On paper Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 sounds like a fan's dream come true. It sports more than 100 characters from the series (including quite a few that have yet to make an appearance in a video game), it has the voice actors from the Funimation-dubbed TV show, there are a bunch of crazy stories for you to fight through and it features a bunch of different game modes. But quickly you'll realize that all of these potentially good things are marred by problem after problem, to the point where it's hard to recommend the game to anybody but the most dedicated Dragon Ball Z fan.
Unfortunately I'm not one of those dedicated Dragon Ball Z fans. I've seen the TV show a few times, I've played a few of the games, and I have a passing knowledge of what makes the franchise tick. While it's true that I'm definitely not the target audience for this game, I am of the belief that if the game is fun it shouldn't matter if you're a fan of the source material or not. When I reviewed Super Dragon Ball Z earlier this year I had a great time playing it; I felt that it was able to transcend its license and become an enjoyable fighting game that just about anybody could have a good time with. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is not quite as lucky, it's the type of game that should be a lot of fun but ends up feeling more like a chore than anything.
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is split up into a bunch of different stories, most of which involve you flying from one point of the map to another and then fighting some crazy character that has some sort of grudge against you. Like the show it's based on, the story telling in Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is pretty shallow and ultimately forgettable. If you're the type of person that follows the Dragon Ball Z story then you'll be happy to learn that this game actually covers a lot of ground and does a relatively good job of filling in the TV show's mythology.
Over the course of the many different stories you will run into all types of characters, including some you've never seen in a game before. In total there are over 120 playable characters. Well, that's not entirely true; the game gives you 70 different characters and a few different variations on certain fighters. Regardless of how you count the roster there's no denying that this game is loaded with playable characters, which is generally a pretty good thing for a fighting game.
The stories play out much like they do in television show; you'll get a few characters together and have to meet up with some strong opponent, together you will talk it out and everybody will come to an understanding and walk away satisfied. No, I'm kidding ... you don't talk it out, you fight! And once you've completed your fight you will move on to the next battle, which will give you another cinema and fill in more of the story. Do enough of these battles and you will have finished the story and you can move on to the next adventure.
While there are a few variations to the rules, most of the battles are just about beating you opponent. From time to time you will run into a tag team match or a battle where all you need to do is survive for a certain amount of time, but the normal mission has you going one on one with some enemy with a higher experience level. While it's nice to see the developers adding some variety to the missions, I only wish there was more of it.
If there's one thing that Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 has going for it it's the fact that it doesn't play like any other fighting game you have ever seen. While most fighting games have the camera fixed on the side of the characters to allow you to see both combatants at once, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2puts the camera behind your character. This means that you will not always be able to see your opponent, something that can take a little getting used to. The idea of changing up the way you play a fighting game is not a terrible idea, but there needs to be a lot more work done to the execution in order for it to be as much fun as it is original.
True to the TV show, Budokai Tenkaichi 2 allows you to not only fight on the ground but also fly up into the air and take the battle to the sky. Thankfully the environments are large enough to facilitate these battles. The levels themselves are probably the highlight of the game, they feature plenty of hills and rocks to hide behind, water to jump into and all kinds of destructible objects. There's just something satisfying about kicking your opponent through a building and watching the debris crumble around him. Best of all Budokai Tenkaichi 2 has a lot of great levels to fight in, so even though you may grow tired of the constant battles you'll still be entertained by the great looking arenas.
Unfortunately the fights themselves aren't nearly as interesting as the environments they take place in. You controls are reduced to one button for melee, one for a ki blast (a long-range projectile attack), one to block and one to dash. Along with those basic moves you will also be able to ascend and descend with the use of the R1 and R2 buttons, as well as lock on to your enemy and charge up your Ki with the L1 and L2 buttons. There are a few variations on this control set up, for example some characters are able to transform in the middle of battle which is performed by clicking down on the right analog stick. For the most part the moves are all very simple and it shouldn't take more than a fight or two to get used to.
The problem I have with the fighting system is that it's not very deep. Most battles seem to devolve into nothing more than button mashing, something that is simply unacceptable in a new fighting game. Even with the addition of projectile attacks, Budokai Tenkaichi 2 just doesn't offer a lot for your character to do. Another problem is that the same special moves seem to work for all characters, which means that you won't be doing a lot of memorizing as you play the game. The battles themselves may look a lot like they do in the TV series, but they aren't as much fun as I would like them to be.
Perhaps even more distressing is that most of the computer opponents can be defeated by simply knocking them down and then bombarding them with non-stop ki blasts. Whenever a fight gets tough it's just a little too easy to resort to these cheap tactics, and unfortunately it seems to work nearly every time. It's also worth mentioning that the computer opponents are extremely predictable, which ended up boring me as I went through the numerous stories.
The real charm of any fighting game is the multiplayer mode, and Budokai Tenkaichi 2 delivers for the most part. With its huge roster and large environments this game certainly has the makings for a great two-player battle, but again the camera rears its ugly head and makes everything a lot more difficult than it needs to be. Since the game camera is positioned behind your character the screen has to be split into two when you're playing a two-player match. Losing 50% of the screen is kind of hard to deal with, especially when you're trying to keep track of where your opponent is at all times. Those that can get past this technical hindrance will probably have fun kicking your friends hundreds of feet into the air and beating the snot out of the large cast of characters, but since the game's controls are not very deep you'll probably end up getting bored and reaching for another one of the many fighting games on the PlayStation 2.
The good news is that the game looks pretty solid most of the time. Even with so many different characters Spike has been able to do a good job of recreating them for this fighting game. Each of the characters is presented with a cel-shaded finish, which tends to make them look much like they did in the cartoon. The character animations probably won't blow you away, but they are no worse than what you would see in the popular TV show. In all the game looks pretty good, if you're a Dragon Ball Z fan you probably won't have any problems with the overall presentation.
Budokai Tenkaichi 2 not only features graphics that look just like the cartoon, but it also snags a lot of the same voice actors from the English-dubbed TV show. I've never been a fan of the voice acting in the Dragon Ball Z series, but the work done in Budokai Tenkaichi 2 seems especially bad. Part of the problem is that the actors don't sound very excited to be doing yet another video game based on this cast of characters. With the corny dialog and silly characters I can't blame them, but I found some of the voice acting to be a bit distracting.
The box promises that Budokai Tenkaichi 2 offers sixty hours of game play that fills in the Dragon Ball Z mythology, unfortunately most gamers will grow bored of the game long before they see the sixty hour mark. Throughout the course of this fighting game there are glimpses of potential, but somehow it is all wasted with shallow controls and boring game play. Dragon Ball Z fanatics will no doubt get a kick out of seeing so many of their favorite characters in one game, it's just a shame that Spike wasn't able to create a more compelling reason to bring them together.
