There's a metric TON of Dragonball Z games over the decades, many of them only being ported to the United States once the franchise caught fire in the 2000's. And frankly, many of those PlayStation-era ones were total garbage, like the Tose developed Dragonball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 from 1995, but was given an international release in 2003, and it's only slightly more playable than Dragonball GT Final Bout. This is, of course, like saying it's easier to launder money for the mafia than it is fighting a lioness with your bare hands. The Budokai line alone is its own trilogy, with its Tenkaichi follow-ups, which could probably be a lengthy editorial on its own. I'll just narrow it down to Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

With development duties handled by Spike Chunsoft (Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series, Conception) and published by Bandai, Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was released in 2005. The game was published by the then original incarnation of Atari, who folded in 2008, being bought out by Infogrames. This made the game really rare, as the lack of ownership rights led to zero production for a game that was selling quite well. It's an area-based fighting game that pits a plethora of Z Warriors and their adversaries against one-another. As far as extras, this one really packs the content to the gills, with 98 total playable characters (161, if you include the transformations and fusions). Take that, Smash Ultimate. 

Visibly, Budokai Tenkaichi 3 looks solid, taking advantage of the improvements cel shading had seen during the sixth generation of systems. As anime-based games were becoming more commonplace around this period, the style complimented most series like One Piece and Full Metal Alchemist adequately. The Wii version, which could broadcast a native 480p display, has more graphical polish and brighter colors than the PlayStation 2 version, which has a mild faded and garish look, even on sharper televisions and component cables. 

The backgrounds are kinda low-res, but definitely work for conveying the stages. Not like the environments in the Dragonball universe are all that diverse in the first place, as all of the fights take place in either green or brown wastelands. Something that always bugged me about the series, not a single major battle is in a metropolitan area, which could have some interesting stakes. Then again, this is the same franchise with two deus ex machinas ALONG with TWO magical wish-granting dragons, so of course they don't give a shit about civilian casualties. Why bother, when you can just wish everyone you let die (including family members) back to life!? This series is so stupid...

The energy flashes, rush clashes, beam struggles, and animations do capture high-paced spirit of the show perfectly, so as far as bringing the action of Dragonball Z to the world of video games, this passes the optics test 100%, and the attention to detail in that regard is a treat for fans. 

Budokai Tenkaichi controls fine, it plays like the previous games. I've spoken about it before, and it may be a bit of a snobbish take as a fighting game enthusiast, because arena fighters aren't really my thing, I feel like this gets old really quick. Regardless of the character, and transformations notwithstanding, everyone pretty much plays exactly the same.

No unique move sets, no real variables beyond some can hit way harder than others, it's not a particularly deep experience as a fighter once you get the hang of how burst rushes and Ultimates. Some attacks are flat out cheap and nearly impossible to avoid, this can be exploited for some cheap wins, or the CPU will use them against you in Story Mode, where it can almost scale to annoying levels of hard. 

In two-player, it adopts a split-screen to accommodate the 3D playing field, but this shortens your in-game peripheral. Might not seem like a big deal, but it may throw off your ability to respond to a Dragon Rush.Before you know it, you're blindsided into a lengthy combo chain. I will say, playing it with other people can be a bit of a rush, but it can also be rather fleeting. The Story pits you through all of the official Dragonball content released up to this point, including GT. Pretty neat, but by this point in my gaming tenure, I was tired of fighting Nappa and Raditz for the 90th time.

Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 in a lot of ways is the ultimate DBZ game for its time. It's full of a lot of references from the series, and features millions of characters throughout every era (not gonna lie, seeing Eighter among the roster does warm the heart a little). Fans will get a blast out of the animations and clashes, it just doesn't really have any staying power. Even experiencing the similar play style in the Xenoverse games, which thankfully are more action oriented and not designed to be true fighting games, it plays out its welcome quickly once the novelty fades. Lastly, goddman, I hate the stock music the US version got stuck with. It just recycles tracks from previous Budokai games, making it even more samey. The Wii version plays a little smoother and isn't plagued by Super Saiyan-powered garbage load times.

Play it for some luls, then put it back on the shelf, I say.