Welcome to the 107th issue of the GBAtemp Recommends Revival Project! This project is a revival of our once-weekly feature where we share our favorite games and applications with you. The titles we recommend may be "old school" games, a piece of Homebrew, a ROM hack, sleeper hits, an application, etc, but one thing's for certain, we think they are fantastic and deserve your attention!

Today, we’re going to be looking at a game based off of one of the most well-known anime franchises to exist. Get ready to unleash a Kamehameha and take on the world’s strongest fighters in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is, quite obviously, the third entry to developer Spike’s 3D Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi fighting game series. It takes the foundation laid by its rocky, unrefined prequels, and uses that to create a solid fighter, with a very complex combat system.

The story mode is also incredibly comprehensive, covering every major arc of the DBZ anime, as well as going through most of the original Dragon Ball fights, all of GT, and every movie that had been released at that point. If that’s not enough for even the most hardcore of fans, there is also an entire “what if?” scenario to play through too.

Having a game that goes through all of the DBZ story would be remiss if it didn’t allow you to play as all your favorite characters. Tenkaichi 3 more that delivers on that front by having a total of 161 different fighters in its roster. Although each of them controls similarly, and some of them are different timeline versions of the same character (There are 5 Gokus, 4 Vegetas, and 5 Gohans) they all have unique special attacks, combos, and transformations between themselves.

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This brings me to the gameplay. In Tenkaichi 3, each fight takes place in a large environment with semi-invisible barriers, should you reach the limits of the arena. Each stage is destructible, from destroying simple rock formations and houses, to completely annihilating the area and turning it into a volcanic ruin that you fight atop. Duels can either be between 1v1, or up to teams of up to 5v5. Combat is fast-paced and wild, with every character getting a very extensive combo/skill list in the pause menu. You have your regular punch combos, but you can also throw in more powerful attacks between each hit, as there is a different finisher move for each stage of a basic combo that you can string together for a ridiculously high amount of hits that will leave your opponent reeling. If you want to unleash special attacks, you can charge your “ki” meter to use energy beams like the iconic Kamehameha. There is also a teleport dodge, which lets you get out of dangerous situations, assuming you time it right and have a decent amount of ki charged up. This, of course, is just the very basics of combat, and if you’re willing to invest some time into learning the game, you’ll be rewarded with a very fun and in-depth fighting system.

For those playing on the Nintendo Wii, you either use the standard Gamecube/Classic controller, or you can use the Wiimote+Nunchuk. If you choose the Wiimote option, you can use the motion controls to mimic the special attack poses from the show. It works surprisingly well, and is a nice addition, especially for those who like to take advantage of the Wii’s capabilities.

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Outside of Duel Mode, the game also offers “Ultimate Battle” and “World Tournament” modes. In Ultimate Battle, players can either go through 100 fights in a row, with certain restrictions placed upon them based upon RPG-like game mechanics, or battle against extremely strong foes with a certain set character. In World Tournament mode, you have to endure an entire tourney bracket which goes by the same rules of the anime’s World Martial Arts Tournament; if you’re ever knocked outside the ring, you are immediately disqualified. All of these are fun additions to the game, and adds to the game’s massive amount of content.

Even though this game released on the PS2 and Wii, the graphics still hold up, with their cell-shaded and cartoony stylized look helping prevent the game from appearing dated, even 9 years later. The one thing that does hold this game back, is that even via emulation, the framerate is hard-locked to 30FPS due to physics. It’s a bit difficult to adjust to, if you’re used to to playing fighting games at a smooth 60fps, but it’s certainly not a deal-breaker.

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For those who like to choose between voice casts, both English and Japanese dub options are available in the main menu. The soundtrack is catchy, composed by Toshiyuki Kishi, and is great for getting you pumped up to play a round.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is a fun game, and is well worth a try, especially for those that enjoy fighting games, or Dragon Ball in general.

Genre: Fighting
Release Year: 2007
Developer: Spike
Published By: Namco Bandai
Released For: Nintendo Wii, Playstation 2

If you enjoyed this week's edition of GBAtemp Recommends! Please leave a comment in the thread. This helps us monitor feedback and ensures we keep posting these articles in the future!

If you would like to see the original archive of our previous entries, you can look at our archived content here.

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

As a fan of the franchise, Tenkaichi 3 is the best of the Tenkaichi series but that's not saying much, the combat is basic and the characters are just clones of each other which don't feel any different than any other ones. It's a fun game.

 

[Thunder Kai]

BEST DBZ GAME EVER!!!!
Fuck xenoverse

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Yeeeessss. YEEEEESSSSS. I HAVE BEEN WAITING. I have been secretly hacking the Wii version.

How can ya hack wii version?
I need help ;_;

 

[eduall]

this game breaks the controllers!

 

[Vanth88]

While I liked T3 I thought T2 had the best story mode to date. When T3 came out it seemed like they just kind of cut and paste everything and made the story mode overly simple.

That said it had a lot of characters and the combat was somewhat better. I still like these games more than the other anime fighters like Bleach and Naruto.

 

[WiiUBricker]

I remember buying Tenkaichi 3 and saying "what the heck? Tenkaichi 2 did THIS better". I can't remember what that THIS is anymore. Probably something controls related.

 

[EdwardElric]

I'd rather play Battle of Z or Xenoverse.

 

[cvskid]

Time to launch a debate:
Budokai 3 > Tenkaichi 3
Kappa

budokai 3 for me but i prefer infinite world over budokai 3. That also depends on if you like normal fighting games or 3d arena based fighting games.

I don't think Budokai 1 has aged well, to be honest. But 2 and 3 were really great games. Comparing B3 to BT3 is hard, because I really enjoy both, but I'd say I prefer Tenkaichi to the Budokai series. Juuuust by a slight margin. Both series are quite different, with Budokai having a more arcade-y style gameplay, and Tenkaichi being button mash-y at times. I really find the whole 3D movement of Tenkaichi to be really fun, and the super attacks feel a bit more fun to pull off than in Budokai. I think if you liked B3, definitely give BT3 a shot. It's a bit awkward at first, but it's also really rewarding when you learn the combo strings and all the intricacies.


"Recommends" has been a thing for years now, and just has on-and-off entries whenever someone on the staff has something to write. I'm not sure what you mean by "in charge" though. We're free to pick any game and write about it, so long as there wasn't already an entry on it before.


It was actually a really tough choice when I was deciding which one to write about. In the end, BT3 having Dolphin Netplay to allow for online battles, and the sheer amount of content in BT3 won out on me.

budokai 3 can also have netplay using pcsx2.

 

[Chary]

budokai 3 for me but i prefer infinite world over budokai 3. That also depends on if you like normal fighting games or 3d arena based fighting games.

budokai 3 can also have netplay using pcsx2.

Woah seriously? Last time I checked I was told netplay didn't work with that game. If this is true, then heck yeah, time for a Budokai 3 binge.

 

[cvskid]

Woah seriously? Last time I checked I was told netplay didn't work with that game. If this is true, then heck yeah, time for a Budokai 3 binge.

Yep, here is a video of some high level play for the game using online.



On the youtube channel for the video there is also a tutorial video on how to setup netplay for pcsx2.

 

[YugamiSekai]

What kinda hacks you cookin?

I just found the text to the story mode so I'm experimenting with that. I found most sound effects (but not all), and I want to find the models but It's HARD.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

BEST DBZ GAME EVER!!!!
Fuck xenoverse

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


How can ya hack wii version?
I need help ;_;

You need AFS Explorer to get into the files.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

BEST DBZ GAME EVER!!!!
Fuck xenoverse

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


How can ya hack wii version?
I need help ;_;

You need AFS Explorer to get into the files.

 

[Thunder Kai]

You need AFS Explorer to get into the files.

mostly meant the characters mods made for ps2 game to the wii like SSJB goku as tried before

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Yet this exist

So where is HD Budokai tenkaichi if it is so good?

Besides this one little bit, i don't think is a awful game, it has many characters so the amount of time spend trying out dream match ups is ridiculous. And we thought we had better time of marvel vs capcom 2 and 3, meanwhile dragon ball games have more characters than maybe any fighting game in history (NOT MUGEN) So i mean, easy to play and has simple controls, anyone can participate. Of course the real fun is discovering how to do so many hit combos and actually feeling like the anime you watch when you mash a button and see them punch rapidly and struggle to survive or overcome your enemy.

Comparing this to Budokai 3, i remember playing this one a bit more and trying to get all the capsules, but the fighting between the two, is hard to explain for me. They are both unique, Budokai focuses more on rush down and close range fights, reminds me more of like tekken games. Tenkaichi seem more like Naruto ultimate ninja storm with flying, having open field, able to hide, explore and stuff, i dunno, perhaps more like power stone 2, i actually thoght this would been a 4 player game before i bought it, and noticed it was not. I dunno, it just seem like it would have been planned but just removed.

 

[cvskid]

Yet this exist

So where is HD Budokai tenkaichi if it is so good?

Besides this one little bit, i don't think is a awful game, it has many characters so the amount of time spend trying out dream match ups is ridiculous. And we thought we had better time of marvel vs capcom 2 and 3, meanwhile dragon ball games have more characters than maybe any fighting game in history (NOT MUGEN) So i mean, easy to play and has simple controls, anyone can participate. Of course the real fun is discovering how to do so many hit combos and actually feeling like the anime you watch when you mash a button and see them punch rapidly and struggle to survive or overcome your enemy.

Comparing this to Budokai 3, i remember playing this one a bit more and trying to get all the capsules, but the fighting between the two, is hard to explain for me. They are both unique, Budokai focuses more on rush down and close range fights, reminds me more of like tekken games. Tenkaichi seem more like Naruto ultimate ninja storm with flying, having open field, able to hide, explore and stuff, i dunno, perhaps more like power stone 2, i actually thoght this would been a 4 player game before i bought it, and noticed it was not. I dunno, it just seem like it would have been planned but just removed.

The 4 player feature was added in a later tenkaichi game called dragonball z tenkaichi tag team for the playstation portable. Also for budokai 3 always try to find the greatest hits version of the game if you aren't playing the hd version of budokai 3 due to it having more content.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

The 4 player feature was added in a later tenkaichi game called dragonball z tenkaichi tag team for the playstation portable. Also for budokai 3 always try to find the greatest hits version of the game if you aren't playing the hd version of budokai 3 due to it having more content.

Content like what? I thought greatest hits was just playstation version of "Nintendo selects"

 

[cvskid]

Content like what? I thought greatest hits was just playstation version of "Nintendo selects"

Extra capsules, extra costumes, a movelist in the game now when you pause the game, and character balance changes. The HD version of budokai 3 is based on the greatest hits version of the game minus the original music from the ps2 version of the game.

Similar situation happened with budokai 2 with the rerelease called dragon ball z 2 v.

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

I'd rather play Battle of Z or Xenoverse.

Xenoverse is the modern Tenkaichi.
Battle of Z was basically a remake of The Legends and for this, I liked the game albeit it definitely was very lacking playing it offline as they obviously made it to be played online.

Yet this exist

So where is HD Budokai tenkaichi if it is so good?

Besides this one little bit, i don't think is a awful game, it has many characters so the amount of time spend trying out dream match ups is ridiculous. And we thought we had better time of marvel vs capcom 2 and 3, meanwhile dragon ball games have more characters than maybe any fighting game in history (NOT MUGEN) So i mean, easy to play and has simple controls, anyone can participate. Of course the real fun is discovering how to do so many hit combos and actually feeling like the anime you watch when you mash a button and see them punch rapidly and struggle to survive or overcome your enemy.

Comparing this to Budokai 3, i remember playing this one a bit more and trying to get all the capsules, but the fighting between the two, is hard to explain for me. They are both unique, Budokai focuses more on rush down and close range fights, reminds me more of like tekken games. Tenkaichi seem more like Naruto ultimate ninja storm with flying, having open field, able to hide, explore and stuff, i dunno, perhaps more like power stone 2, i actually thoght this would been a 4 player game before i bought it, and noticed it was not. I dunno, it just seem like it would have been planned but just removed.

God, that cover is bollocks! The alternate should've been the official:

I purposefully imported the American version because the cover looks so much better and, Rock the Dragon is a badass opening!

 

[DarthDub]

I'm so happy that this game is getting the attention it deserves! It's such an underrated classic.

 

[Fishaman P]

Great deep fighting system. My guilty pleasure motion controls game, especially compared to its predecessor which had absolutely awful Wiimote controls.

 

[2ndApex]

Time to launch a debate:
Budokai 3 > Tenkaichi 3
Kappa

Budokai 3 is a much better and deeper fighting game but Tenkaichi 3 has a lot more content and is a better DBZ simulator.

 

[keven3477]

This game made me give yamcha so much respect than he deserved, he and gt goku (child) were my mains.