Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (PS2) (gamespy)

- gamespy -

Touted as the "greatest action cartoon in the world," Dragon Ball Z has a lot to live up to. When the Budokai series launched back in 2003, it didn't exactly live up to the hype, providing one of the most mediocre fighters on the PS2. When Tenkaichi was released last year, there were enough tweaks to the fighting system, enough visual improvement, and enough changes to make it something that fans of the series would enjoy. Now we have Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, and though it has everything that made its predecessor a fun title, it doesn't offer many improvements.

The game comes with a nice assortment of different modes to play through. In addition to the requisite training mode, there are four gameplay modes: Dragon Adventure, Ultimate Battle Z, Dragon Tournament and Dueling. Ultimate Battle Z has players fight in ranked matches, where each successful match passed moves you higher up the rankings ladder and opens up extras. The Dragon Tournament is a straight tournament mode with three different tourneys to play through, each with its own set of rules, including two versions of the World Tournament and the Cell Games.

The Dueling mode is where you can set up one-shot matches and is also the only mode that has support for multiplayer functionality. The fights in the Dueling mode include single battle, allowing for a one-on-one match; tag battle, where players can select a team of two to do battle; and free battle, where players can select teams of five to face off against each other. Though the multiplayer functionality is limited, it serves its purpose, using a split-screen format so players can duke it out with their friends.

The meat of the game is in the Dragon Adventure mode, which is the story mode and allows you to relive all the adventures from the series, ranging from the initial Saiyan onslaught on Earth, to the very end of the series, with the various movies in between accounted for. The story mode has you unlocking new storylines as you clear the various battles forced upon Goku and the Z Fighters, allowing you to repeat scenarios, or just move on to the next in line.

Each story throws you into a small world map with waypoints scattered throughout. The map immediately points out the main objective with a red dot, so players can go directly there to move the story forward. Players can also opt to go to different areas of the world to find small battles to participate in, or go to the item shop to buy new trinkets to boost their abilities. The map feature is incredibly annoying as it makes for extra load times to deal with, quickly testing your patience. This is a fighting game, not some 3D adventurer -- I want to go straight to the next battle with as little hassle as possible. Its not that there were no load times in previous versions (there were, and then some), but this new map creates an extra unnecessary step to deal with.

On the bright side, when you boot up the game, you'll immediately notice how slick it looks. The cel-shading is refined even more this time around, making for a smooth, near-flawless visual style that suits the series perfectly. The game looks every bit as good as the cartoon, with each of the characters wearing their own distinct costumes. As you progress through a fight, characters will bruise, while their clothes will tatter and tear. The entire American voice cast reprises their roles as the heroes and villains of the universe, adding another touch of authenticity.

The fighting system itself isn't quite as shallow as in previous versions, but it also isn't improved that much either. The square button is used for punches and kicks, energy attacks are assigned to triangle, circle is the block button and X is used for dashing. The combos are basic and can be pulled off with little more than button-mashing, and if you want to swat an opponent away, just hold down an attack button at the end of a combo to unleash a charged attack. Much like the last Tenkaichi, special attacks can be performed by holding down L2 and triangle, with the ability to perform different finishers by holding up or down on the D-pad. Move-sets are all the same from character to character, with different animations for different attacks, but if you can get used to fighting with one character, you can fight with all of them. Though a lot of button-mashing can be used, properly timed counters will really make or break some matches, as you can quickly teleport out of harm's way by pressing the block button.

A few tweaks have been made to the overall balance of the game. A nice touch is the inclusion of the blast-stock bar. This bar basically limits players from performing finishing attacks one right after the other, as each finisher requires a set amount from the blast-stock queue. If you want to perform a weaker special attack, you'll use up one potential move from the blast stock, while more potent finishers will require the use of three or four. The blast stock recharges on its own, so players can't just charge up while the enemy is down, forcing them to buy time one way or another until they can use a given attack again. Another nice touch is the ability to transform into more powerful versions of a character. As you unlock the different forms of the various characters, all you'll need to do is hit the R3 button and you'll go Super Saiyan with the greatest of ease. No more goofy combos that require ridiculous amounts of energy, and no more worrying about energy consumption while in the higher form. All you need to worry about is hitting R3 and that's it, which is a great change to the series. These transformations also require use of the blast stock, so you'll have to fend off your opponents for a while, but once you transform, you'll find that it was worth the wait.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is far from gaming excellence, but it does manage to deliver some solid fun, if not a lot of fan service. Covering the entirety of the DBZ series, this game is certainly something that will appeal to most fans, but for those who are just looking for a good fighter, there are better choices. It doesn't really improve too much on last year's DBZ entry, making it an easy pass if you've already played it, but if you're a fan of the series, Tenkaichi 2 may be what you're looking for.