Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 rehashes the DBZ storyline in another fighter, but at least this time there are hints of Dragon Ball GT like the occasional image of Pan, but not necessarily enough to warrant a whole new game. Thankfully, there are enough new elements in the fighting and story modes that this flaw can almost be overlooked.

The character models don’t look much different from what we saw in DBZ: Budokai 2, but the locations and arenas have had a major overhaul. Instead of the locations being nothing more than a background that you can occasionally throw somebody into, the environments are much more interactive. There were plenty of occasions when one of the two characters on the screen got pinned against an outcropping or some other environment object. This was a great effect that has been needed since the first Budokai game.

The music, sound effects, and voices are taken from the show. Each tune (though not necessarily from the series directly) could have easily come from any one of the episodes or movies in the DBZ series. The voice acting and dialog for this game also adds a lot to the game’s authenticity.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 once again takes you through the Dragon Ball Z storyline from the Saiyan Saga all the way to Kid Buu’s defeat, but at least the Story Mode is different enough from the previous versions of Budokai that it doesn’t come off as a complete redo.

In the first Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, you went through a quick and dirty Story Mode that didn’t do any justice to the series’ actual story. Budokai 2 made this mode more in-depth and gave you a better idea of what actually went on in the show, and Budokai 3 gives you that depth, but this time, playing as different characters shows you the DBZ storyline from their perspective.

Basically, that means if you play as Goku, you’ll end up facing the baddest of the bads just like from the show, but if you choose someone like Piccolo, you’ll face only the characters he went up against. This is both good and bad. It’s great if you are playing as one of the high-profile characters like Goku, Gohan, or Vegeta, but choose one of the lesser fighters and you will find yourself reading dialog more than actually fighting.

The story mode of DBZ: Budokai 3 is called Dragon Universe and has a feel similar to the Legacy of Goku series on the GBA. You will fly from location to location following the series’ storyline looking for your next fight. Once you find where you are supposed to go (based on the map on the screen), you land, spout off some dialog, and fight. Well, sometimes you fight. There were plenty of occasions when the people on the ground exchanged quips and then flew off again. Again, this was mostly with the lesser characters, but it got annoying fast. At least in this game, you get the ability to fight and unlock the villains of the movies like Brolly and Cooler.

As you progress through a character’s story, you will be able to level him or her up and add experience points to various aspects of the character’s skill set. This makes Budokai 3 have a more RPG feel to it than its predecessors. You can later take these custom characters and pit them against each other in one-on-one matches in the Dragon Arena.

The World Tournament Mode is back and seems to be exactly like it was in the previous game. You choose a character, select the tournament level (Novice, Adept and Advance), then attempt to work your way through the ranks in order to get massive amounts of Zini. One difference, though, is the ability to use the Cell Games Rules. This means that any skill restrictions placed upon you by the regular tournament (like the ability to use fusions) are removed, and the matches become a no-holds-barred battle.

Also back from the previous two games is the Skill-Capsule system. Like the last two games, you buy (or earn) capsules and attach them to various characters. These capsules are the techniques and moves that a character can use while in a fight. Creating a character with the right moves is the key to winning any match.

Hardly anything has changed while in a fight. What changes there are really help to improve the game, however. In the last game, you and your opponent would enter Hyper Mode during certain points in the game. This was a series of rapid stick spins that caused each character to release a volley of punches and kicks. Now, Hyper Mode is something different. When you activate this mode, your character becomes red and you move faster, and each attack you land is more powerful. But when you exit this mode, your character is tired and vulnerable to attacks.

There are also several aesthetic modifications made to the HUD that help in figuring out just how much Ki you’ve built up. All in all, the gameplay aspect of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 improves on 2 as much as that game did on the original Budokai.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 has some difficult parts. The World Tournament Mode has increasingly more difficulty as you progress through the ranks of each tournament. The Story mode has some rough parts. Depending on who you play as, you may run into some really difficult battles (like if you play as Goku, Gohan, or Piccolo, for example), but if you choose someone who didn’t really face any big baddies in the series (like Yamcha or Tien), then completing the story won’t be much of a problem.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 has taken a lot of the controls and mechanics from its two predecessors and improved on them some more. In Budokai 2, we got some glimpses at these new in-fight features. In the last game, there was a few times (mostly with ultimate attacks) when you would have to either press the same button as your opponent or spin your analog sticks as fast as you could in order to either save yourself from an attack or increase the amount of damage.

Both of these aspects have been brought back. The Dragon Rush is a three-part attack. During each part, the attacker presses one of the face buttons; if the defending gamer presses the same one, then the attack is canceled. The choice of buttons that the attacking player has for each part of the attack decreases because the buttons that he/she chose previously are removed from the list. So if the attacking player pressed the Square button the first time, that button won’t be available for the other two parts. If the Circle is pressed on the second pass, then neither the Square nor Circle buttons are available in the third part. This increases the defending player’s chance of blocking the damage.

And like Budokai 2, when you go to perform an Ultimate Attack, both players spin their analog sticks as fast as possible in order to strengthen (or dampen, depending on who is attacking) the move that is being executed.

If two opponents unleash a powerful beam attack at each other, then the players must spin their sticks as fast as possible in a tug-o-war that will leave one of the two characters badly damaged.

These refinements of past features and the addition of others (like Hyper Mode) makes DBZ: Budokai 3 far better than either of the other two games in the Budokai line. With each release, the game gets better and better, although it is still not perfect.