Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 - Mini Preview Preview

Like buses, you wait for a new beat-em-up title and two turn up at the same time. Following on from yesterdayâ??s review of Def Jam: Fight for NY, we managed to get a sneak look at the forthcoming Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3. Based on the hit anime cartoon series shown on a certain digital channel, Budokai 3 is a beat-em-up of the more eclectic sort, compared to Def Jam.

We were able to play a selected number of fighters from the finished game and fight across a couple of the locations. The visual style so far captures the look of the cartoon, with the developers recycling the cell-shading techniques used in Budokai 2 to recreate the characters. The locations look quite nice too, whilst the music is a weird kind of synth music reminiscent from Japanese toons.

Whilst the controls seem to be straightforward enough, with punch, kick and long range fireball attacks all given their specific button, performing some of the special combos can produce results where fighters will kick or punch the opponent in a battery of quick shots, all displayed like a mini cartoon culminating in both fighters kicking seven bells out of each other whilst flying above the ground in true Crouching Tiger fashion. This is a fast and furious game that barely gives you enough time to think about the buttons you press, but captures the frenzied nature of the shows perfectly.

As it was a preview, the game didnâ??t have character voices, but we can imagine that theyâ??ll follow in the same unique fashion as the rest of the game.

We may not understand it, but Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 is definitely fun to play so far. Weâ??ll be keeping tabs on this title and hopefully have more to report on it soon â?“ lets just pray that the instructions come with itâ?¦