This game is great for Dragon Ball Z fans, Review by GameNTrade!
This is the third installment in the Tenkaichi series. Does it hold water? It does, but it's still more of the same with some content improved. Let me make a quick recap. The first game in the Tenkaichi series published by Atari, it was a strange environment to gamers, but a refreshing change, because Budokai felt sluggish and it lacked the thrill the anime offered, but in Tenkaichi the game mechanics have been revamped to cater to the feeling of rush the anime delivered. Then came the second Tenkaichi and it was incomparable with the Budokai titles, it is better even than the Budokai 3. As we were expecting the 3rd installment of the Tenkaichi series to be the next groundbreaking Dragon Ball Z game, we were left a little disappointed.
Gameplay-wise, Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi 3 is still a unique fighting game. It positions the camera behind the player in the 3rd perspective, breaking away from the traditional side view of the traditional fighting games; it caters to the style of Dragon Ball Z, allowing player's full freedom of movement in the battlefield with the lock on system. I highly recommend playing the game with the GameCube or the Wii Classic controller, since responsiveness of the Wii remote can be an issue. There are Ki and Blast stock gauges that are used for certain attacks, like in the previous Tenkaichi games. It's all well planned out and constructed to simulate the actual feel of Dragon Ball Z. With all transformations accounted, there are 160 available characters in the game and it covers every Dragon Ball related thing you can imagine.
There are different game modes. Dragon history lets you play out every Dragon Ball Z saga there is, with canon series saga like Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT sagas and "what if" scenarios included, Ultimate Battle, a mode with extra battles, Dragon World Tour tournament mode, Evolution Z, where you unlock and customize character abilities, Ultimate Training, practice/tutorial mode, and both Local split-screen and Online multiplayer.
Compared to Tenkaichi 2, the story mode has a lot of content, but it's over simplified and toned down, taking away the ability to fly across the map, instead it's just a menu with unlock able sagas, which why most players find that as a letdown.
Also, included in the game are the Character Reference catalogue, a small encyclopedia of Dragon Ball characters, and you can chose the American or the Japanese voice actors in the options menu, which brings us to the overall style of the game.
Like previous Dragon Ball Z games, character models are cell shaded for that anime look, models themselves are nicely done, and the voice acting is top notch, both English and Japanese. Although the voice acting is good, I have gripes with two things that slipped their attention. Lip syncing is awful, but the dialogue between characters seems unplanned and sometimes downright random. I chuckled when Cui, while doing a special move, tries to distract the opponent by saying: "Lord Frieza..", while the opponent is Frieza himself, and he actually checks behind to see if he is there. Sloppy attention to detail.
-Petar
GameNTrade Ltd.