If you're a Dragonball fan, you've no doubt probably got a large collection of Dragonball Z related videogames by now, as it's a close battle between Dragonball Z and Nartuo as being the most pimped out manga/anime property. Thankfully, when it comes to Dragonball Z games, the Budokai Tenkaichi name is one you can associate with excellence. However, is Budokai Tenkaichi 3 a big enough upgrade from number two in order to justify a purchase?

THE STORY SO FAR
Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (DBZ 3 from here on) has one of the longest and deepest fighting game stories I've ever played. Basically, from beginning to end, you'll play out all the major Dragonball Z sagas and the movies, meaning you'll have played almost the entire franchise from beginning to end. Told through narration and in-game cinematics with the real voice actors reprising their roles for their characters, it feels exactly like watching a playable episode of the anime unfold. Unlike some fighting games, completing 100% of DBZ 3's story will take you a good handful of hours.

Unlike Budokai Tenkaichi 2, where even if you won a battle, the game still needed you to lose, in Budokai Tenkaichi 3 you are actually usually always given the point of view of the character who needs to win the battle, so you won't always be playing as one of the heroic regulars, and instead could find yourself playing as Frieza or Cell as they transform from one form to their next more powerful one.

Another thing new about the story system is that the story continues throughout the battle you are playing, as you'll hear both the characters involved in the battle – as well as those on the sideline – describing the story that happens. Besides that, as you are playing, you'll often see an icon for the R3 thumbstick, which you'll need to click in order to advance the story, calling forth another partner or turning into another form. All in all, the story is presented excellently, letting you need to know everything there is to know about a scenario even if you've never read the manga or seen the anime before.

GAMEPLAY
In many ways, fights are setup like other fighters out there, but the controls have been simplified so almost anyone can come in and play right away, but only those that know exactly what they are doing will be the ones to win time after time. For instance, you don't have to perform any fireball type control swipes like the Street Fighter franchise is known for or memorize any overly difficult button hit combos like in Mortal Kombat. Instead, rather, all you really have to do is face the enemy, get close to them, and hit the Square and Triangle button, with the Triangle button being for the more long range attacks, but it adapts to a combo system of sorts when you are close to the other character you are fighting.

However, the one thing that separates DBZ 3 from the others are the massive environments in which you can fly around in, which is something of itself since you don't usually have large environments whatsoever to run around in, hide, and fight. The other thing is the flying, where your characters can hover and attack both on the ground or in the air.

Since the game uses the controller pretty normally, nothing is overly complex and everything you can do with a little practice and knowing what does what, such as figuring out how to do dash attacks, properly block and evade attack, build up your Ki, transform into more powerful versions of your character (like making Goku go Super Saiyan) and other such moves. At first, unless you've played the series before, the controls might come off a bit frustrating since it will seem like you are rather limited in what you can do, but once you start to see how combos work and what does what, you'll enjoy the simplicity and be whooping butt in no time.

When looking at new fighting mechanics, not much is new from version 2 to version 3, though there are more dash attacks, the ability to instant transport when countering a counter, and there are even some cool scenarios where, just like the anime, characters will quickly throw punches and dodge over and over again.

Besides the bulky Story Mode of the game, you've also got your more traditional round robin climb up the power ranking ladders as seen in previous games, as well as the ability to compete in single matches or in tournament brackets. Though those modes transfer over from the second game, DBZ 3 also features a new Ultimate Battle mode, which has several different game modes, such as picking a group of players to fight a pre-determined group in a challenge, or even a faux RPG type mode where for ten days you train and then fight on the last day after juggling building up your defense, attack, and resting up your health. If you have one of the previous Budokai Tenkaichi game discs, you can also use DBZ 3 to unlock even more stuff for you to play around with. There is also a new Battle Replay mode, which lets you save your favorite fights, replaying them so it's almost exactly like watching an anime – very nice.

DBZ 3 also brings back the evolution system that lets your fighters gain experience and level up, which means that typically daunting battles should be easier on your patience thanks to all your previous endeavors. To use the system, you must buy items, which you can then allocate into several slots, and each item can affect certain traits such as a higher defense, more attack power, more health, etc. Once equipped, these items will auto level up, but characters won't budge a bit unless they have an item attached to them. By completing the different modes, you'll unlock Z Points that you can use to buy the items.

The fighting itself is fast and furious, with combos, power hits that send players flying across the level, zipping here and there with bursts of speed through the air, and every single item from the series is replicated faithfully here, such as being able to transform during battle, to the duels of two combatants running into each other during an attack, or the tug of war power trip that goes on when two conflicting kamehameha hit each other.

A feature for the game that is rather nice is the customized characters, where you can actually exchange password characters with other players, so they can play against the character you play with on a regular basis, which could be ten times as powerful as the player you send the character to.

It's also hard to imagine that it could be improved any after the last game, but now there are even more characters in the game, rounding out to an astounding 150 characters, with some characters even being completely new to the series. Non-fans will see many of the characters as nothing more than extra padding, not seeing a difference between one transformation level to the next, but the fans will certainly appreciate all the different versions in the game.

GRAPHICS
If you are a fan of the anime you'll absolutely be in love with the graphics of the game, because though not real looking, it looks exactly as if you were playing a portion of the anime, which is exactly how the game should look and feel. The characters do a great job of reflecting the damage they take, because just like the series, their clothes will tear and they'll get smudge marks on themselves where they've been getting beat up. Though the game pretty much looks like Budokai Tenkaichi 2, there are plenty of new animations, graphical effects, and changed up environments to make the graphics even better looking than they once were.

SOUND
Not too much in the way of ambient music or anything, but the sound of fights sounds really great, especially the powerful grunts of the characters and the collision certain moves and environmental destruction causes. However, the real draw is the voice acting, which remains faithful to the series, as it sounds like everyone in the game was actually voiced by the actors who voiced them in the American dubbed anime series. Some voices sound goofy or odd, but you know what, that is Dragonball Z, so I'm glad they stuck by the source material.

IN CONCLUSION
For a fan, Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has been an absolute joy, as it lets me feel as if I'm watching all my favorite moments from the series, only this time their fates are at my hands and my hands alone; it is so fulfilling to take a character that you love, make them transform into their ultimate form, and then unleash their most powerful attack on an unsuspecting foe. Non-fans will like the game too, but will like it more for the controls and deep story mode rather than the nostalgic joy of seeing all your faves. Overall, it is a great and really enjoyable fighter for the PS2.

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