First let's cover the Story mode, which is the meat and potatoes of Budokai. Here you mainly play as Goku, the hero of the series. The first 3 major story arcs of the show are present, which are the Saiyan, Frieza and Cell sagas. The story is told through very well done cutscenes (using the ingame engine) which very faithfully capture the feel of the show, and also make use of the original Japanese voice cast with English subtitles. Everything is there, from Goku holding down Raditz so that Piccolo can perform his Special Beam Cannon attack, to Gohan's final confrontation with Cell in his perfect form at the Cell Games. The story is presented as if they were single episodes. As you defeat characters they become unlocked for play in the other modes of the game. You gain new attacks and transformations as the story progresses such as the Spirit Bomb attack and various levels of the King Kai Fist transformation and ultimately the ability to transform into a Super Saiyan. Also play fields featured in the Story mode are unlocked for use in other play modes, as you progress through the game.

The other options consist of Duel, World Match, Practice, Skill Edit and of course the Options menu. Duel is just your standard quick versus mode, where you can either challenge a friend or the AI. World Match is a ladder climbing tournament, based off the World Martial Arts Tournament aka Tenka-ichi Budokai from the series. Here the player competes for prize money that uses the DBZ universe currency of "Zennie". This prize money can be then used in Skill Edit mode to buy moves and abilities to create custom move lists for use with the characters. Additionally, these acquired abilities/moves can be traded between memory cards, giving Budokai a 'Pokemon style' element. The Practice mode is just as the name says. This mode is pretty sweet, because it's very in-depth. You can add pretty much any variables/conditions that you would encounter in the game, such as define whether your sparing partner does either nothing, blocks only, or fights back with the selected level of difficulty.

The fighting engine is rather simplistic, meaning there is only your basic punch, kick, block and Ki Blast buttons. The shoulder buttons (L1, L2, R1, and R2) can be mapped to some of the simpler button combos such as throw, jab, transform and taunt. Underneath the life bar is the Ki bar, which allows your character to perform those energy-based attacks and transformations that DBZ is famous for. The Ki bar is filled by inflicting physical attacks on your opponent, or by powering up. The bar can be filled up to a maximum of 7 levels of charge. Different levels are required for increasingly more powerful attacks and transformations. Transformations such as the varying levels of King Kai Fist or Super Saiyan provide increased defensive and offensive strengths. The more powerful the transformation, the faster the Ki bar is drained; while there is no drain when a character is in their most basic form.

Budokai is very impressive in the sound department, featuring virtually every sound effect heard in the show. This PAL version also features the original Japanese dialogue and music. Unlike the US version, which has the far more inferior and very awful English dub.

Budokai does have its bad points though which unfortunately seriously bring the game down. Gameplay is very average. You cannot jump or crouch, movement is limited to going forward or backward and the occasional side-stepping. A major feature of DBZ is that the characters can fly, and this isn't pulled off very well in Budokai. You can only go airborne when either you or your opponent is knocked into the air and is then pursued by the assailant. You can't fly higher than the position where you land when flung into the air, making it seem like you're actually just standing on elevated ground rather than actually flying.

Budokai's graphics aren't that good either. While the character models accurately represent their animated counterparts, the textures are very simple and lack detail. Thus looking more like a PS1 game than one designed for the PS2. Also the play environments lack variety and all seem to look the same, even when travelling to another part of the stage similar to Dead Or Alive.

Overall Budokai is very average as a fighter, but is rather impressive in recreating the show. We'd only recommend Budokai to the hardcore fans of DBZ - for those who are looking for a good fighting game, it would be best to look elsewhere.