Genre: Fighting
Developer: Dimps Corp.
Publisher: Atari
Release Date: December 15, 2004

Buy 'DRAGON BALL Z: Budokai 2': GameCube

Hot on the heels of the release of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 for the Playstation 2, the Gamecube proudly presents DBZ Budokai 2.

...okay. Well, all righty, then.

If you're already familiar with the PS2 version, you can skip a good deal of this review. The next few paragraphs are for people who have been living under a rock as far as this series is concerned. (Such as myself, until about a week ago; I had to do some quickie catching up really fast.)

The Budokai games have been about fan appreciation more than anything else--it's a true example of a licensed game, created to sell copies on its name alone. The odd thing about this series is that it's not as bad as most licensed games--especially ones wearing the Dragon Ball name--would have one to believe.

It's still all incredibly blatant fanservice, though.

At its heart, Budokai 2 is a fighting game; a fighting game specifically tailored to match the fast-paced action of the series--when action is taking place, at any rate. The DBZ characters are known for taking entire episodes to just talk trash and power up their battle auras; but once the thousand-mile-an-hour fists and oversized beam attacks start flying, it makes all of that frustrating, nauseating waiting all worthwhile. Of course, then the cycle repeats anew, and you want to start tearing your hair out, but that's another issue entirely.

Budokai gets rid of all (well most) of the episode filler stuff, and lets fans get straight to the action. For that alone, it deserves commendation.

What deserves slightly less commendation is how the end result turned out.

Make no mistake: the game allows one to faithfully recreate classic fights between DBZ characters, with all of their beams, special powers, transformations and fusions intact. This is where the fandom comes into play; there's seriously nothing quite like landing a series of lightspeed punches with Piccolo, and then downing them with his trademark Special Beam Cannon, which will blow his opponent clear across the landscape. Being able to activate Krillin's Destructo Disc? Bliss. And those are only some of the elementary techniques. The in-game tutorial mode allows newcomers to pick up on fighting easily and quickly.

However, speaking as a technical fighting gamer--one who likes to pick apart the engines, find out their little quirks, analyze their physics, and viable tactics which can be employed therein; it just doesn't quite stand up to the complex, competitive fighters of today. Even with safeguards such as dodges, guard breaks and attack nullifiers in place, the fact remains that the person who is faster and better at pressing the D-Pad towards their opponent and rushing them down--and, to a smaller extent, who is better at being able to deliver combos to the small of their opponent's back--is the winner. It's like Killer Instinct, only you can dodge attacks instead of being forced to dodge or cancel them all. A shame the dodging mechanism is the clunkiest thing I've ever come across, requiring the player to press up or down on the control pad, and pressing the guard button at the exact same time. The game promotes and condones rushes of competitive adrenaline, but due to the nature of the engine, it will forever be unfocused and hard to control in the long run. I don't mind playing this alone with the difficulty cranked up (not too high, though--I swear the computer cheats at the highest setting) but with other people? The concept chills me to the bone; especially considering I've already been through it.

(It should be noted, though, that a great many people will find the fighting engine to be a blast, with little to zero problems or flaws. That's cool by me. To an extent, I enjoy it as well; therefore, far be it from me to stop people from having fun, especially due to nitpicks. I'm probably just spoiled on Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution.)

My other gripe is with the game's Story Mode, named Dragon World. It's sort of... lacking. You go through the various DBZ storylines, referred to as "sagas", and fight your way through them... by way of an odd looking board game. The whole board game aspect completely removes you from any feeling that you might be involved in the DBZ universe by making you move little tiny pieces representing your character over spaces where items or enemied might be encountered. Cinematics are almost nonexistent--you get a little bit of voice acting for your troubles when your character encounters another which is pivotal to the story, but that's about it. Considering that you have to go through all of this mode to get a great deal of the unlockable moves, characters and costumes, it becomes a chore. Said chore can only be made more interesting by tweaking the dicfficulty settings. In the face of the first game, which, by my research, was very much like playing the anime, Dragon World, sadly, gets a big thumbs-down from me.

Fortunately, the rest of the game is, as the vernacular goes, "totally sweet." The cast is diverse--heck, the gang's all here. Should you manage to unlock all you can in Dragon World, you'll end up with a slew of playable characters--ranging from the classic Goku, Krillin and Piccolo, to the Androids, to Frieza, to Kid Trunks and Goten, and even fused characters (such as Gotenks, the amalgamation of the last two characters I just mentioned) will be around for you to throw down with. What's more, many characters have the ability to power up to higher versions of themselves. Going Super Saiyan only requires three levels of chi power/super meter. I think that's sort of unfair, but it's still pretty fun to watch. On top of all this, each character has the ability to be outfitted with customization capsules--items that allow for the addition of special moves to a character, or special attributes which modify attack, defense, or chi power. These customizations can then be taken into Dragon World, or the one-on-one fighting modes that the game provides. There are alternate character costumes as well, and miscellaneous unlockables and easter eggs that can either be won through battles or bought in the game's shop.

Now that I'm done with the parts that the PS2 revision has in common with the Gamecube one, we'll head on to the differences. The bad news is, this'll be a short list.

If you're looking for aesthetic changes in any way, shape or form, sorry to disappoint. The Gamecube revision sports the same cel-shaded 3D graphics as its brother, and the same sounds and sound effects. Granted, they're all very good graphics, and the audio pulls you into the game's universe like nothing else. Newcomers will be dazzled. It's all very shiny on the eyes, and your ears will be given a good workout. But for PS2 migrators, it’s all been there, done that.

What does the GC rev have to offer then? A small smattering of "exclusive" features, no doubt as an apology for being so late to the table. There are a few more ability capsules lying around, which give characters techniques not seen on the PS2 version. The back of the box also boasts "battle damaged armor", which is nice to look at a few times (and this is only if you’re looking for it) but quickly loses its novelty. There are stages exclusive to the Gamecube version, and a higher choice of difficulty levels. Also, of course, the game boasts slightly faster load times, which made fights go a little more smoothly when a change of landscape is encountered, or a second enemy jumps in right after defeating your first. Apparently, trying to sneak in an extra character or three was a little too much to ask for. Shame, that.

DBZ: Budokai 2 is a game that sells almost entirely on its name brand and atmosphere; the main thing that it has going for it is that it recreates its franchise so faithfully that you feel as if you're completely in control of its world. People not really into DBZ may want to rent this one first, or stay away completely--however, if you're a fan, or even one of those people who casually enjoyed catching its syndicated dubbed run on television but kept losing track of it due to rapidly switching timeslots, this title will likely give you more hours of fun than you're expecting.

Score: 7.5/10