Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 3rd March 2008

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The Dragon Ball Z universe decends on the wii.

Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Details:

Goto Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Game Page

	Beat 'em Up
	Nintendo Wii
	Namco Bandai
	Namco Bandai

12+

Out Now

N/A

Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is the latest release in the Budokai Tenkaichi series of games. These games all centre on the huge battles that take place in the DBZ universe using a huge range of the characters from the popular anime series.

For the uninformed the characters in this game are powerful aliens, some of which look similar to humans, some can also undergo transformations to increase their power. All the major characters are powerful, can fly and attack at lightening pace as well as use their energy known as Ki to perform devastating energy attacks. This game is the biggest yet with over 160 characters to fight with, mostly from the Dragonball Z series, but others form the prequel Dragonball and the final Dragonball GT series.

The basic principle is the same as the previous games, the fights take place in large stages, most of which have been seen in the anime series and are free-roaming and contain scenery that can be destroyed during the battles. At heart this is a fighting game with the added extra of the Ki-based energy attacks mentioned above. Each character has 5 special moves that they can utilise, but before you can use these moves you have to power-up using the Ki charge command, this will fill up your energy bar, once the bar is full you will be at maximum power and this will mean that your character can now attack more furiously than before, but be careful because your energy bar decreases quite quickly once you reach the maximum. Different special moves use different amounts of Ki depending on how powerful they are. The characters fifth special move is unique and is usually their most powerful, and so this will use up all of your energy. There are also the more traditional combo moves in the game, performed by quick button combinations.

It’s at this point I should highlight an important factor, although the game can be played with the Wii remote and nunchuck, I found it too cumbersome to use. The special moves require you to hold down on the control pad and perform a gesture with the remote as in the previous game, but I found that this did not always work. Also, you have to flick the nunchuck to speed towards your opponent and this sometimes happened by accident. I’m sure that if you practise enough, this control system could be used effectively! However, my preferred method of control was to use my old Gamecube control, as this is more suited to a traditional fighting game like this. Also, by using this control, all the special moves for all characters require the same button presses (Hold Z and press down on the analogue stick and the press Y, for the characters final move, for example) and this made progress in the game much easier.

There are many different modes of play, Dragon History is the story mode, where you take part in fights from the various sagas in the DBZ storyline, once you’ve won a battle, the next one opens up and as you complete a saga, another is unlocked. These fights frequently feature cut scenes in between the fighting which are available after a certain amount of time. These cut scenes are reminiscent of the anime series, but are lazily animated, because the characters merely stand in their battle poses and talk. If there was a little more movement or expression from the characters these could be the best parts of the game as the voice acting is spot on, even if it’s not the original cast of the anime show.

Ultimate Battle mode is a new feature that is essentially a survival mode. There are two versions inside the Ultimate Battle mode itself, the first is Sim Dragon, and this allows you to choose what activity you do each day, such as training, exploring or resting. By training you increase your stats and make your character stronger but then you lose health, and so you have to rest but this may cause your attacking stats to drop. By exploring you can meet other characters and gain items that may help or hinder you. You get ten days to utilise as you see fit and then you have to fight against an opponent. If you win you can continue on your adventure, there are seven opponents to take on in total. It’s simpler than it sounds to play, but is tough to beat! The second choice is Sim 100, which is basically 100 pre-chosen battles that you have to clear using only one character or a team, so it’s kind of like a challenge mode. This is again quite tough. There is also the Dragon World Tour where you take part in different tournament events; some have rules that mean you cannot land outside the ring and so on. This is also playable in multiplayer.

Every fight you win in all the modes above give you Z points, these can be used to upgrade and customise your favourite characters. This is done by buying Z items using Z points and equipping them to your character, these Z items all do different things, such as increasing your attack power or giving you the ability to heal yourself. Each character is limited to carrying a certain number of Z items, but this can be increased by levelling up the character. All this can be done in Evolution Z mode in the game. These customised characters can be used in the tournament, multiplayer and challenge modes.

The other modes include the basic Duel, which is simply the multiplayer option, where the battle can be customised to your liking. There is also a training mode that explains how to play the game and allows you to practise against the computer. Also included is a huge reference section that tells you all about the characters in the game, and their origins.

The newest feature is the new Wi-Fi battles in Dragon Net Battle, which allows you to play people from around the world, and this is the first DBZ game to utilise this feature! There are friendly battles as well as ranked fights that allow you to climb up the online leader board.

Graphically, it looks fantastic and the cell-shaded characters that are reminiscent of those featured in the TV show will please fans. The special moves are as screen filling as you would expect, and are a real light show to behold. The characters are smoothly animated and there is no slow down, which is essential in a fast-paced game such as this. The arenas are well designed and are kept in the same style as the characters. The only negative is the previously mentioned cut scenes in the story mode, which are quite disappointing.

The voice acting as I have already mentioned is brilliant, and as a fan was really impressive, and definitely added to the overall feel of the game. The sound effects of the energy attacks are top notch too, and even the music keeps the anime spirit of the game alive.

There are some problems that have to be addressed, although the basic controls are easy to get to grips with I found it near impossible to perform the combo moves, they are probably possible but require a lot of practise! For this reason many of my battles ended up being won by using the same tactic of quick punches and then a powerful physical attack to force my opponent back! Followed by a Ki charge and a special move and then repeat. Whereas the computer would be able to use the combination moves to knock me all over the place with ease. Also with the cut scene battles in the story mode, most of the time, you would be just trying to survive the fight because the opponent would be too strong and then when you reach the final scene of that battle, the computer would automatically activate your ultimate special move that would instantly defeat your opponent! This meant that a lot of the storyline battles boiled down to simply trying to survive.

Overall though I really enjoyed this and as a fan it was nice to see that this range of games is now concentrating more on the fighting aspect unlike the previous games. This is a huge and challenging game, with an extensive cast of characters to choose from and upgrade to your hearts content. It is a shame that the Wii controls aren’t suited to this game, but I have not allowed this to cloud my judgement, and have reviewed the game and not the control functionality. If you’re a fan of the anime or games already then I think this is the best one so far and with the online battles, this is defiantly a step in the right direction for the series.