Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2

Written by James Dauer  on July 27, 2006

First Impressions: Spike digs around and finds their Dragon Balls again. Ha-ha I got a million of 'em.

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100. That's the number of characters development team Spike claims will be playable in this Fall's upcoming sequel to last year's Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi.
Now, granted, the Dragon Ball universe has many many characters, but 100? That seems like a crazy intention. Insane or not, Spike claims it can and will be done.

For those that have been asleep under a rock for the last 5 years, Dragon Ball Z Budokai is the series that has arguably taken the anime genre of games from being a laughing stock to a force to be reckoned with. The Budokai games have always prized themselves on featuring relatively simple yet surprisingly deep fighting mechanics and a large numbers of fighters from Dragon Ball Z. In the later incarnations they have even taken characters from the original series titled simply УDragon BallФ and the newer УDragon Ball GTФ series. Come the fourth incarnation, Budokai's development changed hands from Dimps to Spike. When it changed hands, it also changed play styles, dropping the simple controls and 2D play scheme in favor of a behind the back camera and quite possibly the most confounding controls to appear in a fighting game yet (a necessary evil to allow so many moves to be performed by the player).

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 will still feature the behind the back camera of the original, though now players have a little more freedom in positioning the camera behind characters. New combos have been added to the gameplay as well as the ability to perform the instant transmission technique and the much-needed ability to perform transformations during battle- something that was curiously missing from the first Tenkaichi game. To do this, players simply click on the R3 button (the right analog stick) and perform each transformation in order. This also leads to new skill sets for every character, so expect to really mix things up during fighting. Arenas also appear to have been expanded over the original, which, while it had large stages, players would more often than not find themselves running into the invisible boundaries around the outskirts. And of course, there's that 100-character roster to go УoohФ and УaahФ over.

The game's story will progress through very familiar territory if you have played any of the Budokai games in the past. Starting with the Saiyan Saga which was technically the first УseasonФ of Dragon Ball Z, Tenkaichi 2 will span all the way through to the final chronological story arc in Dragon Ball GT. And yes, all of the movies in-between have been included, so expect some of the characters from the PSP's Dragon Ball Z Shin Budokai, based on the movie УDragon Ball Z: Fusion RebornФ to show up for the party. It's a little questionable why Spike doesn't just go for the gold and throw in the short arcs from the original Dragon Ball as well- it'd be great to have some King Piccolo, Mercenary Tao, or General Blue action in there. Heck even a small Emperor Pilaf cameo would work. Always have to leave themselves open for a sequel, I suppose. Of course with 100 characters, there's a chance they could be in there.

Of course the game will feature the usual tournament and vs. modes that have prevailed in every Dragon Ball game. It will also keep the cool cel-shaded look and heavy metal guitar music so common to the series.