Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2

"Not much more then a polished remake of DBZ: Budokai 1.. However, this isn't a bad thing."

Ok, I'm going to start by explaining my ''tagline''. This game is very similar to the first Budokai game. Same controls, many of the same moves, characters, things they say during battle, ect. In fact, I'd say that only about 30% of the game is anything new (besides ''Dragon Mode''). If you've never played Budokai, then definatly pick this thing up. If you've played or own Budokai, then please make sure to pay extra attention to this review.

Graphics
~ 8.5/10

VERY nicely done here. As opposed to improving on the first game's graphics, they went in a completly different direction and cel shaded it. Overall, I think it's great, because it looks more like the anime by far, and this is an improvement in itself. The environments are kind of dull, but I don't pay much attention to that. The characters all move smoothly and each have their own poses and whatnot. The attacks are all near perfect. The only gripe I have about the way they look is sometimes when you shoot from a far enough distance, the ''energy beam'' seems much too small.

Sound
~ 8/10

More or less the first game's music, just tweaked ever so slightly. Theres a decent amount of new music, but overall much of it is from the first game. Again, this isn't BAD, just seems like this is more of a Budokai 1 and 1/2. The character voices are all done by the actors in the anime..Most of them. Very nice job there. The sounds made are also done nicely. Yet another thing I should comment on is the little grunts fighters make during battle, much to my surprise, don't really interfere or get annoying.

Gameplay
~ 9/10

Before you read this, make sure you know where I'm coming from: I can't stand games like Tekken, where you have a guy who has a hundred attacks, and they're all just bland. For example, you press triangle, triangle, square, square, L1, L2, forward, back, down, down, square, just to do a punch followed by a uppercut or somthing.

Thankfully, Budokai (2)'s battles are nothing like this. Each character has his own unique set of punches and kicks, done by pressing square and triangle, and then those buttons along with the up, down, forward, or back button. Much easier to grasp, and much less time consuming. Each character is more or less unique in their own way, wich is good. You can also dash at your enemy and perform cool one-hit quick and powerful moves, wich is a blast.

The Capsule System (?) is back, and thank God it is. For a brief explanation, what you do is as you progress through the game, you get capsules (or money to buy capsules). These capsules contain anything from attacks, to unlockable things, to items. You then customize your characters. Each guy has eight slots to put capsules in (physical attacks, energy attacks, items). It's up to the player choose how to make their character, and the possibilitys are very close to endless. Some skills allow you to use up to three slots on them, to increase the power of the attack. For example, if you have one Kamehameha capsule, it won't do as much damage as it would if you had three equipped on your character.

The Tournament Mode is back too. You go through, fighting other characters, competing for a large sum of prize money. Pretty simple. One thing I must say to those of you who've played Budokai 1.. The ring now has a wall at the back of it, ladies and gentlemen. You can easily position your back to the wall, making it MUCH easier to not get thrown out of the ring.

On a final note, battles generaly take anywhere from a minute to five minutes. Longer battles tend to be between two human players. Fights in this game do an excellent job of capturing the feel of Dragonball Z.

Story
~ 7/10

Story Mode has been replaced with Dragon Mode.. I'm not going to go into detail, but basicly all it does it take the original DBZ story.. Completly butcher it.. And the product is what is known as Dragon Mode. Aside from the rediculous story, it's pretty cool. You (Goku) and one or two other guys (also controlled by you) go around on a game board sort of map, and fight the DBZ villians. The map is littered with Saibamen, Cell Jrs, and all sorts of powerups. It's a nice concept, but a shame that they had to do that to the story.

Replayability
~ 10/10

No problems here. You have to beat Dragon Mode quite a bit of times to get the dragonballs over and over (needed to get special capsules unique to each character). Also, the tournament mode is there, to get money and buy more capsules. There is also a Babidi's Spaceship thing (Like legend of Hercule of the first game..Better, though). This is a very fun game to play with a friend as well. You'll definatly be playing it for a while.

Buy or Rent?

It all depends. If you know NOTHING about Dragonball Z, then go buy the first Budokai game. It's twenty dollars now. If you are a big fan of Dragonball Z, then go ahead and get this game. You most likely won't be dissapointed. If you already have Budokai 1, I still reccomend you get this, but be aware that it seems like DBZ Budokai 1 and 1/2 then DBZ Budokai 2.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/03