Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Fusion

Game delivers an extreme 3D fighting experience, with over 150 playable characters, enhanced fighting techniques, beautifully refined effects and shading techniques, making each character's effects more realistic, and over 20 battle stages.

Though they may not always get the credit they deserve, there's no denying the driving force of excellence that anime fighters have been putting forth over the last few years in gaming.

Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Fusion may just be that game. Not because it's a poor effort by any means, but because so much of it is rehash from the previous game, and what is new isn't always an improvement over BT2. The roster now stands at 161 fighters, the game includes new day/night levels , and a few new tactics for seasoned fighters to make use of, but in the end the core experience is identical to previous versions, and there's even some content lost along the way.

Take a look at the main story mode, for example. In Tenkaichi 3, story mode made up a simply ridiculous mass of content, including more battles than any sane person would ever care to complete. You had every saga, every possible battle within each episode of the show, and a never-ending list of fights to enjoy because of it.

The game's scripted sequences are now handled in-engine, so while the overall flow of the story is well integrated with the battles now, they're also restricted a ton. Only two fighters are shown on the screen at once, and with some scenes utilizing over a half dozen characters at once the actual storytelling is totally gimped.

Characters also have a self-recharging numeric gauge called Blast Stock that allows players to use techniques called Blast 1 skills. Blast 1 skills usually have a supportive effect such as allowing characters to regain health or immobilize the enemy. Players can also power up into a mode called Max Power Mode normally by building up their Ki beyond full at the cost of Blast Stock bars. Max Power Mode makes the character that initiated it faster, stronger, and able to use moves that are exclusive to the mode. One of these moves is the Ultimate Blast which is usually the most powerful move a character has, though use of any Blast 2 skill or the Ultimate Blast immediately ends Max Power Mode.