There has been no real shortage of Dragon Ball Z games as of late. Since last generation, both console and portable markets have been inundated with several games bearing the name Dragon Ball Z. What is truly noteworthy is that these games, despite the fact of being based on a huge anime franchise, have maintained a certain level of quality. Spike, the developer of the latest entry; Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 has even managed to outdo itself yet again. But will it still be enough to satisfy gamers? Read on to find out what we think.

• Over a hundred different playable heroes and villains from the Dragon Ball saga.
  
• 15 Different destructible environments taken directly from the anime.
  
• 60 hour story mode that engulfs the entire Dragon Ball storyline.
  
• Players can use the Wii-mote with nunchuk, a GameCube controller, or a Wii Classic controller to control all the action.

The Basics
The Dragon Ball anime is legendary in Japan and abroad. Ask anyone on the street, and if they know what anime is, they know of the Dragon Ball sagas. Like most anime, there have been quite a few games adapted to this franchise. There were some good ones and some extremely poor efforts (Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout). For the most part, the current generation offerings have received positive praise from fans and critics alike.

This brings us to the latest offering, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2. With this iteration, we see numerous additions but at its core, it is still a fast and furious fighting game. For anyone unfamiliar with the anime, players compete in a best of fighting fest with fighters with super human like powers. Characters can fly, shoot fireballs, knock enemies through mountains, and even fight underwater. The battles are massive with mid air fireball volleys, and even in some cases special attacks that zoom all the way outside of the Earth itself. Fan or not, the style of this fighting game should appeal to anyone.

For fans of the Dragon Ball series, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 will surely not disappoint. The character roster includes characters from the original Dragon Ball series, Dragon Ball Z, and even Dragon Ball GT. Some of these characters have never appeared in a Dragon Ball game before, at least on this side of the ocean. The complete list of playable characters comes in at around 130. One noticeable downside is some of these characters are just different versions of the same character, such as Kid Gohan, Teen Gohan, etc. Still, this one facet puts it way above almost any fighting game out today.

Designing the Dragon
For a fighting game to be a success, you must have an equal amount of action, coupled with a subtle emphasis on strategy. Too much emphasis on either of these two aspects and your design either turns into a button masher, or just another overly complicated mess of a game. Thankfully, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 manages to keep both aspects in unison for the most part.

If Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 could be faulted in one area of its basic design, it would have to be in its simplicity. Despite the fact that you can duel with Super Saiyans, all the fighting is relegated to two basic attack buttons, one distant and one close up. Now don’t be fooled into thinking that this design lacks depth. Quite the contrary, you can parry, counter, and unleash a veritable armada of attacks on your enemies. Perhaps the designer wanted to create a more even playing field for players who are unfamiliar with the genre, as well as long time fighting game fans.





Epic Story Mode
By far one of the most impressive aspects in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is its Dragon Adventure mode. This particular mode is your typical story mode, but what is truly amazing is the sheer scope of this feature. The story mode actually combines the story for Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT into one massive single player adventure. Any fan would know that we are literally talking about hundreds of battles that occurred during these major anime series. Even better is the fact that players will be treated to cut scenes with full voice work retelling the epic saga before and after each battle. But don’t get too excited about this feature. Even though you will fight in specific battles, you can’t change the course of the anime it’s based on. You may win the battle, but the very end result will always occur. This is not that bad really, considering that changing the course of history in the Dragon Ball universe could unleash an unfathomable amount of different scenarios. So it would be unfair to judge the developer too harshly in this area.