Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2

"This beats a social life any day."

Ahhh Dragon Ball, I've loved you ever since I discovered you when I was 13 with the original series. Then I became an addict at around 17 when you put a Z at the end of your name. Then, even though it wasn't by the mastermind Mr. Toriyama, I was fully satisfied with the short series of GT. Now, it's my turn to give something in return, a 10.

I have been playing video games since the original DK arcade, and next to FF7, this takes #1 in my book. It's got:
Great controls.
Great graphics.
Great gameplay.
Great variety of characters.
Great replay value.
God awesome story.
Great multi-player.
And a great custom character/ trading system.

Heres the breakdown:

Controls: 10/10. Not the usual button smashing.

BT2 really used a great WiiMote button setup. Punch is A, Ki blast is B, power up is Z. Pretty Simple. Then there are the movements. To dash, all you really have to do is contrast both the nunchucku and the wiimote. Kamehameha is the regular hand movement. There are also ALOT of different combos for many different familiar moves.

Graphics: 9/10. Awesome, but 1 point off because they are a little cartooney.

Now I know that Dragon Ball Z games are mostly aimed at 8-14 year-olds who really just wanna punch someone, but seriously, ever since budokai 2, these graphics have been to intentionally cartooney. Other than that, they are great for an early Wii game!

Gameplay: 10/10. Fun.
It's a bunch of fun. I explained most of what there is in the controls section, but I forgot to add in that you can go Super saiyan and you can fuse. It's really fun. Trust me.

Characters/ Character variety: 10/10. You get most of the saga characters and almost all of the movie characters.

Character variety in this game is, next the the storyline, the greatest thing about it. If you watch Dragon Ball Z and GT, then you will be fully satisfied. They even throw in a couple of surprises with Grampa Gohan and Kid Goku. Most of the movie characters are in here to, even Hiruldegarn. The one and ONLY desire I have for this part of the game is Dr. Wheelo, who apparently is not in here (He is in my favorite DBZ movie).

Replay value: 9/10. After the storyline, there are ALOT of other things you can do that makes replay value for this game big!

After you've experienced the best storyline in a game ever, it's time to move on. Theres a world tournament thing, which is a single elimination tournament that you can play with your friends and the CPU. There are 3 different kinds of tournaments. World tournament, Cell games, and some Hercule tournament. There is also a ranked tower thing which I forgot the name of. There are I think 15 themed stages, each have an average of 6 battles. Depending on the things you did during the battle, exp biggest combo, damage taken, life % left after battle, time it took, you get an overall grade of F (you only get an F if you fail), E, D, C, B, A, and Z. Examples of the themes are like Ginyu saga, Movies, Z fighters, many of them.

Storyline: 10/10. You've probably heard this alot, but if there were 11/10's, this would get a 12.

The storyline is great. Almost flawless. Theres ALOT of different sagas, including core sagas, extra sagas, and movie sagas. Weather you're playing because your a die-hard DBZ fan, catching up with the series, or just in for the gaming experience, then you're playing the right game. Some of the sagas are cut short, but that's only because they needed room for improvments for Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

Multi-Player: 10/10. It's just simple multi-player fun.

For multi-player, there really is nothing special, but thats the beauty of it. If you make something special, then it will get old and you'll get bored of it. But BT2 didn't. Theres a dueling mode, where is just a simple pick your character and fight, multi-player tournament, just like in Super Smash Bros, and capsule trading (Ill explain later.).
It's fun. Trust me.

Custom characters and trading: 10/10. This game has a really cool RPG element where you can make your character better by giving him capsules that increase attack, defense, speed, health, blast attacks, ki (energy), and ultimmate moves.

In this game there are these things called capsules that contain what I think steroids. There are different kinds that increase attack, health, speed, etc etc. There are also ones that come with effects, like shenrons blessing, which gives ultimate blast +7 and health +3.
That's just a guess I don't know any of the names of the special ones but you get the idea. You can also trade capsules with you friends.

Extra notes:
There are also passwords that you can use to get perfectly leveled characters. (The highest level is 160). Theres a soundtrack, there are tutorials and practice, all the good things.

Rent or Buy?: Buy. Duh.

If your a casual gamer, then this game is going to take more than a week to beat. If you're a hardcore gamer, you might beat this in 3 or 4 days, but after you return it, you will get urges to play is again. So buy this. Please.

Have fun and go super saiyan!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/07

Game Release: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (US, 11/15/06)