I've never actually seen a dragon. Well, there was that time one time at school - but she's not worth mentioning here! But dragons don't play much of a part in Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3. If anybody is familiar with the Budokai series then you'll know that it's famous for its intense battles and unique fighting gameplay. But chances are that you've probably never played a Budokai game in your life - I was in the same boat. All I can say now is that I'm glad to be out of that boat and swimming with the minority who have played Dragon Ball Z - as this game is mind blowing.

The reason I say minority is because you're probably not going to try this game unless you watch the cartoon. But letting this game slip through your grasp regardless if you are a fan or not would be criminal! So you start it up, only to be pleasured by a beautifully animated video, with all the various Dragon Ball Z characters flying through the air and battling with each other. The video is complimented with an upbeat techno tune, with some guy singing in a foreign voice - it sounds Japanese, but it's sung is such a strange way. In any case, it's catchy and inspires you to dive straight in!

The modes on offer here are Dragon Universe, which is the main part of the game, Duelling mode, which is basically a quick vs. game and World Tournament, which is a mode where you compete against many opponents in table form till you win the cup! Then there's a Practice mode, which is useful for experimenting with the many characters available and a shop where you can buy powers, skills, items and equipment using prize money from the World Tournament mode.

Dragon Universe is the one you'll find yourself playing a lot. You start off by picking one of the many characters on offer and then embark on a character specific quest, following a unique story from your character's perspective. If you wade through a few of these characters' stories, you'll see a big picture coming together, as everything coincides beautifully. This is fantastic for revealing all the different sides of the story and it adds that all important replay value, which is essential for games of this type. The amount of choice you are faced with on a minute-to-minute basis is immense. Firstly, picking the character can be a difficult task, as there's so many, all with unique moves, powers and customisable special abilities. And even if you manage to pick a character, when you eventually start to fight, you actually gain experience in a RPG fashion.

This was the first thing that stood out in this game for me. I haven't seen a fighting game that incorporates an experience and levelling up process - but it works so well, I'm surprised it hasn't been done before. Then again, I don't play many fighters, so this feature may be the hip and happening thing in this era, but it still doesn't alter the fact that this is superb! At the end of every fight, points are totted up depending on how well you did, in areas such as defence and offence. You are given points accordingly, so if you feel you did fantastically well in that match, then chances are you're going up a level. Points are not just awarded for doing well though - if you manage to complete a match without using teleporting powers for example, then that contributes too! The final score is then taken off the 'To next level' counter - so if you have 300 points to the next level and you earned yourself 500 then you are going up a level and you'll spill over, taking points off the next 'to next level' counter, which becomes higher as your level increases. Got that? Right then. It's possible to level up twice in one fell swoop, if you spill over so much; odds are that you may take the counter right down to zero, but you are going to have to do very well to achieve this. So, what happens when you gain a level?

Well, you are faced with more choices. You are awarded a Z point or two, to spend how you see fit. The seven areas you can spend these points on are Health, Ki, which is power in Dragon Ball Z, Attack, Guard, Arts, Ability and Com, which alters the AI. It's very important that you spend these wisely, because these points are harder to come by as you progress, as gaining a level becomes more difficult. You'll have to pick what type of character you want to be playing. Do you want somebody with high defence? Do you want somebody with a massive health bar? Do you want somebody who can take an enemy down in a matter of moments? Whatever you decide, you must focus on one statistic and bring a few other secondary ones up in conjunction, as spreading your powers too evenly will result in tears. The first character I played was spread out too evenly and I couldn't advance as a result - the battles were too frustrating, which caused me to shout curse words at the TV - I was at breaking point! I will say though, this game holds plenty of challenge for those who like one.

So customisation is the key to this game, but what lurks behind the door? Well, the gameplay of course! Dragon Universe sees you flying around maps. These maps have hidden items scattered about, along with hidden Dragon Balls, which are useful to find, but not mandatory. You'll have a little map, which you can use to pinpoint key places to visit. When you fly up to a key place, a little note tells you what it is - simply press the button to fly down. Upon landing, your character shouts a bit of dialogue, in a comic book style, but read out loud. The pictures of the characters are drawn in full colour 2D but look beautiful at the same time and the dialogue is written in speech bubbles, adding to the comic style. While this may not work with games such as Fight Club, Budokai 3 does a good job of portraying dialogue before each and every battle. The key places normally result in a battle, although some of the key places are simply for uncovering more background story.

The fights in the game are what makes it for me. For a fighting game, the depth of each battle is enormous and this is welcome in a genre renowned for its shallowness. The first thing you notice is the graphics, which are outstanding. Everything and everyone is cel-shaded to its full potential. The scenery, the surroundings, the characters, the projectiles each character fires - it's simply amazing. I'll go into more detail where graphics are concerned later on. You start off with your simple kicks and punches until you realise the true potential of your character. Those kicks and punches soon turn into super-charged fists and teleporting kicks!

The moves aren't too hard to pull off either - with some fighting games you have to press every direction three times and a string of buttons, meaning one slip up could cost you the game. But here a small combination of buttons and the Ki button at the end is normally sufficient to pull off some high-damaging, visually pleasing moves! Some moves knock your opponent out of the ring and then you get to watch your character fly after the air-tumbling opponent and kick him back down to the map! And while you may think this could get repetitive, you'd be very wrong to think this. These short FMVs change depending on the map you are fighting on, as they actually crash and fly out of the surroundings! When you perform ace moves like the ones mentioned, some damage caused to the surroundings actually sticks, so if you skidded along the ground and tore up some dirt then it will remain there till you finish the match!

Things called capsules play a big part in this game. Capsules can contain a number of different things - ranging from abilities to items - like heals, super blasting beams and temporary shields! These capsules are equipped before the match, so you'll have to remember to equip them while you are flying around the map. Capsules can also be bought at the shop, providing you have money from the World Champion mode, or you can find them hidden throughout the various worlds and maps when you are free roaming. You also get the odd capsule given to you when you win certain matches! Capsules are like special moves in a sense. When you equip a capsule, it tells you how to activate it in match. Items are activated by blocking and pressing down twice, for example. But the abilities take a little bit more than that - and most abilities have more than one way to use them. For instance, you can activate your ability, Ki permitting, by simply pressing forward and the Ki button. This gives you a diluted version of what could be. Punching several times and then pressing the Ki button makes your character do something a little more damaging and a little more visually pleasing too. There are a few moves associated with abilities; the best way is to experiment with them - but just be warned, you can only equip so many capsules before each match.

Earning Ki is easy; you either have to inflict damage or protect yourself. Obviously, you are not going to earn Ki by inflicting damage with Ki abilities, but powerful kicks and punches earn you plenty. If you have Ki to burn, you could hold down the R2 button for a few seconds, which puts a reddish glow on you. As soon as you activate this, your Ki depletes. When you are all red and shiny, you must use one of your Ki abilities on the foe and be sure it makes contact. If this succeeds then it turns into a fully-fledged, beautifully animated reflex style combat. Let me explain.

If you made the contact while you were glowing, you'll be attacking in a cut-scene, while the other player defends. Both players take to the air and you have around five seconds to press one of the four buttons on your controller - the computer does the same. After five seconds, the button you pressed is revealed, as is the computer's button. If you both pressed X for example then the computer defends against the attack and the scene comes to an end, but it still looks nice. If you both picked different buttons however, then you make your first attack. You get to sit back and watch your character fight just like in the cartoons! Then you go onto the second phase. This time there's only 3 buttons to press, as the button you pressed previously has been used. This increases the chance of the computer defending. If you should happen to press different buttons then you continue to do some fancy moves until the third and final phase. There's now a 50% chance of getting through. If you manage to pick the opposite button again, you pull off a super signature move, which is sure to do massive damage to your opponent! Of course, the boot could be on the other foot and you could be on defence - but even if you are, the special effects are fantastic and it breaks up the fighting for a few moments.

The last thing worth mentioning is the varying nature of the fights you have. One minute you're fighting on the ground, the next minute you're in the air - it's so varied and offers the biggest breath of fresh air I have ever experienced in a fighter! In addition to this, you can rack up combos with the counter at the side of the screen - and it even tells you how much damage you just took off, again, similar to an RPG. After playing the Dragon Universe through a few times, I had unlocked a ton of things, from new characters to new areas to play on. Some things I unlocked by accident, simply stumbling across them and other things were unlocked by my sheer skill! With so much to do, so much to see and so much to unlock, the lasting appeal certainly benefits.

There's no anticlimax when it comes down to the graphics. Every character is highly detailed and cel-shaded in an exceptional way; it doesn't look fully cel-shaded like Zelda or Viewtiful Joe - it's more of a mix between cartoon and cel-shading, which gives it a one-of-a-kind look. I happened to look at the cartoon while reviewing this game and I can only say that they have got every character spot on. It would seem that the artist behind the cartoon has lent his talents to the game, which obviously has paid off. Also, when you are flying around and free-roaming the map in Dragon Universe, the graphics are just as good, watching your character glide over the luscious sea, across the stormy desert and into the hilly mountains! The effects in the game, such as the cut-scene styled button guessing are fantastic, which again, must have been drawn by the same artist, because it's spot on. It's not just the in-game graphics that ooze quality. The menu systems, the little comics, the loading screens, they're all bursting with colour, unlike any fighting game I've ever played.

The sound department doesn't let the side down either. Firstly, the music is so up-beat and so Japanese but most importantly it's so cool. Catchy, foot-tapping rhythms, which fit the game like a Japanese glove! I can't say the music is tedious either, because there are many different tracks that appear nearly everywhere! There's music to back every occasion and there's hardly a time where music isn't present, something every fighting game should include! The voices department is other thing that the game excels in! As far as I can tell, with my brief encounter of the TV show, the voices are all straight from the actual cartoon. Although this doesn't matter to the people who haven't seen the cartoon, it's still nice to have some professionalism chucked in, regardless if you can relate to the voices or not. Finally, the voices and noises in battle are great. The only thing that lets the side down on rare occasions was the lack of voices in some areas, where there's supposed to be voices - like in the comic dialogue before the fights. I think this is to do with the disc read speed though, so ignore me - I'm just being nitpicky.

Finally, most of the modes can be enjoyed with friends and you know how much I love my multiplayer. A few friends came around who weren't Dragon Ball Z fans for the record and enjoyed themselves tremendously with the rich fighting system. The most fun was had in the World Tournament mode where four of us (using two controllers) were each put through trials against each other and computer players till just two of us were fighting for the trophy! Each mode had its merits, delivered it laughs and distributed buckets of enjoyment - which is exactly what a fighting game should do. It is missing an online mode, which may upset long-time fans of the Budokai series, but the offline multiplayer will keep you hooked, I'm sure.

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 oozes superiority, quality, class and eminence; it's a cut above the rest, taking the fighting genre and painting it red. With a game like this, you don't have to be a Dragon Ball Z fan to enjoy it. The deep fighting system, the involving stories and the RPG elements are enough to make the gameplay shine in its own right. If you are a fan of Dragon Ball Z then you don't need me to tell you to get this game - but if you've never even seen a Dragon Ball Z episode, I'm sure the pure fighting here will be enough to draw you in. This game doesn't inspire me to go watch the cartoon, nor does it motivate me to check if dragons actually have balls - but with graphics, gameplay and sound like this it does encourage me to spread the word, one word in fact - exceptional. Just buy it.

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).