We’re getting closer and closer to the release of Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO, the successor of the legendary Tenkaichi Budokai 3 that came out 17 years ago. That game that came out in the year 2007 left many people speechless due to its high diversity of gameplay elements and generous roster of fighters and transformations. We even had the Great Ape forms for characters such as Vegeta, Nappa, Raditz, and Bardock, not to mention all of the Super Saiyan transformations that existed at that time.
There was no trace of Super Saiyan Blue, Super Saiyan God, or Ultra Instinct in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, but that doesn’t stop the critics from claiming even today that the game remains one of the best ever when it comes to fighting games. Furthermore, not all Dragon Ball fans like Dragon Ball Super, which is why many of these folks like Budokai 3.
Dragon Ball fans nowadays usually play other games such as Dragon Ball FighterZ, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, or Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. Tenkaichi Budokai 3 has some pretty obsolete graphics, judging by today’s standards, but still, it has an incredibly fun gameplay. Let’s dive into detail:
A massive roster of fighters
Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Budokai 3 has a massive roster of fighters to choose from. There’s a total of 98 characters in 161 forms in the game. If we look at Goku, for instance, we rapidly realize that we can find him in several periods of the Dragon Ball franchise, and each of them comes with its own set of fighting techniques. We can find all of the Super Saiyan transformations of Goku, and he can even use the Kaioken technique. There’s even the Super Saiyan 4 Goku or the kid Goku from GT. You can further choose one of the transformations of kid Goku from GT as well, such as the regular Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan 3. You can even find kid Goku from the original Dragon Ball, and you can use him to fight against opponents such as Mercenary Tao or King Piccolo. Those were the times, right?
While it was obvious that Tenkaichi Budokai 3 has main characters such as Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, Frieza, and others, the amazing thing is that you can also find many well-known characters in the game’s roster. In other words, you can find fighters such as General Blue, Devilman, Arale, Chiaotzu, Cell Junior, Drum, Tambourine, Raditz, Guldo, Jeice, and many more. You can find more obscure characters from all major Dragon Ball series except for Dragon Ball Super. That’s because Super didn’t exist when the game came out in 2007.
Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Budokai 3 has a massive roster of fighters, and each of those fighters and their transformations come with their own moves as well. The game doesn’t fail even when it comes to making things up for significantly weaker fighters such as Mr. Satan or Yajirobe, as those guys have their own goofy ways of trying to win a fight.
Plenty of alternative universes
There are lots of “What if?” scenarios to explore in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3. Surely any of us who are fans of Dragon Ball wondered at some point what would happen in a specific moment in the anime if the events didn’t follow the path that we know. What if Goku fought against Arale or Android 16 went toe to toe with Eighter, the android that Goku met as a kid? Those scenarios are exploited in the game pretty well.
Relive the original stories
While Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Budokai 3 adds plenty of focus on alternate universes, the game is also faithful to the original stories. Therefore, you can go ahead and run the Android Saga, the Frieza Saga, the Majin Buu Saga, and even sagas from Dragon Ball GT.
Feel free to tell us your opinion in the comment section. Is Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Budokai 3 the best Dragon Ball fighting game ever?
Tim M. Hill helped bring Digital-Overload from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a writer to Digital-Overload, Tim mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.
