If you have the time, I have the game

I read mixed reviews on Budokai 3, and was a little apprehensive buying it because I hated Budokai 2. We played the game this weekend, and what a blast it was. This is the best DBZ game to date, and the makers of the game hit a home run with it.

The combination of the first two games and some new stuff makes this game awesome. My biggest complaint with the previous Budokai games was that you could not defend yourself from an attack. If you hit the "X" button before the attack began, you would block hits, but once the attack started, you were at the games mercy. Not in Budokai 3. Instant transmission or teleportation can be used once an attack starts. It is very cool and helps you make battles last a long time. The visuals on the game are brilliant. Powering up makes you character look like he is on fire from the energy he is generating. The new moves are cool, and the game uses the old moves. So, if you are a vet of the first two games, you can play this without much training. The thing I like most is when a special move is done, you have the chance to defend it. While the characters are going through the special attack, the person that made the attack hits a button on their controller. You then guess which button they pushed. If you are right, you defend against the move. If you are wrong, you get hurt, but have two more chances to defend yourself. Buttons are picked from the remaining three, and then from the remaining two if you keep getting it wrong. If you miss every time, you are in big trouble. You opponent now gets a lot of damage on you.

Another cool feature that I like is if you and your opponent perform and energy blast at the same time, you have to toggle the joy stick to over power your opponents blast. If not, you get hurt. Like in the previous versions, if you perform the same move at the same time, you go into a "speed mode" where you toggle again trying to outperform your opponent in a karate mayhem.

The sound effects are well done. The characters shout out phrases when some moves are done, and you can get your guy to say his catch phrase by hitting all the buttons like in previous Budokai games. The background music though is not very good. I was hoping they would use the music from the series, but they went a different direction. It is really the only thing I dislike about the game.

In single player mode, you go through a story mode, but you fly around and get to chose what you want to do. Find the dragon radar, and you can get all 7 dragonballs in no time. This allows you to summon the dragon and make a wish. You keep playing getting your character stronger and stronger. My son and I have only gotten our powers up to a SS2, so it makes me wonder how much I will have to play to get up to SS4. My son loves the game, so I will let him do all the dirty work. As you increase your players power, you get more characters to choose from for dueling or tournament play.

I am looking forward to playing with DBGT characters, but it may be awhile. I played around 10 hours this weekend, and I unlocked very few things. I imagine in a month or so, I might have every thing, if I am good enough. IF