Review
Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2 (Wii)
If you were to ask me – right now, to my face – what my favorite new fighting game is, I would tell you – right now, to your face – that it's Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2. This game is the frenzied fun of Super Smash Bros. Melee fused together with the testosterone-fueled ferocity of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. It's mayhem, chaos, Armageddon warfare, yet it's also a well-honed, balanced fighter with a huge roster and plenty of extras – the rare beast that boasts both brawn and brains.
I don't know that I'd say the game has pedigree, but it certainly has its history. Since Atari's release of the first Dragon Ball Z: Budokai title, the series has progressed impressively, first as a lame cash-in 2D fighter, and on through three sequels that began letting the source material dictate gameplay, rather than simply smashing it into the most obvious existing genre. Now, with the latest entry in the series, the gameplay has well-rooted mechanics that are polished and explosive, and so fun that it'd make you wonder why people are still making (or buying) "3D" fighters that boil down to glorified Rock'em Sock'em Robots.
After five updates on the Budokai formula, nearly everything is done perfectly. The over-the-shoulder view (which leads to splitscreen in versus mode) opens up the gameplay to true 3D movement, allowing you to use your surroundings to hide from possible onslaughts, gain some distance on your opponent to charge up your power, or dash away from oncoming energy blasts. The fighting, a mix of furious hand-to-hand combat and absolutely punishing special attacks, is as balanced as it is intense. High, central, and low close-combat attacks can be blocked appropriately to knock the assailant off their guard, dodged entirely with Dragon Ball Z's signature "blinking" teleportation technique, or overridden with a counter attack. If unsuccessfully defended, the barrage of assaults can continue to the point of blasting away and/or incapacitating the opponent, at which point the pain train arrives and delivers a payload of destruction in the form of a terrain-altering energy beam.
It's all played out in beautiful cel-shaded graphics that mimic the series perfectly, with characters experiencing various levels of battle damage as they smash through destructable environments. Technically, they're "fully destructable", as some characters have powers on a godlike level that, when unleashed, raze the entire playing field into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The immersion is nothing short of a fanboy's wet dream with full voice acting by many original actors and even character-specific match setups: when Goku and Gohan square off against each other, they acknowledge their father-son relationship and wish each other luck in the friendly sparring session; when Vegeta faces off against Freiza (who committed genocide on Vegeta's people, in case you weren't privy), things are much less friendly.
Outside of the ring, Tenkaichi 2 proves to be an example of fanservice of Super Smash Bros. Melee proportions, as a seemingly endless well of Dragon Ball Z material. Yes, they stacked in over 120 characters from the show and movies, which is impressive even if they follow the same basic control scheme. And while sticklers will note a few M.I.A.s (I was disappointed to see that Turles was the only villian drawn from the Tree of Might movie) nearly every significant character in the Dragon Ball universe is present and accounted for. An update on the original Tenkaichi, characters with multiple transformations can transform in-game, to add an extra element of one-upmanship and unexpectedness to battles. There's plenty of character-specific special moves drawn directly from the show, and by directly I mean directly: Goku's Kaioken rush attack assaults his enemy in a sequence with shot-for-shot similarity to his use of the technique against the villian Nappa in the early "Saiyan Saga" of the TV series. Most of the prominent characters have special attacks drawn from techniques displayed in the show, often from specific and memorable scenes. It's pretty great.
Now, I imagine the draw of Tenkaichi 2 to non-Dragon Ball fans would be akin to hopping into a game of Super Smash Bros. for someone who has no idea who Mario or Link are. A lot of the appeal here is getting to play as your favorite characters and drill your least favorite characters into a mountainside with all the visceral force that's been ingrained into you from years of dedicatedly tuning in to the series' bloody battles. But that's not to say the game is simple fan fodder; the battles are quite simply like adrenaline in your veins to experience. There's nothing quite like punching someone to the horizon, teleporting behind them and repeating the gesture, and then filling the screen with blinding light as you unleash an explosive wave of energy upon their incapacitated body. If you aren't a fan already, this game could quite likely make you one.
The extras are like icing on top of a heap of icing, and their relative necessity is arguable. You can compete in tournaments (based on tournaments in the series; obvious) to win money, and use that money to buy "Z-Items" that boost and allow for leveling-up for your fighters' health, attack, and other ratings in a quasi-RPG element. You know the kind I'm talking about. A straightforward leveling-up system would have been preferable, but this gives you a good reason to play the tournaments and other side-quests. The music in the game is something you'd never notice and never think to ask about in a game like this, and I only noticed it when I left the game paused to play poker for awhile, but it's actually really jammin'. The tracks range from gamer-rock to all-out rave, engineered to up the intensity of battles and evidently so well done that their function in this goal is nigh subliminal.
And if there's ever been a bonus that's at the same time seemingly irrelevant and also a godsend, it's the loading screen. The loading screen! It's a little game where bricks appear at random points in a semi-circle and you direct a ball in the middle to break them. If you hit them, your ball returns to the center and you press a new direction to hit another, with each successive hit making the game go faster as bricks continually appear at other points. It's another tidbit of Dragon Ball lore, as the ball is actually Yamcha's sokidan energy ball that he directs by telepathy in the show, and it's a completely unnecessary yet entirely appreciated luxury in an age when loading screens and A.D.D. clash to bring frustration to our favorite pass-time.
If the game has any glaring flaw, it's at least one you can fix: make sure you have a GameCube controller at the ready for Tenkaichi 2. I tried, early on before realizing it was compatible with Cube controllers and again in an earnest attempt to experience the game in a "revolutionary" way, to play the game using the Wiimote and nunchuk attachment. I withhold my seal of approval in this sole aspect. It's confusing and unintuitive beyond frustration, and were there no option for alternate control I'd flat-out tell you to avoid the game. I understand why they went with the control they did (because this game is a PS2 port and there'd be no way to map all the actions to the Wii's limited buttons, thus requiring motion control) but do yourself a favor, and just use GameCube control. If you were never a Cube owner then that's kind of rough, but you're probably going to want the controller eventually (for Virtual Console games, or when Super Smash Bros. Brawl launches at the very least) and this is as good a reason to get one as any.
I don't know that I'd say the game has pedigree, but it certainly has its history. Since Atari's release of the first Dragon Ball Z: Budokai title, the series has progressed impressively, first as a lame cash-in 2D fighter, and on through three sequels that began letting the source material dictate gameplay, rather than simply smashing it into the most obvious existing genre. Now, with the latest entry in the series, the gameplay has well-rooted mechanics that are polished and explosive, and so fun that it'd make you wonder why people are still making (or buying) "3D" fighters that boil down to glorified Rock'em Sock'em Robots.
After five updates on the Budokai formula, nearly everything is done perfectly. The over-the-shoulder view (which leads to splitscreen in versus mode) opens up the gameplay to true 3D movement, allowing you to use your surroundings to hide from possible onslaughts, gain some distance on your opponent to charge up your power, or dash away from oncoming energy blasts. The fighting, a mix of furious hand-to-hand combat and absolutely punishing special attacks, is as balanced as it is intense. High, central, and low close-combat attacks can be blocked appropriately to knock the assailant off their guard, dodged entirely with Dragon Ball Z's signature "blinking" teleportation technique, or overridden with a counter attack. If unsuccessfully defended, the barrage of assaults can continue to the point of blasting away and/or incapacitating the opponent, at which point the pain train arrives and delivers a payload of destruction in the form of a terrain-altering energy beam.
It's all played out in beautiful cel-shaded graphics that mimic the series perfectly, with characters experiencing various levels of battle damage as they smash through destructable environments. Technically, they're "fully destructable", as some characters have powers on a godlike level that, when unleashed, raze the entire playing field into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The immersion is nothing short of a fanboy's wet dream with full voice acting by many original actors and even character-specific match setups: when Goku and Gohan square off against each other, they acknowledge their father-son relationship and wish each other luck in the friendly sparring session; when Vegeta faces off against Freiza (who committed genocide on Vegeta's people, in case you weren't privy), things are much less friendly.
Outside of the ring, Tenkaichi 2 proves to be an example of fanservice of Super Smash Bros. Melee proportions, as a seemingly endless well of Dragon Ball Z material. Yes, they stacked in over 120 characters from the show and movies, which is impressive even if they follow the same basic control scheme. And while sticklers will note a few M.I.A.s (I was disappointed to see that Turles was the only villian drawn from the Tree of Might movie) nearly every significant character in the Dragon Ball universe is present and accounted for. An update on the original Tenkaichi, characters with multiple transformations can transform in-game, to add an extra element of one-upmanship and unexpectedness to battles. There's plenty of character-specific special moves drawn directly from the show, and by directly I mean directly: Goku's Kaioken rush attack assaults his enemy in a sequence with shot-for-shot similarity to his use of the technique against the villian Nappa in the early "Saiyan Saga" of the TV series. Most of the prominent characters have special attacks drawn from techniques displayed in the show, often from specific and memorable scenes. It's pretty great.
Now, I imagine the draw of Tenkaichi 2 to non-Dragon Ball fans would be akin to hopping into a game of Super Smash Bros. for someone who has no idea who Mario or Link are. A lot of the appeal here is getting to play as your favorite characters and drill your least favorite characters into a mountainside with all the visceral force that's been ingrained into you from years of dedicatedly tuning in to the series' bloody battles. But that's not to say the game is simple fan fodder; the battles are quite simply like adrenaline in your veins to experience. There's nothing quite like punching someone to the horizon, teleporting behind them and repeating the gesture, and then filling the screen with blinding light as you unleash an explosive wave of energy upon their incapacitated body. If you aren't a fan already, this game could quite likely make you one.
The extras are like icing on top of a heap of icing, and their relative necessity is arguable. You can compete in tournaments (based on tournaments in the series; obvious) to win money, and use that money to buy "Z-Items" that boost and allow for leveling-up for your fighters' health, attack, and other ratings in a quasi-RPG element. You know the kind I'm talking about. A straightforward leveling-up system would have been preferable, but this gives you a good reason to play the tournaments and other side-quests. The music in the game is something you'd never notice and never think to ask about in a game like this, and I only noticed it when I left the game paused to play poker for awhile, but it's actually really jammin'. The tracks range from gamer-rock to all-out rave, engineered to up the intensity of battles and evidently so well done that their function in this goal is nigh subliminal.
And if there's ever been a bonus that's at the same time seemingly irrelevant and also a godsend, it's the loading screen. The loading screen! It's a little game where bricks appear at random points in a semi-circle and you direct a ball in the middle to break them. If you hit them, your ball returns to the center and you press a new direction to hit another, with each successive hit making the game go faster as bricks continually appear at other points. It's another tidbit of Dragon Ball lore, as the ball is actually Yamcha's sokidan energy ball that he directs by telepathy in the show, and it's a completely unnecessary yet entirely appreciated luxury in an age when loading screens and A.D.D. clash to bring frustration to our favorite pass-time.
If the game has any glaring flaw, it's at least one you can fix: make sure you have a GameCube controller at the ready for Tenkaichi 2. I tried, early on before realizing it was compatible with Cube controllers and again in an earnest attempt to experience the game in a "revolutionary" way, to play the game using the Wiimote and nunchuk attachment. I withhold my seal of approval in this sole aspect. It's confusing and unintuitive beyond frustration, and were there no option for alternate control I'd flat-out tell you to avoid the game. I understand why they went with the control they did (because this game is a PS2 port and there'd be no way to map all the actions to the Wii's limited buttons, thus requiring motion control) but do yourself a favor, and just use GameCube control. If you were never a Cube owner then that's kind of rough, but you're probably going to want the controller eventually (for Virtual Console games, or when Super Smash Bros. Brawl launches at the very least) and this is as good a reason to get one as any.
Closing Comments
If you aren't in on this series already, now's the perfect time to rectify that.
For those unaccustomed to the universe of Dragon Ball Z, Budokai Tenkaichi 2 will come across as a solid alternative-style fighter several notches above the traditional head-to-head fighting game. Fans of the show, and really anyone familiar enough with the world of Goku and his pals to not be weirded out by the entire premise, will find the game absolutely jaw-droppingly amazing in scope, presentation, and gameplay. Few games have ever delivered to their fans such an unadulterated vision of a television or movie series in playable form, and few games on the market can claim this level of achievement in addicting gameplay, true-to-the-source immersion, and depth of replayability.
