Nothing beats pleasant surprises. As a childhood fan of the
series, I jumped at the chance to review Dragonball Z:
Budokai 2. Sure, I’ve fallen out of touch with the series
since junior high, and was off doing bigger and better things
when Cartoon Network ushered in the franchise’s second coming,
but enough of a soft-spot remains to get me giddy as a
schoolgirl at the thought of an all out Super Saiyan battle. A
cacophony of negative reviews and phobia of licensed games lead
me to set my expectations pretty low for this one, however.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered just how good a game
Budokai 2 really is. I mean seriously, I was shocked! I had
to check and see if I was really playing the same game these
other reviewers were! Sure, it’s certainly the shallowest
fighting game you can find, and probably the homeliest too, but
as a DBZ game it’s second to none. It’s fun, it’s
long-lived, it’s both a great single and multiplayer game, and
it uses the license to the fullest. A fan of the series couldn’t
ask for more!
Gameplay consists of your most basic fighting engine. You can move
freely in and out of the 2D plane of fighting, as well as fly when
knocked into the air by an attack, but there is no jump button.
There is, however, a punch, a kick, a guard, and a Ki, or
projectile, button. That gives you one more attack button than
Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, but don’t expect anything anywhere
near that level of sophistication – there’s only so many
combinations of punch, kick, and Ki and the game recycles the same
button inputs for everyone, so learn one character and you’ve
basically learned them all. How is this kept in the least bit
interesting? Well, there are several kinds of special attacks that
trigger unique gameplay scenarios. These help break up the otherwise
monotonous combat and add an extra layer of depth to the gameplay.
For example, when two stunning attacks collide a lighting-fast
exchange of blows between characters ensues. The player who manages
to hit the most amount of buttons before the event ends wins the
tug-of-war and delivers the most amount of damage.
Another
kind of special attack will require a player to input a randomly
displayed button sequence in order to pull off. Still another has
players rapidly rotating the analog sticks to fill up an attack bar
within a limited amount of time. Mix these in with timing blocks to
deflect or counter projectile attacks, rationing energy to power
your super moves, and charging Ki among other wrinkles and you have
gameplay that isn’t quite deep enough to rub shoulders with the
first string games like
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance or Tekken 4, but it’s
certainly a few steps above button-mashing brawlers like
Super Smash Bros. Melee.
The
game is also kept interesting by its cast of characters. We are
talking about Dragonball Z here! If you don’t crack a little
smile at the sight of Vegeta or Trunks or Cell the coolness of the
32 selectable fighters will be lost on you, but if you do you will
go through any links to unlock them all. And it’s worthwhile too,
because these don’t feel like palette-swaps either. Each character
has the unique “feel” of their small-screen counterpart, partially
due to the appearance of all their signature moves and abilities,
and partially due to the high-quality animations and voice-work.
Yup,
all the voices you’ve come to recognize from the series are here,
which definitely adds a lot to the credibility of this game. It
means a lot to have Goku sound like Goku, and Frieza sound like
Frieza, and Piccolo sound like Piccolo, and so on and so on. It also
means a lot to have all the characters so accurately modeled.
Everyone looks, moves, behaves like how they should, and with the
new and improved cel-shaded visuals, it makes things feel as close
to the show as possible. Of course it also makes everything have a
low-detailed and jagged edged look, especially in S-Video, but
that’s nothing us PS2 owners haven’t dealt with before.
With a
game like this, though, visuals don’t matter too much. Hell, look
how popular (and ugly) Dragonball Final Bout and the first
Budokai were! And when a fighting game has a single player game
as cool as Budokai 2, it’s not too difficult to turn a blind
eye to slight imperfections. Oh yeah, you didn’t know a fighting
game could have a cool single player mode? Well, it’s true. It’s no
Virtua Fighter 4 or
Soul Calibur 2, but you know what, it’s pretty damn solid in
it’s own right. A combination of board game and RPG, the Dragon
World Mode places you in the role of Goku and takes you through an
adventure loosely based on the events of the television series up
through the Majin Buu saga. You’ll move your character pieces around
an isometric map, triggering fights and collecting various
unlockables. These include new characters, outfits, and maps, but
more importantly, combos, moves, and abilities that can be equipped
to specific characters and used to make more powerful, customized
versions of them. These customized versions can then be used in the
Dueling or Tournament modes, and the unlockables, which are
represented by trading card like “Capsules”, can be exchanged
between save games from the Options menu. As you can imagine,
finding, buying (with money earned from the Dragon World and
Tournament modes), and trading Capsules is a major point of
longevity for this game, especially considering the sheer number of
Capsules there are to find. It takes some serious time and effort to
get them all, particularly the rare and powerful ones, and choosing
just what to install in your character’s limited number of slots
makes for a healthy dose of strategy AND individuality.
Once
you’ve completed the Dragon World you can then enjoy Babidi's
Spaceship, where a number of new single player challenges await. And
of course, there’s the multiplayer aspect, which is as solid as any
form of direct head-to-head gaming competition. The good thing about
Budokai 2 is that the low learning curve makes this the kind
of fighter just about anyone can pick up and play, young or old,
without committing hours and hours to practice and memorization; and
the customization feature opens up a whole “my character verse your
character” Monster Rancher-like aspect.
If
you’re a fan of DBZ, you’re going to appreciate this fighter
and all it has to offer, regardless of what all those boneheaded
reviews have said. This is a good game dammit! The fighting engine
isn’t the deepest, but it has its moments; the Dragon World mode is
addictive and entertaining and unlocking Capsules to create
customized versions of your favorite DBZ characters is a
lengthy and rewarding endeavor; the two-player battles are a blast,
especially when the special attack sequences are thrown in to spice
things up; and the look, feel, and sound of the game is total
Dragonball Z through and through and sure to please anyone
looking for the DBZ experience on their game console – sure,
the visuals aren’t as spiffy as one would like, and yeah, it’s not
going to unseat any of the major fighting franchises any time soon,
but if you like your balls dragon, you can’t got wrong with
Budokai 2.
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