April 14, 2007 - Of Dragon Ball Z, I've seen a couple episodes, read a couple of the comics, and played some of the SNES games. Anything I know of the plot beyond that I've learned from friends. Often games like DBZ:BT2 are catered specifically towards fans of the series, completely alienating anyone else who just wants to play an enjoyable fighting game. While DBZ:BT2 strays dangerously close to this point, it winds up being a really enjoyable fighting game to play for any Wii owner. First, before anything else attempted, the training mode has to be done in its entirety. Few fighting games have a control setup quite as complex as this game, since everything from dashing, flying, dodging, blocking, ki blasts, rush combos, and blast moves have to be used to make any advancement in this game. The problem here is that the training mode itself is poorly set up. The game presents you with a few pages of text on how to accomplish a specific move or two, and then throws you into a training match with no other prompt except a small 'success!' when you accomplish a move. Initially, the list of moves, dodges, and attacks don't seem terribly complicated, but when you're in the middle of a high-speed battle, with your opponent dashing towards you, that's when you realize how truly complicated the controls are. This goes double for the Wii, where a decent blast attack might involve holding Z and B while waving the nunchuk twice and then bringing forward the Wiimote before releasing the two buttons. If the Wiimote is not to your style, however, the game allows you to plug in a classic controller or a Gamecube controller to play as well.
The game is a 3D fighter that centers the view behind your character. The battlefields are no small arenas, but instead are large, open landscapes that present an abundance of space for you and your opponent to fly around in. On the surface, the game seems like a pretty standard fighting game, but it's easy to see that the combat system is what makes this game so unique. It's one thing to hammer your opponent and send them flying across the screen, it's another thing to send them flying across the 
landscape, chase after them at high speeds, smash them towards the sky, disappear and reappear behind them, and then knock them to the ground in a spectacular explosion. And that's just a standard combo.
The fighting system is robust and versatile, and any player can quickly find their particular style of combat. The game is divided into a variety of modes, which are essentially different ways to get you into battles. The first is the Dragon Adventure, in which you follow the story of the Dragon Ball series, starting when Raditz comes to Earth to find Goku. Each scenario of the Dragon Ball Z story (for example, the Tree of Life or the Frieza Saga) is divided into episodes that typically have one story-centered fight to defeat before you can move on to the next episode. In each episode, you can fly around the particular planet you're on to visiting events around the globe, most of which just involve someone giving you tips, or some enemies wanting to battle. But to further the plot, you must visit the single story event in each episode. This is the mode most suited for fans of the series, as they'll be able to see and control the battles they've seen before. The problem arises in the fact that the storyline has to follow the series' plot, which means that even if you're a really good fighter, Yamcha will still perish against the Saibamen, even if you win the battle, or even if he doesn't fight at all. It's really just a series of battles with predetermined opponents, strung loosely together by a plot. Another mode is the Dragon Tournament, which essentially allows you to get into a tournament-style hierarchy of battles, with multiple players if you want. Essentially, the point of this mode is simple: make cash to buy more Z-items (more on these later). Also available for you to fight in is the Ultimate Battle Z, in which you'll fight a series of opponents in a variety of ladder series. Along the way you'll be receiving points, all of which culminate when you finish the final enemy. It's little more than a high score, but it's based on a lot of factors, and worth trying to beat your own score (or a friend's). And, of course, if you just want to battle with your friends or the computer, there's the simple Dueling mode to get you battling in arenas with characters of your choice.
landscape, chase after them at high speeds, smash them towards the sky, disappear and reappear behind them, and then knock them to the ground in a spectacular explosion. And that's just a standard combo.
