.

[Super Saiyan Swagger]

The game never even released in Australia so I couldn't play it. That and Sagas were the two DBZ PS2 games that never saw a release in Australia. I never cared to play them because I heard so many bad things about them.

[Conan the SSJ]

The game never even released in Australia so I couldn't play it. That and Sagas were the two DBZ PS2 games that never saw a release in Australia. I never cared to play them because I heard so many bad things about them.

If for no other reasons, Sagas was fun for its Co-Op option, it was the only Ps2 DBZ game that allowed that in a story mode and that made for some fun times when playing with.a friend. Plus at the time for Gamecube players disappointed Budokai 3 wasn't released on that console, it was a decent surprise Sagas made it on there, in addition to being the only DBZ release on the original X-Box. It was what it was, a rushed guilty pleasure.

[90sDBZ]

The game never even released in Australia so I couldn't play it. That and Sagas were the two DBZ PS2 games that never saw a release in Australia. I never cared to play them because I heard so many bad things about them.

If for no other reasons, Sagas was fun for its Co-Op option, it was the only Ps2 DBZ game that allowed that in a story mode and that made for some fun times when playing with.a friend. Plus at the time for Gamecube players disappointed Budokai 3 wasn't released on that console, it was a decent surprise Sagas made it on there, in addition to being the only DBZ release on the original X-Box. It was what it was, a rushed guilty pleasure.

Yeah what's up with Sagas making it to Gamecube but not Budokai 3? Strange choice.

Sagas itself actually never got a UK release funnily enough, so I've never been able to play it. I'm usually somewhat forgiving towards bad/mediocre DB games. I still play Ultimate Battle 22 and Final Bout from time to time, as they have awesome soundtracks, and I still enjoy the first Legacy of Goku. I'm sure I could have got some enjoyment out of Sagas, but I'll probably never get to play it.

[90sDBZ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJkyQ72nyok

This Youtuber recently did this video on Infinite World. Reading through the comments a lot of people said they've actually played it, with many talking about the game positively. It's great to see the game getting some love.

[Jord]

Yeah the biggest 'problem' with the game is that it went under the radar for a lot of people.
(Although the AI was also pretty brutal)

[Zeon_Grunt]

Yeah the biggest 'problem' with the game is that it went under the radar for a lot of people.
(Although the AI was also pretty brutal)

It didn't help that the game got literally no marketing here in the states whereas Budokai 3, the BT series, and Burst Limit all had ads running on channels like Cartoon Network all the time. Unless you were on forums at the time, and most gamers weren't back then, you'd have had no idea the game was even releasing. Hell, I didn't know until 2012 or so when I stumbled across the single only copy I'd ever physically seen in a GameStop.

[goku the krump dancer]

Wasnt Infinite World the last Hurrah for Atari Publishing DB Games? I feel like the reason why it felt like sort of a rushed project is because for the most part thats what it was granted, they added a totally new story experience w/ fully rendered cut scenes, which is something we didn't have since Budokai 1 and up to that point we've had 6 main console released fighting games for the PS2, 7 if you include Super DBZ.

The gameplay was pretty similar to Burst Limit in that it was just Shin Budokai 2 with a tweak here and there. I understand folks got tired of seeing Dragon Rush in Budokai 3 but it was fun for me but I wasn't too bummed that it was removed, I was put off that they took out beam struggles though.

Side Note : I think it'd be cool if FighterZ had beam struggles, can you imagine an intense match between yourself & an opponent, it's to the wire and BAM a beam struggle happens, it'll be awesome if done the right way. I feel like it wouldn't break up the game play too much

They added some character's and costumes but most of that was copied and pasted from the old Carddass games. Which wasn't a bad thing BUT it's disappointing that they didn't go all the way with it (Carddass had some AMAZING ultimate moves and tag team moves, similar to Heroes). You can tell what was just dragged and dropped because character's like Super 17 and Baby Vegeta didn't have counters to their finishers, so the opponent couldn't defend if they were hit by it. I don't think Finisher counters were in the Cardass/Heroes games.

So yeah it was a rush job for an older console that didn't get a whole lot of marketing. It didn't help that at that point fans were spoiled by Spike's 160 character rosters, so the much more condensed (sensible) rosters of other titles didn't appeal anymore and on top of that Raging Blast was announced like 5 months later. I feel like that's why Dimps adopted that character method with Xenoverse.

Damn.. I literally just realized I said almost everything Yuli Ban did .. guess that just means its true lol.