Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

"A solid addition to the series."

As a big Dragon Ball Z fan, I usually play most of the games that are released stateside. Recently the Budokai series has blessed us with a spree of quality titles and soon followed the Budokai Tenkaichi series. Rather than the standard fighting game, like Budokai, Budokai Tenkaichi went to a 3rd person perspective and allowed you free roam around the arena. This formula worked well for the first two installments and has continued to now on the current installment.



Graphics: 7/10
The game sports cel-shading, this gives the game a look which represents the anime well. It looks nice, but it isn't much of an improvement over Budokai Tenkaichi 2. It is sleeker and smoother but there isn't a major change. A major turn-off that I had was that most of the arenas are ripped exactly from BT2. So, if you played the previous installments, it will seem a little stale. Things such as transformations differ and are not just the all same animation as in BT2. The textures could be improved but the character models are solid. The game lacks widescreen display which isn't acceptable at this day and age.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay is great. If you enjoyed the previous installments, then you will definitely enjoy this game. The controls have been revamped. The developers have removed the cursor completely, so you do not have to be pointing at the screen the whole time. Motion sensing has been removed from rising/descending as well as dashing, which were somewhat frustrating previously. Otherwise, the game controls mainly with 2 attack buttons (A and B). A does Rush attacks which are your basic quick attacks. B makes your character throw Ki blasts and also throws in an attack when used during a series of rush attacks. My main gripe is the addition of motion sensing to Smash Attacks, which are knock back hits. In BT2, Smashes were performed by holding A and a direction on the analog stick. In BT3, rather than pushing the stick, you must move the Wii-Remote in a direction. This can be frustrating as the game can get very fast paced and it would have been much simpler to leave out the motion. Online is included this time around, however, at the moment, there is a terrible problem with lag. In my personal experience, I have never had a lag-free match. The game does a fantastic job of replicating the intensity of the show and with over 150 characters, you cannot go wrong.

Story: 6/10
The story mode (Dubbed “Dragon History) has both advantages and disadvantages over the previous installment. In the previous game, you played, for the most part, every battle in the Z series (Dragon Ball and GT were limited). While some enjoyed this, others such as myself, got tired of the mode as it dragged on with many pointless fights. In BT3, they improve this by only using the main fights. However, they cut out too much. The main sagas of Z range from about three to seven battles, while the entire GT series spans over about 4 battles total. Each movie gets its own battle as well. The game leaves out most of the story and does not transition well, so if you are not familiar with the Dragon Ball story, then you may find yourself lost along the way. A unique feature added is that rather than fighting the same battle over with the different people there, you have a command (The 1 button), that allows you to start an event as it occurs during the story, such as a small cutscene that explains what is occurring. This allows one battle to span many fights, rather than fighting them individually. If you wish to do so, you can ignore the command and commence the fight as usual. My main complaint is that the mode is way too short. You can pretty much breeze through it in a couple of days. Along with that, you will find that most of the characters and transformations are already unlocked, giving less motivation to go through the mode. Also, if you played the previous games, or watched the anime, the story may seem stale as you may have played through and watched the story multiple times.

Sound: 7/10

The sound is nothing great, yet it isn't terrible by any means. It is very energetic and catchy. The songs match the tunes of the anime very well and do a fair job at representing it. There is nothing really memorable about the music, but it could be much worse than it actually is.



If you are a fan of fighting games or just like Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is a good addition to the series. It may have its flaws, but the game is still extremely fun and very enjoyable. Regardless if you are new to the series or enjoyed the previous installments, the game is a great experience and is worth picking up. I give this game a solid 8/10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/17/07

Game Release: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (US, 12/03/07)