Rating: 4/5
The first in the Budokai series from DIMPS, DragonBall Z - Budokai for the PS2 brings your favorite DBZ characters together in a one-on-one fighter with enough quick jabs and high powered Ki attacks to impress even the biggest DBZ fan. Budokai has a roster of 24 characters that range from the start of the DragonBall Z saga when Radditz makes earth fall and reach up until the end of the Cell saga encompassing the appropriate characters that fit within that time frame. Along with the character roster, the story mode also follows this original animation story arc and plays out in a series of battles and cut-scenes. As the player goes through the story mode, characters and skills are are unlock-able, upgrade-able and then ready to be used in any of the other game modes. After the central story mode, players can choose to hone their skills in a practice or duel mode which allows player vs com and player vs player (local) tests with either default set character stats or custom stats from the customization feature. The player can customize characters with capsules, purchased in the skills shop (from Mr.Popo) with Zennie/Zeni, a currency collected during the Tournament mode. Finally, once completing the tournament mode, the last to unlock is 'The Legend Hercule' (known as Mr.Satan in the Japanese/European versions) which follows the title character on his journey through some big battles, the last of which is with Perfect Cell. If you've played some of the older games in the series, this title may seem a little slower, a little different looking (they adopted a more "Cell-Shaded" look as the series went on) and a bit easier to complete everything in, but it's well worth taking a look at and a wonderfully enjoyable fighter overall.
You also need an emulator to run this game. To grab one quickly, please check out our PS2 emulators section.