The Dragon Ball Z Budokai series has hit the Wii, in the form of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (yes I did look at the box for reference when trying to spell the name). For those not in the know, DBZ3 (as we shall call it from now on) is the sequel to the anime fighter which originally made it’s name on the PS2, but does this version live up to the series name?

DBZ3 boasts an impressive 161 fighters, however as the saying goes it’s not the size that matters but how you use it, and unfortunately the game tends to come unstuck in this respect. One of the great things about other games in the series was that there was a great deal of depth along with more fights than you could throw a stick at, however in DBZ3 this seems to have been sacrificed, meaning that you will not be fighting in nearly as many scenarios.

When you begin the game you are greeted with quite a few different modes of play, these include Dragon History, where you relive past DBZ adventures through a series of different scenarios, Dragon Net Battle, which is the online section of the game and allows you to fight against opponents via the net, other options include Ultimate Battles ladder style challenges and also Dragon World Tour, which includes a series of tournaments for you to work your way through, and last but not least is Duel Mode, where you can battle head to head against a rival on any stage and also Ultimate Training, which explains itself really.

One other option you will be presented with which I never mentioned above is, Evolution Z, using this option you can customize your character as well as buying new skills and items, here you can also spend any points you have earned during the game on upgrading your custom characters abilities.

The only thing that put me off this game personally is that it feels like you are taking part in an interactive cartoon, maybe to some that statement would be a compliment but to me, this style of fighting game is just too fast and frantic, half the time when playing I found it really difficult to keep track of what I was doing such was the pace of the game.

Although you can use the Wii controls to play the game, using a standard Gamecube controller just feels better, it’s not the Wii controls aren’t simple (the nunchuck analogue stick moves your character while the other buttons are assigned for combat/flying), using the gamecube or classic controller just simplifies things that’s all.

Graphically the best thing I can say about DBZ3 is that it looks and feels like a Anime cartoon, the characters are all cel-shaded to perfection and the backgrounds all look pretty sweet. The sound rounds off the presentation with some rather pleasing to the ear voice work and a thumping soundtrack.

The main thing that lets the game down is that the online experience is far from perfect, this is the main addition to the game, therefore it is a shame that the experience is filled with connection problems and frustrating slowdown, which obviously ruin an experience that should have been oh so good.

DBZ3 is the sort of game that will really only appeal to people who either like fighters with a twist or are fans of Anime, otherwise it is probably best that you save your cash for games such as Super Smash Bros Brawl.