"Tenkaichi 3 Wraps It Up For Fans"

DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
Tenkaichi 3 Wraps It Up For Fans

DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is the last of the Tenkaichi series and it surely wraps up everything this game was meant to be. Compared to its Side-Scrolling Budokai series this game is its own engine and yet still a fun game to play. The controls are more advanced the action is more advanced as it revolves more on the game play than the actual cut scenes of every single move a character has.

Compared to its original game the Budokai series it's not the same genre game. Budokai was the old fashion side-scroll fighting game with almost no 3D free-movement. While, the Budokai name is taken in vein this was only done because of the American version. Most cases to get the same profit as if it was named Tenkaichi as it should have been producers may have believed it would affect a down side on profits. Enough history lessons, on to the game.

Story (9/10)
No one can say it could have been better; most games are all about the story and the scary, yet dramatic scenes of the game. This game hardly needs the story because fans have already seen them on the television as we speak. The game still has a story line and it based on the most dramatic episodes of the series. It doesn't include all the battles that existed throughout the story of the DragonBall universe, but neither does it deviate from its original script. As a special, a so called "What If" Saga has been added just like in its previous game.

Game Play (10/10)
I must say the replay value of this game is absolutely worth it. If you are not a fan of the fighting games that allow you to move around huge worlds then give this one at least a try by renting it. Even if you are not a DragonBall Z fan. I was not one either when I first played the first game on Gamecube. None the less the game play was well thought out. Everything you have seen in the Anime is surely in this game: Teleporting, homing dashes, heavy rushes, and final blows. Each character has its ups and downs. It's almost too good to be called the best Tenkaichi game of all time.

Sound (7/10)
The least surprising of the Tenkaichi series was sound. Apparently the designers that made the game haven't well thought out about the finishing moves and cut scene moves that have various sound effects. Some times even the fusions don't actually sound what it should be. This is why the game play value dominates the sound that it represents. Sure you got good game play, but you have bad sound added to it. Now, we are not talking about every punch and kick. We are talking about the cut scene moves mostly. However, if you are not interested in those things, then sound is 9/10 for you since you do not care about cut scene moves as they only take time.

It seems that these are sometimes affected by the loading of your console. Noticeably it's hard who to blame. Either the hardware just cannot keep up with the stuff that has to be loaded or the game wasn't design to load everything into the RAM. I must say someone here is at fault. It could just be me who may have been experiencing this strange thing. The fact is, the sound is sometimes cut off or even abused in this game just to make a cut scene move look good.

Graphics (9/10)
Nothings better than keeping the game to look like its anime. Of course they modified the charging which is mostly the first thing you will notice, it actually looks better as each character has their own Aura around them compared to the Tenkaichi 2 game that had the strange bolt of lighting and a sort of atom circulation around the character which really didn't look anything like an Aura of charging. Of course, they still left in the ruin clothes version of every character, which includes scratches and bruises.

It still has no bad sides to it; you may be annoyed that you character turns out to be a colored paper figure when you reach the walls, because otherwise you would not see your opponent in most cases.

Over All (8.75/10)
Overall this game is pretty descent it its own genre. It could use some more tweaking if not worse. The game has a good replay value so if you are a hardcore DragonBall fan you would want this game for keeps, and with the PlayStation 3 already out you can just go ahead and play that game on there if your PlayStation 2 dies. What a value that is. Just like Budokai 3 wraps up the Budokai series, Tenkaichi does the same on its behalf. Tenkaichi 3 truly is the epic conclusion of the Dragonball Franchise for Tenkachi. Hoping no more of these come out. So if you got the money, get it.

Next Stop...
Burst Limit!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/08

Game Release: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (US, 11/13/07)