Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

The Good:

• Fixed camera and framerate allows you to see the action better
• Superb (and responsive) controls
• A more cinematic story mode
• Plenty of characters to choose from
• Great artistic graphics and character models
• A lot of gameplay modes increases the replay value
• Fun multiplayer
• Tons of voice acting
• Colourful presentation

 

The Bad:

• Laggy online play
• It tells the same old DBZ story all over again

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Dragon Ball Z games have never been exceptional, just look at DBZ Sagas. But the series picked up after 2005's DBZ Budokai 3, delivering some really fast paced action with plenty of elements from the series. After that came the first game in the new series Budokai Tenkaichi which was good but not great. It wasn't until last year that Atari redeemed themselves with was by the time the best DBZ game, Budokai Tenkaichi 2 had everything you'll want from a DBZ game: A lot of characters, great graphics and fast paced game play with a long story mode that covered all the DBZ mythos. But now with this game the DBZ game franchise has reached a new high; and it's really surprising that it has so many new elements because anime fighters tend to be rehashes but this one is just too good and improves many things that were wrong with last year's game.

This game is not a classic fighter, the gameplay is seen in a behind the back perspective, the camera and framerate have been fixed for this one, so it wont be as annoying as it was last time. Movement is done with the analog stick in the nunchuck and the basic attacks are done with A and you throw Ki attacks with the B button. So far the same as last year, but the changes come when you start fighting, this time you'll cover by holding A+B which may be confusing at first, specially for series veterans but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy, also the smash attacks are no longer done by holding the A button.

The game has two types of attacks: Normal ones are done by pressing B button and throwing Ki at your enemies. The signature attacks (Goku's Kamehameha or Vegeta's Galick Gun) are done by holding a button on the D pad and doing your character's movement, this time you actually have to do them instead of just moving the wii mote up or down. The new tweaks in the motion controls are great, because this time is much more responsive than last time and you'll actually have to pull off a Kamehameha. Though all these changes make the gameplay a little slower paced (just a little) and more confusing to newcomers and veterans alike, but they also make the game deeper and better plus they also got rid of that annoying pointer. And just in case you dont like the wii controls, you can play with the gamecube controller and classic controller.

Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has also tons and tons of characters taken directly from the series, 161 characters to be exact. Did you ever see that guy that appeared for two seconds and was killed right away? No? Well here's your chance to see him. Though not all the characters are different, some of them are various versions of the same character; for example: Goku has more than ten different versions of himself, there's Kid Goku, Teen Goku, Semi Adult Goku, Adult Goku, SS1 Goku, SS2 Goku, SS3 Goku, SS4 Goku, Great Ape Goku....Too many Gokus really. Thankfully each has his/her own set of combos and attacks. Though you'll some times ask yourself what the hell are Cui, Frieza Soldier, Nail, Vegeta's father and Babidi doing in the game.

Unsurprisingly the Dragon Story mode is back, this mode will take you from the beginning of Z to the end of GT and some of the movies. If you remember last time it was pretty long, with about 12 hours of gameplay and it made you relieve every single imaginable battle from the series, in fact way too many battles, in fact they were so many that it would make a sane person go insane in just a couple of minutes. This time the story is told through in-game cutscenes, there will only be two people on screen but you'll hear others talking while you're battling, there will also be some great button mashing sequences where you'll have to press the assigned button, like it happened in Resident Evil 4 or God of War. It's more cinematic though it's also shorter, which is more of a blessing than a curse because last time fight after fight after fight got incredibly tedious and boring.

Ultimate Battle mode is a tournament mode for one or various players, in it you will play in some of DBZ's most recognisable tournaments like The world tournament, the cell games and the Yamcha games. Dragon World Tour includes two sub modes, one is Sim Dragon where you'll have to simulate the life of a fighter before going to a tournament, it's not perfect but since it's not the main mode its forgivable; in mission mode you'll be assigned several missions based on the characters, for example one mission is named king of demons where you'll play against Picollo, Garlick Jr. And Dabura.

Other game modes include: Duel, split screen multiplayer battles for 1vs1 or team battles. Dragon net, which is online play with friends or random, sadly this mode is really laggy to the point where is basically unplayable. In evolution Z you'll assign Z items to the characters you want. In Training you'll....well train your characters, it's really recommendable to come here before trying anything else so you get used to the controls. In Data Center you can unlock characters and upgrade them. Finally there's the Character Reference book, where you can see everyone's story.

Graphically it looks great, the cell shaded graphics really fit the game, and it surprisingly looks better than last year, everything looks sharper and there are many new effects, more colourful and beautiful. The character animations are also better and they look just like their anime counterparts, the special attacks that make DBZ more famous look brighter and better than ever, and the aura surrounding the characters looks badass. The interface and menus also look more colourful than last time.

Sound is just as good, there's tons and tons of voice acting in the game, both english and Japanese, though is kinda disappointing that they didn't add the latin america voice acting for us. The original music is also good, but they don't really use many tunes of the DBZ soundtrack and that's a bummer.

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is deeper, more colourful and plays better than it's predecessors, sadly the online play is not as good as it should've been, but it still is wonderful and it's not only the best DBZ game so far but it's also the best wii fighter, behind Brawl of course.