Dragon Ball have been around for almost 2 decades now. Infact its actually one of the best anime ever drawn in the history of anime cartoons. Although the manga and anime was awesome, Dragon Ball does not have a good history on console games. When Budokai came to the PS2, it was a game loved by fans but ditched by fighting game fans. Then came Budokai 2 which was much improved than the first Budokai, its good but not great. After the dissapointment Dimps and Atari had with the pass 2 Budokais, then here comes Budokai 3. Infact, its actually the BEST Dragon Ball game ever and one of the best games on the PS2. Enough of those history lessons, lets get onto my review for Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3.
Graphics:
The cel-shaded Dragon Ball Z/GT/OAV characters are back. Although there is not a big difference from the Budokai 2, but the cel-shading are cleaner. They add even more anime feel to the game, and thats cool. The biggest improvement in the graphics are of course the auras, explosions, and most importantly the background designs. Auras have been extensively improved, it looks almost exactly as in the anime. I was actually blown off by the explosions and ki blasts. If you did an Ultimate Move on your opponent, you will see a HUGE blast of explosion from space. Yes its just in the anime, best of all it looks really beautiful. The bacground designs have been improved so much, everything on the background are in 3D. When you smash your opponent into a mountain, you'll see flying bits of rocks everywhere. The graphics are definitely a great improvement from Budokai 2.
Sound:
Everything music from the Budokai 2 are here and of course there are a few new ones. The voice acting in the game just sounds exactly like in the anime(english dubbed version). It would have been awesome if there was japanese voice overs and cantonese voice overs though. The ki blasts and explosions sounds terrific, if you turn your volume on your TV real loud it will actually sound like a real blast!
Gameplay:
This is where Dimps have improved so much from Budokai 2. Budoakai 3 defintely have a real deep gameplay, not as deep as Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution though, but its deeper than Soul Calibur 2. Trust me on that. Many new features have been added to the Budokai 3. You can instantly teleport right at the back of your opponent and hit him flying all accross the screen this time. Infact, you can even ping-pong him back and forth the screen if your timing is good. This is definitely useful when your opponent pulls off one their pesky long string of combos. Keep in mind though, 1 teleportation takes 1 ki bar away from your ki gauge. Speaking of KI, this time there is a baseline ki feature. Meaning, if your character have 3 baseline ki's, your ki will generate back to 3 bars automatically. For example, Goku have 3 baseline Ki, if his ki goes lower than that, it will start to regenerate. This goes the same when you transform. An SSJ4 Son Goku will have a baseline of 6, so it will automatically regenerate to that level. This is to make transformation last MUCH longer than before.
The coolest feature in Budokai 3 is of course the new Dragon Rush mode. First you have to power up into hyper mode by hitting P+K+G+E, then your body will glow red. Smash your opponent into the air or make him fly then press the E button imedietly to go into Dragon Rush mode. Dragon Rush is freaking cool to watch while you keep your hand on a rock-scissors-paper mini game. Which if you win you suceed in dealing pulling out an extremely powerful attack which can actually take out 1 to 2 life bars. Even more if you have a Dragon Rush ultimate move equipped. If I have 4 thumbs, I would have given Dimps and Atari a Quadraple Thumbs UP!
Controls:
The controls are really responsive, and the best is the combos are easy to pull out and learn. The X button is for guard, square button for Punch, triangle button for kick and O button for ki attacks. Learn to combo them up, and you will be unstopable.
BUY it or rEnT it?!
I will only say this once, ANY Dragon Ball fan MUST buy this game. Its the best ever Dragon Ball game. I can guarantee that its nothing like Budokai 1 and 2, its , mainly a whole new awesome Dragon Ball game which closely resembles the anime it self. For hardcore-fighting fans, you should try this game out as well. Its extremely deep. The battles can be so fast paced if you are an experianced player fighting another experianced player. Definitely buy this game if you are a Dragon Ball fan and a hardcore-fighting fan.
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