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Wii Roundup

Bowling, fighting, Sonic, space.

Ellie Gibson avatar
Review by Ellie Gibson Contributor
Updated on
67 comments

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3

Does the world really need another Dragon Ball Z game? After all, more than 25 of them have been produced so far. But then more than 10 million copies have been sold, so you can't blame Namco Bandai for churning out another one.

You can blame them for failing to include a proper tutorial mode. The one in Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is insanely complicated and takes far too long to work your way through. At the end of it all you're likely to be more confused than when you started, unless you've played some of the previous instalments in the series.

In which case, as with Guilty Gear Core, you'll probably like this one. There are more than 160 playable characters and 30 battle stages and a host of modes to choose from. Serious fans will enjoy Dragon History mode, where you get to play through memorable battles from the entire DBZ series. They're punctated with conversations between characters, plot developments and fighter switches. It does feel rather like you're playing the cartoon, especially since the visuals are of a high quality.

Combos and special moves can be tricky to learn but the basic controls are simple. The nunchuk and remote come into play - swinging the nunchuk will make your fighter dash forward, for example. However, many of these moves take too long to charge up and pull off. Using a Classic or GameCube controller makes things much easier.

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The big attraction of the Tenkaichi 3 for Wii is supposed to be the online mode. You can fight against people whose Friend Codes you've obtained or take on random strangers, and battle it out with either default or customised characters. At least in theory. The connection drops far too frequently when you're looking for another player, a process which can take ten minutes or more. When you do finally end up in a match, you're faced with absolutely appalling slowdown and lag. It's barely playable and not worth the effort.

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 does feature an impressive roster of fighters and range of options, and the fighting system works well. Plus you get to do flying. But there's nothing much new here apart from the online mode, and that's rubbish. One for hardcore DBZ fans only; the rest of the world can move along.

5/10