Dragonball seems like perfect material for an awesome fighting game, with plenty of over-the-top special attacks and interesting characters. And, while certainly not anywhere near the masters like Soul Calibur and Virtua Fighter, the Budokai series has always been a competent fighting experience. The latest in the series still can’t touch the greats, but it has come a lot closer with this one. The fighting system has been given some much-needed tweaks, and the cool sense of style from the show is completely in tact. Fighting fans, even those who couldn’t care less about Dragonball, should take a look at this one.

Perhaps inspired by Mortal Kombat: Deception’s single player mode, Budokai 3 offers up a pretty similar solo quest. You’ll follow your choice of characters through several of the DBZ storylines, and each character offers a fairly different experience. It’s worth going through with your favorites, at least. In between disappointing slideshow plot summaries, you’ll fly around the world map going from hot spot to hot spot, sometimes fighting with those you meet and other times just talking. This is also where you’ll unlock most of the hidden content, so players will undoubtedly spend lots of time here. It’d be nice to have some anime clips or in-game cutscenes to move the story along, though. These slideshows and talking heads just don’t do it.

As you win fights in that mode, you’ll earn experience points which you can use to tweak your character. There are quite a few stats to adjust, as well as customizable special moves. Once you’re satisfied with your character, you can write down his password and throw it up on the net or give it to your buddies. If they input that password on their machine, they’ll be able to fight your character. It’s a very poor substitute for online play, but it’s a decent throw-a-away extra nonetheless. The other modes are standard fighting game options. There’s a tournament mode, which pits players against increasingly difficult opponents The training mode is a nice touch, and even Budokai vets should give it a whirl. There’s enough new stuff here that they’ll need it.



The basic fight engine is the same, with a simple four button setup: punch, kick, ki (energy attacks) and guard. Pressing directional buttons while striking can alter your attacks, and executing powerful ki attacks is a simple matter of pressing forward and the ki button. If two players simultaneously launch a high energy Ki attack, it’s a button mashing contest with really impressive special effects to see who will take damage. It’s easy and fast to dash around the screen; most of these characters are really fast, so dashing across the whole arena only takes a second or so. This simplicity works to the game’s advantage, especially when some of the new elements require excellent timing.

Perhaps the biggest, and most enjoyable addition, is the teleport counter. Right before your opponent’s blow lands, you can warp right behind him and dish out some serious damage. It’s great fun, and adds a little extra strategy to the matches. You can also simply sidestep around your opponent’s attacks, or attempt to deflect them. There are plenty of defensive options in Budokai 3. Going into Hyper Mode boosts your offensive capabilities, but causes your Ki energy to drain. Once you’re out, you’ll return to normal and be stunned for a moment. Once powered up, though, you can unleash Dragon Rush and Ultimate attacks.

Dragon Rushes put the game into a sort of rock-paper-scissors mode. Both players press one of the face buttons, and if the buttons match, the defending player deflects and counters the attack. If the buttons are different, the onslaught continues and both players enter more buttons, up to three times. It can do some incredible damage if all three waves hit. The only problem here is that it triggers little in-game cinematics, which while impressive at first, don’t differ all that much from one another. They’re unskippable, and only serve to interrupt the otherwise fast fighting.



Ultimate Attacks are a different beast altogether, but they too have their own attack/defense mode. When one is initiated, both players are asked to hit a specific button with specific timing. The player that does the best wins; if the attacker wins, that defender is pretty much dead. Fortunately, the Ultimate Attacks can only be used in very specific circumstances. And, like Dragon Rushes, Ultimate Attacks suffer from fairly long animations. These alternate methods of attack serve as a good break from the standard fighting mechanics.

Those moves, along with your other ki attacks, consume ki energy to use. Ki refills as you fight, and can be quickly filled by leaving yourself vulnerable and charging up. Managing your ki is an important part of the fight, because without it, you’re fairly limited in your options. Thankfully, it charges pretty quickly on its own, so you’ll never be without it for too long. There’s also a fatigue meter; when that becomes full, your character is vulnerable to the devestating Ultimate attacks.

Budokai 3’s visuals are one of its strongest assets. The game perfectly captures the look and feel of the show. Some of the character look just as good, if not better, than their animated counterparts. Special effects on the super moves are impressive, especially when two energy attacks collide. The animation feels a tad stiff, as it always has in this series, and it’d be nice if they finally reworked that for the inevitable sequel. On the audio side, they’ve again gotten together all the English dub talent with positive results. It’d be nice to have an option to turn the original Japanese voices on, though, for the actual fights at least.




Article By: Joe