Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3

"Welcome... to Super Vegeta's Big Bang Attack!"

Arguably the most popular anime, Dragon Ball Z has been getting video games since the NES days - and has continued pushing crap titles for years (anyone who's had the misfortune of playing Ultimate Battle 22 will be able to tell you that past DBZ games aren't exactly amazing fighters). Some time ago, the Budokai series came out, which, and I quote from Electronic Gaming Monthly: "was a veritable Soul Calibur compared to past attempts". Very, very true.

Now, the third installment is upon us. Budokai disappointed for the most part, but all worries of another crap title may be wiped clean, because this game doesn't disappoint. Plus, finally, it includes a fighting engine fighters and DBZ fans alike can enjoy.

Graphics

Budokai 3 borrows from Budokai 2's awesome cel-shaded style that makes the series really look like the anime. Take the HUD off the screen, throw in some more angles, and you could possibly (just possibly) confuse the game with the show. Anime generally is low on the deep details - you won't see many shades of color among clothing and such, nor detailed eyes, noses, or other facial features. However, this works well with Budokai 3 - the material it's based off of looks just like this. The background environments are great, as well - particularly levels such as Inside Buu and other more exotic levels. All in all, the graphics don't disappoint here.

Sound

The opening music that plays through the little scene and intro titles is arguably horrible, but get past that and see that the sound here is perfect - we have the American voice actors doing their roles, we have the standard ki wave sounds (a ki wave is something like a Kamehameha, for those not very familiar) and most everything taken right from the show. Not only is the voice acting there, but for the most part, it's done well - not to say some of the acting really stinks (most comical value from Hercule is lost here by bad voice acting, for example). But as long as you're not looking for something of Final Fantasy quality, you'll be fine with this. The voice acting is done well enough to help lay out the story for those not familiar with DBZ, too.

Gameplay

The first thing you'll notice is that the Dragon World from Budokai 2 is gone (Dragon World was a horrible attempt at a board game) - and thank god for that. Dragon Universe replaces that, and one ups Dragon World and the original Budokai's single player mode with somewhat of a free-roaming adventure. Dragon Universe (the single player mode here, if you didn't know by now) puts you in a famous DBZ character's boots and tells you to go live out the adventure they lived through the anime and manga. You will go around the worlds in the game (you can free roam on Earth and Namek, the... well, Namekian planet. Namekians are those green people like Piccolo, for those not familiar) battling enemies and collecting Dragon Balls. That's another thing - collecting dragon balls is easier this time. Now, with the free-roaming, the radar will show you when you're right over one of the balls. All you need to do next is pick it up. It's great compared to the confusing style of Budokai 2.

Free-roaming, however, isn't totally free. While you can fly around the environments all you want, you're restricted to the air - you can actually land and walk on the ground, unless you count the horribly done cut scenes (taken right from Budokai 2 - the cut scenes consist of pictures of characters with speech bubbles, normally also with voice acting). However, you don't need to walk around to enjoy this game - it's a cool thought, though. Other modes in this game include Training, Duel, World Tournament, Options, Capsule Shop and Dragon Arena. Practice can take you through a tutorial of the game, teaching you the many deep mechanics of this fighter. Button mashers can skip this stage and still have fun beating the game on Very Easy, but it takes a master of these techniques to conquer Very Hard mode. You can also just set a dummy computer opponent up and practice against the character. You can change different things with the AI including attack type, how much Ki bars (I'll get into that later) you start with, what attacks the opponent has (by customizing capsules - I'll also get into this later) and more, giving you full control over who you're battling. Using this mode you can practice at your own pace and work on whatever skills you think you need to work on.

World Tournament is just that - a world tournament. You can enter under only one category at first - Novice - but you can unlock other difficulties as well. Basically, you choose a character and enter a ladder tournament (which sets characters up so that it's one on one, and the loser gets eliminated, and so on). You can win money (referred to as zenie in this game) that you can use to buy capsules in this game, so this is a mode you'll be playing through a lot if you want 100%

Duel allows you to play against either a computer opponent, or a second player - and this is where the real fun breaks through (mind the pun, Budokai fans). Battling with your edited character is extremely fun, more so that Budokai 2 because the fighting engine and capsules have been advanced to new levels. You can customize your character with different attacks and abilities using capsules, and then go fight your friend. You don't get anything out of it buy fun, though.

The Capsule Shop is where you can buy new skills in the form of capsules. The way the capsule system works is as follows: each character has 7 'slots'. These slots can be filled with capsules, which can take from only one slot to all seven. Different capsules give your character new attacks and new abilities. Generally, the attack you can give your character uses up some of his/her Ki, which is basically energy (so you can't be cheap with your capsule attacks and keep on beating on your opponent). You can also get abilities, such as Viral Heart Disease, which lowers both yours and your opponents' health bar throughout the battle. Then, you can also get a skill, which is sort of a type of ability. One skill is Vaccine, which stops you from being affected by the Viral Heart Disease. Other capsules include Breakthroughs, which can be unlocked and give the player all attacks, and Fusions, which can fuse two characters together to make them super strong. Both of these capsules take up all 7 slots.

The options allows you to customize the controls to whatever you want, so you can jump right into this fighter controlling whichever way you feel comfortable (for example, because it feels better to me, I changed the block button from X to L2, and X is now the button combo Punch Kick Grab'). You can also change the difficulty here, and other settings like HUD display.

Dragon Arena is a mode that you can unlock later in the game. This mode brings out the RPG element of Budokai 3, and is great fun. You start off picking a character to play as and level up with (when you level up, you can also increase stats, such as Health, Attack, Guard, Ability, etc). You are then taken to a screen with a whole bunch of enemies at different levels, and you can pick which one you want to square off against. You then choose the enemy, choose the stage to battle in, and battle. If you win, then you earn experience which can be used to level up when you get enough. Also, in Dragon Mode, you have the ability to take character codes from online and put them into the game and battle that particular character. For example - say your friend has a Level 55 character with Breakthrough that you want to battle. Your friend would access his character's statistics screen, get his character code, and send it to you. You would then input the code in Dragon Arena. After this, you can battle your friends character, stat for stat, attack for attack. It's a perfect port of the character. So, basically, it's like battling your friend. The next best thing to online play.

Now, the actual gameplay. In this game, the goal is, mainly, to defeat your opponent. You can do this buy Punching, Kicking, Shooting Ki blasts or Guarding. Each of these functions do just as one would think they do. However, this game is much deeper than that. You can also input various combos to do certain attacks (for example, Punch, punch, punch, punch, Ki blast is a universal combo that is very easy to pull off). You can also transform your character in different ways. All characters can enter 'Rage Mode' (which is accessed by pressing L2). In this mode, you can't gain any energy, however, you also can't be stopped with punches or kicks, and in this mode you can use your Dragon Rush. A Dragon Rush works as follows - enter Rage Mode, then activate DR. You press a button, and then the computer opponent presses a button. The button the CPU choose is random. If your button and the CPU button is the same, then your DR fails. However, if it's a different button, then this procedure repeats itself two more times. If successful, you will pull of a high damaging attack at the end, likely to destroy your opponent. More a game of luck than skill, it however does take skill to pull off the move, and just as much to dodge it. Another thing all characters have is something called Ultimates - sort of their 'special move'. An ultimate is generally a very powerful attack that is difficult to pull off. It works like so: you activate the ultimate. You then watch some cool powering up animation, and then look at the bottom screen, where you'll see two bars. One of those bars is yours, and will quickly fill up with blue or red 4 times. You need to press X right as the blue or red hit the end (or close to that). The player who is the closest 'wins' the ultimate (so, if you win, the attack is successful. If they win, it either isn't successful, or does less damage). Another play involving luck, somewhat, but more fast reaction skills. Other things you can do include teleporting, which is useful for dodging attacks, and 'Pinballing', where you bounce your opponent around with repeated punches (both of these abilities can be either blocked or reversed). Not only that, but some characters can even gain power by entering other, higher levels, and much more than you'd probably expect. With the possibility of combos, attacks that go well with other capsules, and double powers, I'm only scraping the surface. Budokai 3 has a whole lot to offer as a fighter.

All in all, the gameplay is excellent. It exceeds that of Budokai 2's gameplay, and that of the originals by far. It could even, arguably, exceed that of Soul Calibur 2's gameplay, depending on what aspects. If any area makes this game a must buy, it's this one (and this game is, in fact, a must buy).

Replay Value

While you can (eventually...) max out all characters' stats, and finish Dragon Universe with all characters, and get all capsules (basically, get 100%), you'll still likely come back to this game to face off against your friends via either Duel or Dragon Arena. These two modes are the funnest modes, and can be endless (given you don't define 'the end' as getting the highest stats with a character). You'll play this game. A lot. Long after you beat it, too (though online play could really help - you hear that Atari?).

Verdict - Rent or Buy?

As I've already said, Budokai 3 is a must buy. This is possibly one of the deepest fighters in terms of mechanics to come to a console in some time, and can easily compete with the likes of Soul Calibur 2 and Tekken. If you're looking for a good fighter, DBZ fan or not, Budokai 3 is the route to go. This will satisfy your fighting need, no question.

9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/04