Pros: the fighting engine has been over hauled and is better
Cons: collecting Dragon Balls no longer gives you the great prizes
The bottom line: Coming Through
I got DBZ Budokai 3 last month when I found it on sale for 32 dollars at wal-mart in some of there after Christmas clearance sale. I picked it up because I heard it was better then Budokai 2, which I liked a lot and wanted to try Budokai 3 out. Is it the best Budokai yet, well it takes some enormous steps forward has far has the battle system goes, but a few steps back when it comes to the actual presentation of the game.

Story.
The story for the most part is that of the DBZ sagas from Saiyan to Buu you take a character and move them through the story line of DBZ. There are also a few story points from the DBZ movies and GT that come up if you play the game a 2nd time. Now there is a problem with DBZ Budokai 3 in this area though, the story usually just follows the battles whatever character you choose fights. In other words if you pick Yamcha you won’t be fighting any of the battles on Namick. Unfortunately there are no meanwhile scenes for you to see, you see a scene where Yamcha dies and then you see a scene where he’s alive in the cell saga. It doesn’t tell you about Bulma using the Dragon Balls to wish him back to life. In other words if your new to the DBZ series you might actually want to check out the original DBZ Budokai or download a spoiler sheet from the internet.

Graphics.
DBZ Budokai graphics weren’t that great they used lightly shaded sharp edge characters to display the animated effect. The 2nd Budokai had the same character models with a lot of cell shaded added to them. The effect on the graphics was amazing and it brought the look to the series to the home console, but the cel shading on that was a bit over done and the characters had a waxy shine to them.

The celshading in her is a lot better and that bright shine that they all had is now gone and the character looks on model. They also redid a lot of the characters in there animation and attacks and the overall effect is a nice one.

The only thing I am disappointed about the graphics though is that they reused a lot of the old attack scenes things like Vegetas big bang attack and final flash are the same from Budokai 2. Of course there a few that come off a little bit different if the moves back fire, Hercules present for you has a funny and painful ending if he screws it up.

Sound.
A few Dragon Ball Z like sound tracks, and a new theme song which is fairly catchy but not really memorable. The music keeps the game going but it’s pretty generic. The VA's in the game are the same in the cartoon from the Frieza saga on. If you like the VA’s for the cartoon then you’ll like the VA in the game.

Game play.
Ok first off Dimps did some major rehauling of the battle system. The biggest thing is rather then having long punch and kick combos to do big name attacks there all done by going to hyper mode and then entering a dragon rush attack or pushing all attack buttons. What this does it makes the game extremely simple to get into because now you can do the big moves anytime you want without screwing up the button combos. This of course brings the game down to that of a beginner but they added in a lot of other things to keep the game spicy.

Next is the ability to dodge punches. When you block now you’ll still take damage, but if you tap X at the right time your Ki meter will go down a little bit but your character will dodge the attack and then can counter attack if you’re fast enough. Another thing added in this is the ability to teleport. When an enemy attacks you if you press block and forward at the right time you’ll loose two whole Ki meters but will automatically move behind your opponent so you can put some hurt on them. Another thing they also have is a chase attack which is done the same pretty much has teleport but it’s done when somebody is sent sky word. Pressing the O button at the right time will teleport right behind person who is flying upwards and hit him again. If you’re fast enough you can actually combo this and have a little ping pong match in the air.

Speaking of the Ki meter that also change, now instead of one meter with a number besides it you actually see seven lines that fill up. There are two kinds now though, big ones which fill up automatically even without powering up, and small ones that will drop if you don’t keep powering up. Transformations will usually turn some of the small lines big so you can do more special attacks. And then there is of course the above hyper mode and dragon rush that I was talking about.

If you press L2 button your character will go into a hyper mode and glow red. They will no longer flinch if they get attack but his KI drops rapidly and won’t refill. If it falls to zero your character will be exhausted and won’t move for a couple of seconds while you twirl the analog sticks.

There are two ways to exit from the hyper mode before that happens the first is to send your enemy flying and doing a chase attack, but in hyper mode it will enter you into a dragon rush attack. In this one you get to pick a button and press it, so does your opponent, if it matches the dragon rush attack ends. If it doesn’t the onslaught continues with the button pushed removed. It goes for 3 turns and if there is no match by the end of the 3 turn the person attacking will be able to do a big move that does a lot of damage. Also some moves like the final flash and the warp kamahmea can be done only if the dragon rush attack is done successfully for 3 turns.

The 2nd way to exit is by doing a super attack like the big bang or the spirit bombs. If they manage to hit the animation for the attack goes on, but two meter start going. The first one fills up quickly, the idea is to hit X when it’s filled up. The closer it is to full the more the 2nd meter is filled. Both players do this and if the attacker has the most on the 2nd meter by the end of the attack it goes off ok and there opponent gets major damage. But if the defending player gets the most full they defend the attack and get less damage, or in some cases the attack backfires on the attacker and they get hit instead.

Finally there is a beam struggle. If you get two death move beams like a kamhamea done at the same time they enter a beam struggle where players twirl the analog stick and whoever looses gets blasted.

The modes.
Dragon universe mode.
I liked the board game on DBZ Budokai 2 just a bit better then the free flying dragon universe mode. This is a fun mode to play in but it doesn’t have the strategy or the choice of characters you had in the Budokai 2. In this one you pick 1 of 12 characters and then fly around on a map of the Dragonball world. There is a red mark for the next required fight in the series. But if you don’t want to you can visit cities if there is anybody important to talk to, has well has look for things like capsules and money lying around. If you find the dragon radar you can fly around with that on and if it you see a red dot anywhere close by you can pick up a dragon ball. Find seven Dragon balls and complete the dragon universe mode in order to summon Shenron the dragon and get your wish granted.

But this is where another knock against the dragon universe mode is made, the wishes only apply to your 12 characters, you can wish for voice data to be unlocked, the break through capsule, and to unlock certain armor. That’s pretty much it and once you’ve wish for all of these collecting dragon balls becomes pointless.

Still it’s nice to see what the Dragon world looks like, where all the cities are in relation to each other, and where all the fights happen. And they did do well to consider some major issues in where to place areas in the game. If you notice that Grandpa Gohans place is on tops of mountains where steams runs. Then has you fly around you cross a desert, followed by mountains where huge mushrooms grow. In other words this is the same path Bulma and Goku go through in there first quest for the Dragonballs, in the original Dragon ball series. They also have muscle tower and Snow’s village on the very north part of the map.

Speaking about the original DB series they added a few more things that fans of the original DB series will appreciate. First is kid Goku can be unlocked complete with a power pole and the same Dragon Fist move that he used to defeat King Piccolo. Next is Launch who will some times appear in special events during the Tien and Vegeta Dragon Universe mode. She is also the person who runs the capsule shop this time.

For the two or three GT fans out there is also Omega Shenron to unlock, has well has Goku and Vegeta’s ability to go Super Sayian 4. Pan will also be there in the load game menu; unfortunately she is not able to be unlocked. It’s to bad I think has far has beating up an annoying anime character goes people would enjoy beating up Pan just has much has beating up Pikachu in the original Super Smash Bros.

World Tournament mode.
The same has usually your competing in a world martial arts tournament of varying difficulties. If you win you’ll get some money. And like all the other games if you’re sent out of the ring you’ll automatically loose. However with the ability to teleport it’s a lot easier to come back from the corner of the ring and to get back in the game.

Dragon Arena.
The new mode here is Dragon Arena mode which basically just let’s you fight and level up characters in an RPG type mode. You pick a character, choose an enemy with a certain power level, and if you win you get to level up and choose what stat you want to power up. You can keep doing this in till you build a character you want, it’s good if you have a friend who enjoys this mode and has his own character build to battle. Otherwise it gets old really fast.

There is of course the usual two player dual and practice modes.

Final Recommendation.
DBZ Budokai 3 has a lot better battle system then the last 2 but it’s main Dragon Universe mode comes up a bit lacking, especially in what you can get for going through the trouble of collecting the dragon balls. The Dragon Arena is also a bit of a bust has an extra mode in the game. But the better battle system alone should get those interested in a good fighter, and those DBZ nuts to buy it.