Two kids, a PS2, and a planet blowing up because nobody would put the controller down.

The gut-feeling pick places it ahead of 70% of games, but careful, that rests on a single duel: take it as a signal, nothing more. The real weight is elsewhere, and it is spectacular. Controller feel puts Budokai Tenkaichi 3 first in the ranking, ahead of every other game. Fun ahead of 92% of titles, sound environment ahead of 91%, rediscovery ahead of 90%, connection ahead of 85%. Art direction, more modest, still lands ahead of 63% of games. A rare profile: nearly everything is high, and what is high is high everywhere at once, feel, memory, the urge to start over.

Licensed fighters often drag around a reputation as spin-off product. Not this one. With its 160-plus fighters and its open arena clashes, it pulled off what few anime games ever have: making you feel inside it, not watching from the side. And the votes say that has not aged in people's heads.

So, who is it for? For you if you want the generous, loud kind of brawl, the one two people fire up on a couch fifteen years later. Much less so if you want the technical depth of a competitive versus fighter or an art direction that floors you.