Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for Wii: Review

Almost like clockwork, the newest Dragon Ball Z has arrived. The newest incarnation is Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (DBZ3). Each new installment has brought more characters and better play. Can this newest version keep up with its predecessors? Keep reading to find out if DBZ3 for Wii is the bomb or just a bomb.

Dragon Ball Z is an anime fighter game, which pits your character against another in hand-to-hand combat. Each character, and there are 161 of them, has a different look, different attacks, different strengths and weaknesses, etc. Characters from earlier versions get transferred to each new version, so while there are a lot of new ones there are plenty of old favorites as well. There are also 20 different arenas to fight in.

There are four modes available for play. The main one is Dragon History, which leads you through a bunch of battles from the original series and movies. The second mode is called Dragon World Tour and lets players fight in a tournament and gain ranks. Thirdly, there is the Ultimate Battle mode, which is basically a game of survival. Finally, there is the on-line mode, which allows you to play anyone else on the planet with the game. The on-line mode also has a really great ranking system. Wii is the only game system that currently allows this, making it very attractive.

Since this is an anime fighter game, it looks just like a hand-drawn cartoon. The colors are crisp and sharp, thanks to cel-shaded graphics. Character movements are very fluid and realistic, although like other Wii games, there is a certain lag element. Each DBZ version seems to have slightly better graphics than the last and this one is no exception. Old fans and new players alike will enjoy the visuals on this game.

If you're an old fan of Dragon Ball, you'll be happy to know very little has changed with the audio from the last DB game to come out, except for a little bit of polishing up. For new players, you'll find there are a lot of voice-overs in both English and Japanese. There's also a lot of really great rock music to inspire you as you battle. Sound effects in DBZ3 are pretty good, too. The audio in this game will please any gamer. This is one area the Dragon Ball guys have nailed perfectly.

The game utilizes the Wii Remote and nunchuk controllers to give players a real feeling of battle. Blocks, dashes, punches and ki moves are all done by using buttons. Players can use special attacks by acting out the move physically, which is probably the best aspect of this really fun game. Of course, if you aren't into the physical aspect of DBZ3, you can use the Classic or GameCube controllers. But then, if you didn't like the physical part, why would you buy a Wii console in the first place? Using the controllers is a pretty simple process and learning the moves is fairly easy. Each character uses the same fighting format which means once you learn one, you learn all of them.

If you enjoy the Dragon Ball series and want to immerse yourself in it again, you'll definitely love this game. It's bigger and better than its predecessors but still easy enough to learn for folks just starting out. The on-line portion is a little spotty right now but I'm sure that will be cleared up before too long. This is important because the on-line part is what really separates the Wii version from all the others. There isn't a really deep plot but it doesn't need one. This is a fighter game for people who enjoy fighter games. DBZ3 is easy to learn and with all those characters, it will have a lot of re-playability.