Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2

"Dare I say it, this is the best Dragonball Z game ever made!"

I have played many a Dragonball game in my day. And I shall go as bold as to say that this is the best DBZ game ever made. I know I know, I'm surprised too! A sequel to the hit fighting game, this newest addition to the series fills the roster completely and makes the action smooth as butter.

STORY
Which sagas of the game are covered? Oh, how about all of them! From Raditz' arrival to Earth, all the way to Omega Shenron's defeat, this game features practically any and every saga you can think of! Even those DBZ movies that not everyone has heard about too! There is, dare I say, too much story in this game! In my mind though, that's a good thing. They even have "What if" scenarios that were pretty neat too.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are just perfect. Goku looks like he does in the anime. So does Piccolo and Vegeta and everyone else. During battle after your characters get roughed up a bit, they share the damage in their looks as well, gaining all kinds of scrapes and burns and ripped clothing. The powerful blasts and variety of special attacks are endless, each character spawning their own unique and awesome way of killing an enemy. The best part are some of these final attacks, which if miss their opponent and hit the planet, cause massive, and I mean MASSIVE nuclear blasts that destroy the whole area. It's amazing to behold I'll say that. And the menus at the title screen and such are very nicely animated and keep the game on a high note. The game looks great.

SOUND
And it sounds beautifully. Like all the other games every character is once again voiced by the same voice actor that does the work in the show. All of the powerful blasts and teleporting sounds from the show are also present, sure to make the most diehard of Dragonball fans happy. But my favourite thing of the audio? A new soundtrack at last! From Budokai 1 to Tenkaichi 1, the series has used the same damn music everytime...but they have new tunes now! And they're so awesome and catchy that I welcomed these pieces of music with open arms. Thank you Tenkaichi 2, thank you! The game looks and sounds amazing.

GAMEPLAY
But games are not about looks...so does this game work as a fighter? And to that I say yes. Like the first game it's a game where abnormal fighters that can shoot energy beams out of their hands and fly in the sky with no effort at all, duke it out to prove who has the shinier hair once and for all! Using an innovative 3D battling engine, you actually can fly around the level and need to lock on to your opponent to be able to fight them properly. Last time you couldn't manually move the camera...now you can. Glad some games listen to their fans. It's now easier to knock your opponent 10 miles away from you, making the game much more appealing to newcomers when they manage to knock someone through a mountain in their first match.

Oh and the destructible elements are to die for. You can knock enemies through buildings, mountains, and even destroy the entire land like I mentioned earlier. A few new tweaks have been made to the fighting engine and I liked every one of them. Now when you knock enemies into the sky or far away from you or whatever, you can instantly transport behind them and knock them down to the earth below. Nothing is more satisfying then teleporting all over the place and schooling your enemy like you were Pai Mei in Kill Bill. And now some characters can charge up their powerful energy blasts. Basically in the old game you pushed the buttons and Goku would stop the fight entirely for like two seconds so that you could see him charge up the shot and then fire. In this game the fight doesn't stop and you can charge that baby for a lot longer than two seconds. The more you charge it up the more it's gonna hurt.

Everyone that was in BT1 is still in this game. And now there are like 20 more characters, and some of the returning characters have new costumes and forms! Are you kidding me!? That's more than 100 characters to choose from! Good lord! If you've played the first game, here's some new characters to take mention. Garlic Jr., Turles, Yajirobe, Tapion, Android 13, and much more. The roster is insane! This game is just heavy in content. Tons of fighting modes to choose from as well. Which reminds me! It's no longer limited to one on one matches either! You can have 5 on 5 matches now! Team battles make Clement happy. Now I can beat the entire Ginyu force in one match. Yay! I'm a bit of a Dragonball nerd in case you didn't notice. But even if you don't know anything about the series I'm sure you can get into this game.

IN THE END...
This game is perfect. The best fighter you can get for a Dragonball fan, and honestly one of the best fighting games, period! There is nothing wrong with this game! The load times are quick, the fighting is intense, the graphics are amazing, the audio is flawless too! I never thought I'd be giving a DBZ game a perfect score of 10...but it would appear I was wrong. I don't care how good BT3 might be, in my opinion, BT2 already beats it. This game is a flawless classic and a perfect example of how to make a fighting game. It's awesome. I'll be sure to buy myself a copy immediately. Give it a rental at least. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/07