Title - Greatest Hits Budokai 3, Best DBZ Game?
In case anyone's been under a rock for the last year and a half, a truly phenomenal DragonBall Z video game was released way back in November of 2004, some say it's the best DBZ game (if not the best fighting video game), apply dubbed DragonBall Z Budokai 3. Six months later, give or take a couple weeks, Europe released what they dubbed as the "Collectors' Edition" Budokai 3 (soon to be followed by the "Platinum" release, which is basically the same encoding). This release contained all the extras that were included in the Japanese version, but didn't quite make it to the North American and original Europe releases. Such extras included the Japanese VAs as a selectable option, audio and video glitches of any kind were now fixed, 3 all new alternate character skins were included, and NUMEROUS graphic improvements were done to the fighting game-play, the Dragon Universe story mode, and even the interactive menus as well. It seemed like a dream come true for any fan of Budokai 3, though this game was full price and available only for Europe, it had everything and more that the Japanese version did (except for a few extra "Baba Crystal Ball Movies").
Now we move to some time before the release of DragonBall Z Budokai Tenkaichi. Atari decided to cash in on the DBZ franchise more than ever, this was evident as they released compact GBA games in the following months. Such releases included Legacy of Gokus 1 and 2 in one game cartridge, as well as Buu's Fury and GT Transformation in their own sequel cartridge. However, Atari were also well aware that Bandai made quite the amount of money with 'porting the Japanese version of Budokai 3 to an English translated "Collectors' Edition" release. Knowing they'd have to release a "Greatest Hits" release of Budokai 3 soon enough, they decided to shoot for the stars and 'port the European Collectors' Edition over to the US in the form of the Greatest Hits version of Budokai 3. Considering they didn't do this with the PAL version of Budokai 1 for that Greatest Hits release, and just started featuring the Japanese VAs as an optional selection in Budokai Tenkaichi (which had more than enough audio flaws as it was), this was quite the surprising and fantastic move on their part, to say the least.
When November came around, which was the time we all expected the Greatest Hits release to hit shelves, we seekers of the game found that it was no where to be found on shelves. Evidently, the "Z Store" was listing December 14th as the official release date for the Greatest Hits version, so we all had to take a deep breath and wait it out. By the time the release date came around, at first people couldn't find the release in their stores, but with the passing of a week or so, sightings of the Greatest Hits release were being reported. However, this was not without a casualty. Apparently, Atari had mistakenly encoded the original Budokai 3 to the Greatest Hits discs, and shipped them as such to Walmarts and Best Buys around the country. Many of fans, including myself, were extremely pissed about this, and nagged at Atari for the following several weeks about this issue. At first they were just straight up ignoring us, but as the complaints built, they had their phone answering service tell people that the Japanese VA option was an unlockable feature, yet several people with a 100% Capsule game data reported that the Japanese VA option and the extra skins/costumes were nowhere to be found (a couple people even found their original Budokai 3 game data corrupted).
Following Christmas, as the build up of complaints was at its absolute maximum, a person on the Game FAQ forums threatened real legal action against Atari for this action of theirs. No more than 14 minutes later, the administrator in charge of Atari's official message board made a statement. This basically told everyone that if you received a flawed version of Greatest Hits Budokai 3, meaning the same encoding as the original Budokai 3 release, then to follow the given instructions about mailing the game disc to them in New York, and you would be supplied with a correct version. As a few people started to act on this, I personally was very angered about it. I didn't feel Atari deserved an extra $6 or so in mailing the package for something I should have been able to just pick up at my local Walmart or Best Buy for the $20 price. As time passed and I was without the release, the fans I knew of that sent their flawed versions in for the correct version were making very positive statements, and not only that, but correct versions of the release were actually starting to leak their ways into stores!
With this realization, it was now seemingly a 50/50 chance that you'd buy the correct Greatest Hits release on first purchase. Some fans were reporting that they were getting their hands on the correct release and loving it 10 times more than the original Budokai 3. I personally still held back on buying it, mainly because I just didn't feel like giving Atari the chance, another reason because I didn't wanna be out $20 buying the original-encoded version I've already had and then taking my chances with Atari's exchange program, but also something I haven't told anyone yet; I just couldn't find the damn thing at my local Walmart. A few weeks went by, the first weekend of February rolled around, and I made a quick wad of cash working a couple overtime shifts at a Concession Stand. I had about $100 overall, a little bit of it admittingly from my Parents, and I went to a half hour drive Best Buy. Originally I just planned on purchasing the DragonBall Movie Box, Superman movie box-set, and probably a couple other anime DVD releases (the Astro Boy, Blue Gender, and Ninja Scroll series sets were very tempting).
When I entered the store, I passed by the Video Games section when I saw it; DragonBall Z Greatest Hits Budokai 3 for the Ps2, $20 in shrink wrap, and the last of its kind up for sale. I at first just passed it by, not giving it a second thought about buying it since I had a strange gut feeling it was the flawed version. I went on to find the ''Supes'' Movie and DB Movie box-sets, then spent about 20 minutes looking around the anime area. I ended up walking back to the Video Games section just to give a quick look around, and saw the release still sitting there. Not seeing anything I wanted, I went back to the anime section for about another 5 - 10 minutes, and decided I should go for one of the GT DVD sets (for collective reasoning). However, as I was picking it up, I realized what I knew already, I wouldn't have enough for the Greatest Hits Budokai 3 if I got all this, and this may be my last chance to get the game since it was 1) the last release available at this Best Buy and 2) wasn't anywhere to be seen at my local Walmart. I decided to take a shot at it and put the GT set down, practically sprinted to the video game section for it, and bought the release I swore I wouldn't.
When I got home, I put the game in my Ps2, fully expecting for some reason that it'd be the flawed version. However, to my complete surprise, I saw Pan's mouth move on the Load Game-Data screen. This meant that this was and is in fact the CORRECT Greatest Hits release, I actually lucked out and got it! I was downright ecstatic, I think I actually dropped the plate of pasta I was eating at the time, I was utterly in shock. After I'd hit "Load Game", it told me I didn't have saved data for the game. Then I hit "New Game" in almost confusion, when to my joy, I discovered that the Greatest Hits release imported my 100% Capsule save from my original Budokai 3 game data, and it created a whole new save data file on my memory card (a blue dragon radar in comparison with the original's green one). I instantly dashed to the Options Menu and lit up when I saw the Japanese VAs as a selectable option. After turning the Japanese VAs on, I instantly went to my computer and pulled up Vegetto EX's site for the codes to get the 3 extra skins not available in the original release. I entered each code into the Dragon Arena section, and I was more ecstatic than when I heard Puar's Japanese voice (in the Options menu, of course) to see Piccolo Daimao, Halo Warrior Goku, and Saiyan Armor: Long Haired Trunks all for there for the playing.
While going through this awesome new version of the game, I found so many extra treats to the thing, I couldn't believe it! With the exception of the Budokai 3 animation opening (which isn't the vocalized version), it was a direct 'port of the European Collectors' Edition. There appears to be a new combo list in the fighting pause menu, audio glitches in the Dragon Rush system have indeed been fixed, minor extra particle effects are present for particular characters. There're also some of the finishing moves; Gotenks now actually spits his Super ghosts, Teen and Adult Gohan's Dragon fist attacks never looked better, Yamcha's Spirit Ball's even been graphically enhanced, and Cooler's balls now make sounds...! (You'd have to play the original Budokai 3 to know what I mean, heh) Another pretty awesome aspect added is the changing of facial expressions in Dragon Universe cut-scenes, where originally all facial expressions just had one feature, they now change to different facial styles in the appropriate speaking manners. Also, a few new backgrounds have been animated for the cut-scenes that make them more believable (Trunks' time machine, Raditz's space-pod, Buu's innards) and flashback cut-scenes look much better as they now have a bright glowed-effect with a sepia tone (as opposed to the original release's plain black-and-white effect).
Speaking of Dragon Universe, probably the most substantial improvement should be considered Broly's story mode. Originally, you fly as him on the same Earth that you fly on with the 10 other selectable Z warriors. However, now, the Earth looks wickedly evil, and in a sick and awesome way. Hell, if you've seen the GT Shadow Dragon episodes, you'll get a clear picture of what Earth looks like when you play as Broly. There's a slightly fogyish haze that is now present in the sky, the Earth oceans and rivers are now purple (as opposed to blue), which is quite similar to Kaioshin's planet. It's a VERY cool graphic addition/alteration. These tweaks to Dragon Universe make it much more believable as a story mode than the original release incompletely made it out to be (however there are still silent cut-scene moments in which the characters don't speak and you just read the speech bubble text). However, the English text in the cut-scenes doesn't change when you're playing with the Japanese VAs on. Despite the fact the cut-scenes are basically dubtitled, it's really not so bad, especially considering John Burgmeier and Eric Vale stayed close to Steve Simmons' translation when adapting. Though I must say, their writing isn't quite as accurate as what you'd find in Budokai Tenkaichi/Sparking!, which seems a bit odd considering the writers didn't have mouth-flap issues to contend with. But like I said, ain't too bad.
Another difference between the English and Japanese selections is the Bonus "Memories Of..." archives, which holds voice records of all the VAs that speak in Dragon Universe. It would seem that the dub VAs actually recorded more than the Japanese VAs did, I'm guessing that's because the dub VAs recorded quite a few things more than once, and also that the Dragon Universes had a chunk load of dub VA recordings, as opposed to the Japanese VAs where there's a smaller amount (this being for back-up recordings of DUs that were never made by Dimps). A cool tibit that wasn't included in the original Budokai 3, and Budokai Tenkaichi didn't even do this either, is that the Japanese VAs are all credited in the ending-credit sequence whenever you beat a story mode. It's a very respectful move by either Bandai or Atari, which ever of them went to the trouble (my bet's on Bandai). Some of the character names are even spelled as they are in the Japanese version of the anime when crediting the Japanese VAs. Such names as Rou Kaioshin, Uranai no Baba, Broli, Kami-sama, and a few others as well. It's a very cool addition to an already phenomenally improved game, and I hope Atari doesn't stop doing this for future DBZ releases.
Perhaps my most favorite addition though, next to the Japanese VAs of course, would be the inclusion of Piccolo Daimao as an alternate skin for Piccolo. The Piccolo Daimao arc in original DragonBall has to be my favorite saga in the entire DB anime trilogy, second only to the Buu and Shadow Dragon arcs. It's a major foreshadowing saga for Goku, an arc that features major characters actually dying, including Shen Long himself. The entire saga is one big emotional roller coaster, if anyone appreciates the Smallville TV series as a prequel to the Superman mythos, then you'd appreciate the King Piccolo arc as a true precursor to DBZ. Goku faced his first pure evil enemy in Daimao, he showed the most of his character in original DB that would later be seen in DBZ, and the final battle blow gave a perfect premonition to Goku's future power. Before I go anymore off subject than I already have, allow me to get to the point. I played out Kid Goku Vs. Piccolo Daimao (vice-versa as well), and you wouldn't believe how different Dimps actually made Daimao compared to Piccolo for being just an alternate skin. His Destructive Wave and Light Grenade moves are in a wicked purple glow in comparison with regular Piccolo's yellow energy, his body is huge and actually matches up to Broly's, and I swear his powering-up scream sounds as pure evil as he himself when he unleashes the Demon Death Blast (Special Beam Cannon to dubbies). But still, nothing beats using Kid Goku's Super Dragon Fist full on against Daimao, it's truly amazing and seems like it's straight out of the anime.
Over-all, a lot of you would be completely and overwhelmingly surprised at how different Greatest Hits Budokai 3 really is compared to its original release predecessor. In my humble opinion, it really, truly is the best DBZ game, if not the best fighting game, for the Ps2 EVER. Definitely buy this over Budokai Tenkaichi, as Tenkaichi on its own is just way to repetitive, hard to learn with the control configuration, and annoyingly glitchy in its audio. I absolutely love this game, Greatest Hits Budokai 3, while others will say it's 10 times as good as the original Budokai 3, I say it's 20 times better. It blows all other DBZ games out of the water, as well as delivers its game-play in an absolute and fabulous manner. You should all still know, there is still a 50/50 chance of getting the flawed version on purchasing this at a store, so be careful. While the correct version of the game has been leaking into stores, it hasn't stopped the flawed version from being yanked off all shelves. The ONLY way to tell the difference between the flawed and correct versions without risking corruption of your memory card data of the original Budokai 3 (like a couple other unfortunate souls out there) is to see if Pan's mouth moves on the Load Game-Data screen. If it does, hit "New Game", and you're knee deep in pure gold. Some people say the correct version is in shrink wrap packaging (I know mine was), while the flawed version is in a packaging that has Sony sealing on the case, I'm pretty much in agreement that this seems to be the case. If you still get the flawed version, you can simply enough mail it to New York, and wait out a couple more weeks for the correct counterpart. True, I bitched about having to do that, but then again I lucked out and got the correct release at Best Buy rather than going to the trouble.
However it is you get the game, just try and make a priority to getting it. Like I've said a hundred times, it truly is, in my honest opinion, the best DBZ game of all time. Find it, play it, and love it like I know you will. Peace out!
Written by -- "SSJ Conan"
EDIT: I've just made a couple alterations, simply for the sake of correcting some errors I made when originally writing this, as well as added some slight extra info. Anywho, hope you all still like this editorial. Peace!!
NEW EDIT: Revised to include new pics.
