Eh, again to each their own taste. Despite not being a fan of Dragon Ball Z I did play Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and found I could not stomach it. I very much understand the old lust for unlocking things and miss that myself. Saelune already said it both yes Melee, Brawl and to a lesser extent Smash 64 are good games to look into if you want to spend long hours having fun and unlocking things. Disregard my overall negative opinion of Brawl and its still at least a fun game, if a bad fighting game, with a quad ton of content that is really built around spending long hours playing to do. As far as games with big rosters the original Tekken Tag Tournament has a big roster with a few unlockables. I never played Mortal Kombat Armageddon but I think it still holds the record for largest fighting game roster ever so there is that and its on Ps2 just like Tekken Tag Tournament and Budokai Tenkaichi 2.aozgolo said:Fighting Games have always been kind of a "when I'm in the mood" genre, and that mood strikes rarely, overall I generally only ever play about 2 fighting games per console generation, and never seriously, I mostly stick to playing them vs. AI, and what I personally look for in a fighting game is generally scoffed at by competitive players.
Case in point, my favorite of all time was Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 for PS2. I loved the huge roster of characters, destrucible environments, rather simple combo executions, and the special moves bar. It also featured one of my favorite things in fighting games, unlockable extras. I appreciate a story mode campaign as well, but really what keeps me playing is unlocking things, something I sadly see DLC killing off quite readily.
I also enjoyed the auto-battle system, I would set up a 5 v 5 tag team match and bet on the outcome, it was rather entertaining like watching fights on the show. What made this particularly enjoyable, and really worked out well in part to some RPG elements thrown in was that the roster was NOT balanced, and some characters were vastly more powerful than others, but it made for interesting tag team combos, and if you got skilled enough, nothing was more thrilling than taking down a super powerful foe with a weak character.
Now if I could just find a more modern fighting game that had tons of unlockable extras, a large and varied roster, and maybe even a campaign or RPG elements, and basically just an overall setup that accommodates solo play, I'd happily buy that game, but I am skeptical if any such game exists.
If you can appreciate and RPG theme rather than any actual mechanics then there is Battle Fantasia, but I am getting out of hand. Point is if you have fun with fighting games, any, then that is good to hear.