Gone next-gen already?
Check out Justin Boot's review of the Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on the Wii here
For a generation of children, teenagers and adults who refuse to grow up alike, there was one cartoon series in which dragged us all to the television every week, without fail. Pokémon became followed religiously by young and even younger alike for it’s over the top battles, predictable storylines and Japanese charm with enough merchandise to shake a very thick stick at.
This is of course, if you are a kid of the nineties. Rewind a generation to the eighties and you can switch the word Pokémon for Dragon Ball Z. The two’s spiritual connections also have been translated into the gaming world over the last decade, and unusually for a license, have generally produced successful and critically acclaimed virtual experiences. Tenkaichi 3 pleasantly continues the trend and produces one of the most complete fighting games in years, and a welcome boost amongst the PS2’s final moments.
The game plays like both of the previous Tenkaichi iterations to have been released on PS2. Battles consist of flying round a large open environment, firing balls of energy, repeatedly hammering square to send the opponent flying to bide time whilst you charge up for a special attack. It’s a difficult style of play to become accustomed to if this is your first time playing DBZ, but after a few pummelling’s from Vegeta’s angry-bear form and things start to click. Battles in the story mode are very scripted, as events from the cartoon series need to be squeezed in but never to the degree where you feel like you’re totally on rails. If you want to complete the game, you’ve got to be a skilled player which is more than can be said for a lot of this winter's releases.
A click of the R3 button when prompted and an event will occur which influences the style of the battle, for instance you may have the option to switch characters. You’re rarely forced into changing the battle scenario, but it’s usually wise to unless you’re extremely confident at the game, as most of these scenes consist of your character getting pissed off and, like we all do when we’re not happy; tense our muscles and send out a glowing charge to make us fifty times stronger than we were a few moments ago. It doesn’t make the battle drastically easier than it was, but gives the player the sense that it’s their turn to beat the living daylights out of the opponent. Towards the end of a battle it may be necessary, such as to unleash a maximum power attack. All in all, the system works very well, with the only issues being the long conversations between the opponents, announcing constantly how dangerous and powerful their going to be in their next stage. It’s a wonder they managed to fit the characters ego’s onto a single DVD, it really puts San Andreas and Oblivion to shame.
The game gives the player a huge array of game modes. When the box says there’s 40+ hours of game play to be had, they mean it, and despite myself not completing all of these modes, the incentive is there to do so because the game feels so polished and complete. The presentation is almost perfect for this type of game, the menus are attractive and in tune with the rest of the game. The characters in the background reading out what each option does, is an old school touch which unfortunately seems to have gone out of fashion. The cel shading keeps the game very true to its cartoon roots, and the frame rate remains consistently high throughout the most complex special moves.
In this final stage of a consoles life, when the next generation is in full swing, games like this would usually have benefitted from the next gen make over. Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is not one of them. The game also appears on the Wii, which seems the natural console of choice for the series to progress to, as there is very little what could be done to make the next game in the series any better on this hardware. Whilst the Wii version features an online multiplayer mode, due to lack of online support on the PS2 this version has to make do with good old local multiplayer, which like any fighting game provides a large amount of room for competition without lag worries.
I personally had little knowledge of the franchise before playing this game, and still find it one of the most enjoyable fighting games of recent times. The story mode introduces you to the key storylines which is sufficient enough to understand the style of the world of Dragon Ball Z without trying to squeeze in every storyline the series saw. The game may not look appealing to an average gamer who doesn’t care for the cartoon, but given the chance, it is a very approachable game.
As a package, there are fewer games on the market which offer such a complete experience. The vast array of modes with an easy to use, hard to master combat system and the ability to customise the characters will provide hours of entertainment to anyone with a slight interest in Japanese cartoons. If everything to do with DBZ was removed from the game and replaced with Pokémon and released on next generation consoles, this would fly off shelves worldwide.
As it is, Budokai Tenkaichi 3 will probably be totally ignored by all but the most hardcore DBZ fans, which is a crying shame. The PS2 may have thrown out its last classic titles with Okami and God of War II, but for those waiting to make the next gen leap then you could do a lot worse for yourself in the mean time than picking this up. If you’ve already made the next gen jump then you can tear out that mangled copy of God of War II from your redundant PS2 and give it one last spin. It’s well worth it.
Comments
ssj bardock on Sunday 13th July 2008
its the best dbz game ever!!!!!!!!!!
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