There are some games that lose their appeal after a short amount of time. Sure, at first they may seem fun and appealing but after a few hours, or even a few minutes, you begin to realize how bland the game is and how foolish you were for spending anything less than
"it defines what a button masher is"
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five bucks on it. Well, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 is one of these games. It just lacks the depth needed to make a good fighting game and unfortunately that is the same fault which prevented the two previous games from being considered worthwhile as well.
I have to say that the gameplay mechanics of Budokai 3 are rather enjoyable. I really enjoyed the teleportation and dodge defensive maneuvers and the super attacks which are performed by increasing a players Ki energy. Also, the game is extremely fast and its larger than life in the way that it attempts to recreate the high intensity fights from the popular Dragon Ball Z anime, featuring those huge blasts of energy and awkward angle shots used for scripted maneuvers. However, after two hours or so players begin to realize that there’s a limited depth to the game’s fighting engine. Simply put, its incredibly hard to appreciate the game when each and every character has the same combos. Combos that aren’t terribly complex either.
The game is a button masher. In fact, it defines what a button masher is. Perhaps there a few that won’t be too bothered with this but I on the other hand feel downright insulted. What’s the point of purchasing the game when it offers little to learn and little to appreciate after a handful of fights? Even worse is the fact that the characters aren’t unique in any way other than their appearance. Hell, you can switch from the short and quick Vegeta to the towering Android 16 and not notice that you even changed characters. The only way to give any character a sort of uniqueness is by taking them through the game’s story mode dubbed "Dragon Universe" and leveling them up in the fashion of a traditional role-playing game (RPG), but even then you aren’t guaranteed to have balanced fights against a friend when facing each other one on one. Let me say that its not the responsibility of the player to balance out the strengths and weaknesses of the game’s characters. Developers of 2D fighting games got the formula right in the early 1990s, Dimps can even get it right fifteen years after the fact. Of course, the fact that taking each character through the Dragon Universe mode to increase their abilities and acquire new skills isn’t too enjoyable doesn’t help much either. The only real fun to be found in the game is when your facing a friend one on one, or maybe when even attempting to go through the game’s tournament mode. But even then the fun factor is limited. It also doesn’t help that the game’s AI can get frustratingly cheesy at higher difficulty levels and the fact that, due to opposing characters sometimes having more health than you from the start of a fight, you’re at a clear disadvantage from the get go.
Just like any decent fighting sequel, Budokai 3 does feature some minor gameplay tweaks over its
"Budokai 3 isn’t enjoyable for more than a couple of hours"
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predecessors but nothing truly significant to make it feel like a much better game. The "Dragon Rush" moves set is cool and all but its way too easy to perform and its virtual the same for each character. It’s nothing more than a bunch of scripted attacks that are executed by random button presses and which are blocked by random button presses as well. Color me unimpressed.
In all honesty, Budokai 3 feels more like Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the PSone than any of its predecessors. The fact that the beam battle feature makes its return is a clear sign of this and when taking this into consideration it can be seen how little the franchise has evolved over the years. Despite most of the games having different developers, things seem relatively unchanged from the Super Batouden games that appeared on the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo).
Budokai 3’s presentational aspects are superb, however. It pays excellent homage to the series by featuring lots of (drab) dialogue from the anime’s American voice actors, sound effects ripped straight from the anime, and a cel shaded visual style that makes the game look exactly like the anime, if not a bit better, cleaner and smoother. These presentational aspects will definitely appeal to fans of the anime, although, I must say that the first game told the story of series much better than Budokai 3. The first game featured snippets of scenes from the show recreated completely in 3d and instead of pursuing
"Developers of 2D fighting games got the formula right in the early 1990s, Dimps can even get it right fifteen years after the fact"
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something similar, Budokai 3 just tosses players still images and voice-overs in order to tell the events of the series, which it doesn’t explain all too well either. Players who don’t know the plot of the anime will basically be clueless about many of the events which occur in the game’s Dragon Universe mode. It’s a shame that Dimps didn’t attempt to recreate scenes from the anime once again with Budokai 3. I honestly believed that had been the best aspect of the original fighter.
They say third time is a charm but while Budokai 3 may indeed be the best game in the Budokai series, it still has a long ways to go. The game’s characters need to feel unique and the game’s combos need to be refined and changed for each person so that the game cannot be easily labeled as a button masher. When this is done, only then can the game manage to appeal to gamers who know what a real fighting game is, because in its current state Budokai 3 isn’t enjoyable for more than a couple of hours. Of course, die hard Dragon Ball Z fans may find more to like about this game than others, but that appeal strictly comes from the game’s presentational values. Budokai 3 isn’t worth your money.
