Anime rarely excites us at Play. Of course, this is just a rogue opinion in our giant machine, and you’ll probably find people all over our magazine staff who like it. Still, if you were a gamer thinking of embracing the way of the anime, this would put you right off as a starting point. Conversely, if you’re a fan of Dragon Ball Z from the start, Shin Budokai 2 will let you down.

This instalment of the many DBZ games finds us following the adventures of Trunks, an unfortunately named fighter who apparently lives in an alternate future. In fictional terms, this means a different timeline from the main series, which may mean more to the hardcore fans of the series than it does to us. However, this sterile good-versus-evil storyline fails to hide a flawed and over-simplified beat-’emup, one that barely works on the PSP. While the graphics are nice and the animation is refined, the sheer boredom induced by the combat is enough to alienate even the deepest fans of Dragon Ball Z.

Shin Budokai 2 has other problems too. The loading screens in the game are monumental, and a patronising ‘beat box’ has been attached to them in order to distract you from the wait. It fails miserably, however, and this element of the game smacks of desperation. In all honesty, the fact that it was attached to the loading screens is already a bad sign: the developer knows the game has issues.

The combat is absent of exciting combos, while the basic fundamentals of Dragon Ball Z games remains exactly the same. If you were expecting anything more interesting (decent environments, for example), you’ll find your wishes trodden on and rubbished. An effort has been made to include some ‘strategy’ elements, but these feel as refined as a Skoda made of cardboard. This basically entails moving into the enemies before they destroy cities, and defeating them five times before you can move on from the bloody thing. It’s an utterly rubbish aspect of the game, and calling it anything but limp would be showering it with praise.

What we’re left with, then, is a shell of a fighting game that will barely appease the most persistent fanatics. Writing this review is made harder by the fact that we barely enjoyed the game, especially with the lingering thought that Tekken: Dark Resurrection is now available on Platinum. Ignore this poor beat-’em-up, and buy something great instead.

Samuel Roberts