A Wii Review - Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2

There are many Dragonball Z games, a number of which have never made it out of Japan, and a few who have never made it to the USA, though they hit Europe. The Wii's iteration is the same game as seen on the PS2 and GameCube, revamped for the Wii's controls.

The game features free-roaming combat with large areas. There are no visible walls, just a circular boundary that appears as a polygonal shield if you hit the edge of the playable area. All characters can fly, have long range attacks (some medium) and melee.

It's great fun to go back and forth between melee and ranged attacks. Some characters charge up their power (needed for ranged attacks) with melee combat, some regain it over time, others have to stand prone and charge up.

The basics of the game are easy as sin - everything maps to a button. The one catch is that the Wii controls are difficult and imprecise; it is better to use a GameCube gamepad. For example, in order to dash left, right, forward or backwards, you have to hold the "C" button on your nunchuck and jerk the nunchuck that direction. The problem is that sometimes the game will register the wrong direction (if you are imprecise in your movements, which, under the duress of a fight, happens) or register two movements and dash and immediately stop (if you jerk your hand left and then move it back to center position, which your mind naturally wants to do).

A guy who had the GameCube version told me at first glance that the Wii version was graphically superior, in what way I don't know, but it's interesting to me that even my children have switched from the Wii controllers to their old GameCube gamepads.

That said, Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is the most fun we've had with a fighting game since King of Fighters 10th Anniversary, which wasn't that long ago (MAME). We also still play Super Smash Bros Melee, a GameCube game that works on the Wii. Prior to all of that, we sometimes played Soul Calibur II, but I didnt' like it, my kids did.