Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Wii, 2006)

Easily one of the best games I've ever owned (and I have to admit to owning quite a few) and the best Dragonball Z game to date. Whether you're a Dragonball Z fan or not, Budokai Tenkaichi 2 has a lot to offer. The game offers the player the chance to play through the Entire Dragonball Z storyline, a Massive feat in and of itself. I have played over 40 hours and am only 56% done with story mode alone (and I'll definitely be replaying it). The game contains a tournament mode for those interested in continuous combat (or challenging their friends) and a mode as extensive as the story mode called Ultimate Battle Z that involves beating continuous strings of opponents arranged in various pillars. 129 characters... it's hard to say more than that fact can. Normally I would expect other levels of the gameplay to suffer because the designers spent so much time developing such accurate characters but such is not the case. There are lots of levels in which to do battle with all the destructibility that should be expected in a game made after the show. You can smash your opponent through a skyscraper in town or knock down pillars of rock during your fight in the wasteland.

The greatest selling feature of the game is the ability to utilize the controls to do just about anything the TV show's characters could do. If you want to power up and fly towards your opponent to meet in a hand combat battle, matching each other blow-for-blow, teleport away and fire your best Kamehameha or Special Beam Cannon (or whatever signature move your character has - each character has 2 large specialty moves) and finish them off with your specialty 'Ultimate Blast' (the Spirit Bomb in Goku's case- again, one for every character)... you can do that. The controls aren't hard to learn. My girlfriend picked up the Wii remote and nunchuk and beat Zarbon on her first try. During the story mode you get the chance to 'level up' through Z-items. You equip your character with these and they raise stats such as Health, Defense, or Speed. Alternatively, there are Z items that allow you to regain health during a battle or that slow your enemies. Such an option makes it even more inviting to play through story mode levels again. And for DBZ fans, it's hard to beat the satisfaction of Goku's first transformation to Super Saiyan during the fight with Frieza; or facing Cell as teen Gohan and powering up to Super Saiyan 2. Fusing from Goten and Trunks into Gotenks mid-battle is fun, too. For those of you who may not even know what Super Saiyan means or can't quite remember which Ginyu force member was Recoome, there is a detailed encyclopedia in the game.

Storyline includes the movies (such as Tree of Might, The Dead Zone, etc) and everything from Raditz's arrival, Vegeta and Nappa, the whole Frieza Saga, Androids, Cell, through Buu and beyond. I just highlighted a few of the larger parts- it is much more in depth than I could write here. I can't say how much it includes Dragonball GT yet, though I know that Super Saiyan 4 Goku is a character in the game, so it has to go at least to that point. It contains 3 'what if' scenarios as rewards for winning difficult battles. e.g.- What if Raditz lost his memories like Goku and eventually turned to the side of good? These extras, like the whole game, are very well done. The most complete package any game has ever offered; I'll be playing this one for a long time yet to come.

This is one purchase you will not regret.