Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2

"Not as fun as the original Budokai game, but still okay."

I was very excited when I knew that Budokai 2 was going to be released in 2003. And from what I had seen during the year looked promising. The screen shots and video clips showed great graphics and the sound effects were nice to hear. They also seemed to pay close attention to the DBZ storyline with the characters and their look/attacks.

But they didn't seem to update the fun of the game. Sure I'm not a huge fighting fan but this game became boring after three days of playing. Where the story mode in Budokai 1 was fun and interesting to play a few times, the Dragon Mode became boring after completing it three times. And in order to unlock all the special capsules you would need to complete Dragon Mode over 40 times!! And the average time to finish Dragon Mode is about three hours a completion.

Don't get me wrong, Dragon Mode was a blast the first time playing though it. Having to use certain characters in battles to unlock other characters was a nice touch. And the board game feel was okay, it was different than the tournament mode so that made it fun for a while.

But after doing Dragon Mode three times I had to use the capsule cheat to unlock the remaining capsules that I couldn't buy or were only available by using the Dragon Balls. And Kid Buu is by far the cheapest boss in any fighting game that I've ever seen! On any difficulty level he's a major pain!

And Bulma is just as annoying as Mr. Popo was in Budokai 1. I had to mute my TV when buying capsules because Bulma would say the same thing over, and over, and over. At least in Budokai 2 you can have different pics of her to look at when entering the shop. That's a nice touch.

All and all, the only reason I purchased this game was because I'm a diehard DBZ fan. This game is a rental at best for anyone who doesn't enjoy the DBZ storyline or it's characters. I really need to stop handing out fifty bucks to Atari until they make a DBZ game that fighting fans and DBZ fans can enjoy at the same time.

Presentation
The game is fun to play for a few days, or the time of one rental from your favorite video game store. Dragon Mode is fun a few times that you finish the whole story, but after that it seems like a job. Babidi's spaceship is fun, since you can unlock characters and capsules there. They also have fun two player games in the ship as well. World Tournament is fun like in Budokai 1, except the fighters can be really cheap sometimes. 8/10

Graphics
Compared to Budokai 1, these graphics are beautiful to look at. The lighting on the energy attacks look like they came from the anime. The characters themselves look just like the anime figures, with the drawing style look that they have. The stages are great to fight on and when you send another fighter into a mountain or a building it's fun to watch. 10/10

Sound
The music is nice to listen to on most of the levels. But I'm not a fan of most music for a fighting game. You need to use music to set a mood while playing, and I can't seem to find a game with the perfect music to fight against someone with. 7/10

Gameplay
This game is very easy to play. Most attacks are simple to learn and the characters almost have the same attack movements so you won't have to learn a bunch of button commands. The only character that can be hard to fight against is Super Buu or Kid Buu. But the rest of the characters seem to fight cleanly. Fusions are great to see and to play with. Especially Super Buu and his six absorptions. Vegito and Gotenks are simply fun to use and are very powerful. Gokule and Tiencha are great to laugh at. The only real downside is Dragon Mode. It just isn't fun after you finish it a few times. 7/10

Lasting Appeal
If you love fighting and DBZ then this game will be used in your household a lot. But while I'm a huge DBZ fan, the game wasn't very fun after a few days. I even tried some two player action with my brother and it still seemed like a chore instead of fun. But I wasn't a huge fighting fan, except for Street Fighter on the SNES. I played that game forever, lol. Between the Dragon Mode, World Tournament, and the Space Ship area, the game has some lasting appeal. But to me, it's a rental at best. 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/03/04