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The Dragon Ball Z makes an apperance in time for the holidays. The Bodokai series has improved with each iteration since its debut in 2003. Always a hit with the DBZ fans, the game managed to provide a fun and authentic DBZ fighting experience. The sequel, Tenkaichi, improved on its predecessor in many ways. Tenkaichi 2 doesn’t offer as many improvements, but it is nonetheless a high quality game that is sure to please its target audience.
Budokai Tenkaichi 2 has several gameplay modes. These include Dragon Adventure, Dueling, Ultimate Battle Z, and Dragon Tournament, as well as a training mode. Dragon Adventure is the game’s key singleplayer mode. The game lets you play through the vast DBZ story. As you play through the game, you’re given objectives to complete as well as optional side quests. Dueling is the game’s exhibition mode since you play in quick matches and is also where the game’s multiplayer mode takes place. Subtypes in Dueling include singles match, tag matches, and free battles (up to teams of five players). The multiplayer component lets you use any of these subtypes and although it isn’t particularly deep, it’s pretty good nonetheless. Ultimate Battle Z is a ranking of sorts where winning a match moves you higher in the leaderboards. The Dragon Tournament is a tournament mode with several tournaments including Cell Games and World Tournament.
Spike made some changes to the game’s fighting system. You still have access to the typical punches, kicks, dashes, and blocks. The triangle button is assigned to energy attacks. You can easily pull off combos since the fame is friendly to button mashing; although if you choose to take a more strategic approach you can do that as well. The game does have a counter system that will make more nuanced players successful against their button-mashing counterparts. The different characters still have access to special attacks which can be easily pulled off, as well as unique finishers. New to this version is a bar that limits the number of finishing moves you can pull off. Although this makes the fights less flashy than previous versions of the game, it keeps fights more balanced than they used to be. The bar does recharge though. Another change is that Spike made it easier to transform into more advanced versions of characters. All you have to do now is tap the R3 button.
The game’s visuals are a good replica of the cartoon. Developers Spike have perfected the game’s look and it really does appear like another episode in the cartoon. The cel-shaded characters look great and are instantly recognizable thanks in part to the authentic costumes that they wear. You’ll notice that the clothes will wear and tear as a fight progresses, and that characters get injured. The animation system is equally good with all of the over-the-top moves coming off well.
The audio is also good. The highlight of the audio is the authentic voice acting provided by the North American cast of the cartoon. The dialogue is well delivered. The sound effects in the game are also good. The soundtrack is about what you would expect for the game and is on par with the rest of the audio.
Your enjoyment of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 will be directly proportional to how much like you like the Dragon Ball Z universe. As a fighting game, it’s very flashy and somehow shallow, but fans of the cartoon will appreciate this as well as the careful use of the license. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Nov 25, 2006
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