Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2, released as Dragon Ball Z 2 (ドラゴンボールZ2, Doragon Bōru Zetto Tsū?) in Japan, is a video game based upon the popular anime series, Dragon Ball Z. Budokai 2 is a sequel to Dragon Ball Z: Budokai and was developed by Dimps and published by Atari for the Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube. It was released in North America on December 4, 2003. In 2004 its sequel Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 was released. As the GameCube version was released sometime after the PlayStation 2 version (December 15, 2004), the opportunity was taken to improve the graphics slightly and add new costumes. Japan received the game on February 5, 2004 for the PlayStation 2 from Bandai. There was no Japanese version of the GameCube version, although the European GameCube version did feature the Japanese voiceover.
Budokai 2 is a fighting game with cel-shaded graphics to mirror the look and feel of the combat in the series. In order to experience the full potential of the game, a Memory Card is required to obtain and edit skills, and create custom characters.