E3 '07: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Hands-On

While the first three Dragon Ball Z: Budokai fighting games published by Atari were pretty straightforward 3D fighting games, it's safe to say that the series took a real hard left turn with Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi. The behind-the-back perspective definitely lent a visceral feel to the action, but the control scheme was often too arcane for its own good, something that was exacerbated by the additional motion controls in last year's Wii version of Tenkaichi 2. With that uneven history in mind, we were pleasantly surprised when we got our hands on Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for the Wii earlier today, which, at first blush, has streamlined the gameplay experience significantly, better integrated the Wii motion controls, and piled on a heap of new content.

First, let's talk numbers. In terms of sheer content, Tenkaichi 3 will feature over 30 unique battle stages, and over 150 different fighters, more than 20 of which are new to Tenkaichi 3. Only a handful of these characters were playable in the demo we saw, but fans will be pleased to know that Android #13, King Vegeta, Nail, and SSJ4 Gogeta will all be playable fighters. Also of interest is the addition of online play, a first for a Dragon Ball Z game. Though details are scarce at the moment, you can expect two-player action over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, either against random opponents or against buddies that you've exchanged a game-specific friend code with.

While all that might sound well and good, it wasn't until we got hands-on with the game that we really started to appreciate the changes that developer Namco Bandai has made to the series. A lot of the actions that required specific button presses in the past will happen automatically now, and it does away entirely with in-game use of the sensor bar, something that was a source of frustration in Tenkaichi 2 for the Wii. You'll remain permanently locked onto your opponent, so that all of your movement controls are relative to their position, and your base movement speed is fast. Controls seem to make more sense now, too, with basic forward, back, and side-to-side movement governed by the Nunchuk analog stick, vertical movement controlled with the Z and C buttons, basic melee attacks executed with the A button, basic energy attacks with the B button, and if your character is capable of it, you can hit the 1 button to perform a transformation.

We found that these simplified controls made for much more fast-paced fights, but it was how the Wii motion controls were used for special attacks that really caught our eye. Each character has three special attacks that you can charge up for and activate by holding right, down, or left on the Wii Remote D pad. If you need to charge up "ki" energy, it appears to happen automatically, and once you have enough ki to actually launch the attack, you'll see a pantomime of how you need to move the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk in order to actually pull off the attack. When we were playing as SSJ4 Gogeta, we launched a high-powered Kamehameha attack, which required us to pull back and push forward the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk in tandem, in a way that closely mimicked how a Dragon Ball Z character would actually throw a Kamehameha wave. It was a simple, but satisfying experience.

All this seems like steps in the right direction for the Tenkaichi series. From speaking with some of the folks from Namco Bandai about the game, we got the sense that creating an experience that is a more natural fit for the Wii has become more of a priority for them, and so far it shows. You can look forward to more coverage of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 leading up to the game's release in November.