Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2

After waiting countless months, people can finally get their hands on this sequel to DragonBall Z: Budokai. Does it live up to all of the hype surrounding it? Well, that depends on what you're looking for in this title. The graphics have been beautifully enhanced with a new cel-shaded look that fits this title appropriately. The fighting has also been improved to a degree with the character fusions in which two characters can fuse together to make stronger characters to fight with (Gotenks, Vegito, and others that weren't even in the show). This alone adds much more variety to the building of characters. The character customization has been slightly improved as well, with and easier shop system so that you won't have as much trouble finding all of the skills that you want. There have been many new skills added to the mix like Super Saiyan Level 3 and new characters like the three different forms of Majin Buu, which will surely appeal to all of the fans of the show. With all of the good things I've said, this game also has a few glaring flaws. My first gripe is that other than the fusions and new abilities, the fight system itself is still very average and may seem to be too simple to people who are just looking for a serious fighter and couldn't care less about DBZ. Others may also not appreciate the fact that the story mode that was done so well in the first game has been replaced with a new mode called Dragon World. It puts the characters on small maps in which they move like chess pieces to find the dragonballs and fight whomever they run into, until they reach the next stage. While this mode is still fun, it is not nearly as appealing as the story mode that was introduced in the first game. Overall, I still felt that this game was a decent follow up to the origional that should definately appeal to any true fan of DBZ.

Graphics:               9/10
Gameplay:             7/10
Sound:                   8/10
Replay Value:       8/10

Overall:                  8/10

Reviewed by JDOmnislash