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7th December 2003:
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2
A sequel to one of the best selling fighting games of 2002 is upon us. Does it live up to the comic and cartoon series standards you ask? Read our full review to find out.
Posted by John Wasabi - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe

The original Dragon Ball Z: Budokai was an entertaining fighting game but was by no means anything special. It was a flawed fighting game in several areas but had enough references and enjoyable play mechanics aimed solely at fans to keep them going and wanting more. With Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 the sequel, the formula stays the same to both its praise and drawbacks.

Starting essentially where the original game left off, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 makes some amazing graphical enhancements in a style labelled "Toriyama Shading" that emulates artist Akira Toriyama's style. You get a real cel-shaded feel that is original, distinct and fans heavy into Dragon ball's art style will be truly amazed. The game style has also changed considerably as well, first off, the previous story mode has been replaced with Dragon world mode, which takes the form of a boardgame that sends players from one location to another in search of dragon balls, pick-ups, battles and capsules. You take on the role of Goku and get to choose accompanying allies such as Gohan, Vegeta, and many others as you strive forth to pick up goodies and engage in combat with opponents scattered about the landscape.

Just like other board game of a similar theme, you attack by moving into an enemies' space in a turn- based strategy manner, when you or your enemy land on each other's space at any point, this is when the proper fighting begins. The conditions of these battles are loosely based along the lines of the show's timeline, I guess the developers wanted to make this version of Dragon Ball Z as mass market as possible without going into depth and detail of the comics or TV show. Those of you who know the ins and outs of Dragon Ball will be slightly disappointed but you can't please everyone. However, it just strikes me as strange for fans when the foundation of the story is loose and at times grossly inaccurate when compared to the comics or TV series. This is quite literally equivalent to shooting yourself in the foot when it comes to pleasing your core audience, the fans of the series.

One of the new additions worth mentioning is the ability to fully customise your character. There are seven slots you can assign combos to and as a result some exciting and thoroughly devastating combination attacks can be made. For those after a quick bash, do not to worry, as there are also normal default set-ups for when you just want a buddy to jump into some multiplayer bashing. With a huge amount of moves, combos and secret moves that are literally Earth shattering, the customisation of characters will have you tweaking your ultimate fighters for hours on end.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 is better over its predecessor all-round when it comes to the fighting system. With new abilities such as the "counter" system, players on the receiving end of a combo at least has a fighting chance to ruin combos that could potentially take you out in one go. However, everything else is still pretty simplistic, there is a standard block that covers high or low attacks and any special attacks/moves are executed by means of a series of punch and kick buttons plus the energy (ki) button.

Extra game modes include versus duel, training, and world tournament. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 also offers some new characters not seen before as well as a really impressive amount of characters to unlock (35 in total if you unlock them all) ranging from Kid Buu, Super Buu, Videl, Trunks and more. In addition the fusion method that combines forms and powers of different characters is all here and works really well. It's especially funny when trying to merge Trunks and Goten but failing as it produces some hilarious results. Ultimately, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 does a nice job in the presentation department. It lets players thump each other with some spectacular effects such as kicking an opponent so hard that he flies through mountains or buildings as it collapses under him, almost makes up for the simplicity of the fighting mechanics.

English voice work and sound effects are well translated and sound great, the soundtrack is very hard rock that's energetically forgettable but nevertheless works for the action sequences.

Despite the somewhat shallow fighting mechanics, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 has some great stuff to offer, with loads of fight modes and secrets to unlock. The peculiar addictiveness derived from playing Dragon world mode to collect capsules means you won't likely finish the game soon as you need to play the mode a number of times and meet certain secret requirements to unlock everything. Recommended for serious Dragon Ball Z fans, but those of you who play deep 3D fighting games such as Soul Calibur 2, Dead or Alive, Tekken series and Virtual Fighter series will no doubt find Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 a bit of a let down.

John Wasabi

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Review Summary:

Highly recommended for serious Dragon Ball Z fans as they will no doubt already have this on their list for Christmas. For those looking for a deeper experience, you may be slightly disappointed but will still have some fun with it despite the shallow fighting mechanics.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2
for PlayStation 2

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