read this
Dragon Ball Z originally started out as a manga series in Japan created by Akira Toriyama, showing the exploits of Goku and co. DBZ later became a highly popular anime series and has since enjoyed enormous success both in Japan and America. For those of you that are in the dark, DBZ revolves around a group of warriors who often battle insanely powerful foes while searching for the "Dragon Balls" that have the power to grant wishes. The DBZ series also has a long line of video games but most of them have stayed in Japan. However, now that Atari has DBZ license, U.S. gamers are now being treated to DBZ video game goodness. DBZ Budokai is one of the best DBZ games ever meaning fans should jump on this baby ASAP.
Gameplay:
One of Budokai's most unique aspects is the Story mode. This mode lets players experience (or rexperience for hardcore fans) some of the best sagas of DBZ. Story mode beings with the Saiyan saga and concludes with the Cell Games. DBZ fanatics will love the fact that they can recreate some of the best battles in the series, such as Piccolo and Goku's brawl with Raditz or controlling Goku as a Super Saiyan against Frieza.
Playing through the Story mode will also unlock the majority of the game's fighters, 23 total. In addition to the Story mode there are also Practice, World Tournament, and Vs. modes.
Most fighting games immediately give you access to all of your fighter’s moves but that isn't the case with Budokai. Instead, you obtain skill capsules, which can be used to customize your fighters to your heart's content. Want a devastating Kamehameha Wave? Equip it three times to Goku. How about some extra life insurance? Give Vegeta a Senzu Bean. You can give your characters high defense or you can beef up their offensive capabilities. You can save all of your customize fighters to a memory card and battle it out with your pal's customized Z Fighters. The game gives you a lot of skill capsules to choose from and only seven slots to occupy those capsules. Since some skills take up more than one slot, customizing your fighters isn't always a quick process but it sure is fun.
Graphics:
Budokai isn't giving the PS2 a serious workout in the graphics but the character models look pretty nice. They look exactly like their anime counterparts and even sport their trademark outfits. The backgrounds are pretty bland with hardly any details, but then again, the game uses the exact locals from the show where battles have taken place. That means islands, rock mountains; Kami's Lookout, Namek and the Hyperbolic Time Chamber are all here to be your battlegrounds. Some arenas are even destructible.
Sound:
Most of the music in Budokai is composed of original rock tunes but some songs such as the "Rock The Dragon" theme from the show are here. Fans that have watched the Japanese versions of the show will recognize the recap music that goes with the Japanese subtitled versions. It would have been nice to see more music from the show in the game but the original tunes are good, nonetheless. One of the game's best themes can be found when you fight on planet Namek in Vs. mode. The American voices actors from the show play their roles for each character (yes, including that annoying announcer from the World Tournament), meaning the voice acting is of high quality.
DBZ Budokai is a game that every fan should pick up. The Story mode is awesome and being able to customize your fighters adds some nice replay value. You can tell the developers were fans of DBZ because so much in this game was done right. Bring on Budokai 2.