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Budokai 3 Official Reviews

IGN - 8.0 rating overall
"
I'm speaking, of course, about Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 -- the most recent in the fast line of Atari's head-to-head brawlers that has consistently improved year after year. If anything else, this recent installment proves that the development crew behind it has gone the extra mile to listen to suggestions and complaints brought forth by the fans, which is a feat that few other companies can unfailingly make a claim to.

It's good to see that Dimps and Atari have continued to improve on their products each and every year, and it'll be interesting to see how the two Dragon Ball games slated for 2005 turn out as a result. As for the here and now, Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 is a surprisingly addictive little fighting game that, while not overly technical, has an astonishing amount of depth and strategy to it. Granted, the lack of online play puts it a sizable step behind more recent fighters like Mortal Kombat: Deception and Dead or Alive Ultimate, but still, for what it is Budokai 3 is definitely worth the price of admission."
 

Gamespot - 8.2 rating overall
"
With a long, sullied history of extremely poor DBZ games before it, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai was a bit of a revelation when it was released in 2002. Here was a 3D fighting game that, while not offering the deepest combat system, was still reasonably fun to play. Moreover, it featured a great story mode that basically summed up the entire run of the Dragon Ball Z manga-cum-anime in just a few hours. A year later, we got a sequel with improved cel-shaded graphics, but the slick story mode was replaced by a lame board game, and the additions made to the gameplay just didn't seem to mesh with what was already there. Dimps, the little-known developer responsible for the entire Budokai series, learned some lessons and has now returned to the scene with Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3. This is far and away the best Dragon Ball Z game around, and it's a must-have for DBZ fans. However, the action is also so fast-paced and viscerally satisfying that it can genuinely appeal even to those otherwise uninterested in Dragon Ball Z.

If you're a Dragon Ball Z fan, you want this game. It re-creates the DBZ experience better than any other offering before it. And while there's definitely a lot of fan service here, the gameplay is also just plain fun, so anyone who's up for a simple, high-impact fighting game should have a blast with Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3.

 

JeuxActu - (translated from French)
"If the innovations of Budokai 2 could amount on the fingers d’une hand, those of Dragon Ball Z : Budokai 3 are so many and innovative that l’ensemble of your fingers and your toes will not be too much to index them. With the menu of the festivities, one finds finally with a pleasure not dissimulated the return of the Story mode, shamefully forsaken in l’épisode preceding. Baptized World of the dragon, this solo mode will enable you to revive all l’histoire of Goku but also of its (many) assistants. Indeed, the player will have initially to choose the character qu’il wishes to incarnate for then finding himself on a chart in 3d qu’il will have to furrow to make the meeting of the various protagonists of the series. No d’entre they miss with l’appel and c’est a true pleasure to find secondary characters such as Oolong the pig, Chichi, Karine of the Crowned Tower, Tortue Brilliant, Bulma, Kaio Shin or even Lunch which changes personality each time qu’elle sneezes. So first of all, five characters are available in the mode solo, d’autres will pack a little more one list already quite consequent, eleven on the whole to be precise. And taking into account ḻimmensity of the charts (one makes outward journeys returns between the Earth and Namek), to tell you qu’il as much will be necessary to pass the whole days before being able all to free. If the principal objectives appear on the chart in a way distinct by the presence from small red balls, d’autres on the other hand is done more discrete and will n’attireront your attention thanks to the small d’un presence flutter on the chart or of l’apparition d’un roller in top on the right of l’écran. Not obvious to detect lorsqu’on at speed large V moves."


MeriStation - 8.0 rating overall (translated from Spanish)
"For all the followers of Ball Dragoon it supposed the great news that Atari took control of the rights of the series to produce videojuegos in spite of the years that happen from the sleeve conclusion and animates. Of course it was a strategic movement of the French publisher, with whom one has pocketed important benefits on the basis of the amount of titles that has sent to the market and to the excellent sales.

In this way it is necessary to consider that if we want to complete the game to the 100%, we must look for and search carefully in all the corners of the mapping to find situations donede to obtain capsules. Many secret personages like Cooler, Brooly or Bardock are hidden of this form in the level of very difficult difficulty and if we limited ourselves solely to go after the red points and to cover the file, we will lose them."



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