Dragonball Z Budokai 3 and Dragonball Z Infinite World may look like the same game if you’re just looking at screenshots and videos, but the truth is that there are major differences between the two and you may end up enjoying one over the other, depending on your priorities and preferences. The question is: what exactly are the differences?
First things first: one thing that both Budokai 3 (whether plain or collectors/greatest hits edition) and Infinite World have in common is that they make Budokai and Budokai 2 unnecessary – they vastly improved the gameplay, added more content, and even polished the visuals (especially when you compare both against Budokai’s crude graphics.) They’re also both exclusive to the PS2, barring the HD re-release on the PS3. Budokai 1 and 2, on the other hand, were also released for the Gamecube.
Now, let’s get back to the differences:
Content
Content-wise, Infinite World has more characters, but Budokai 3’s Greates Hits/Collectors’ Edition has several characters that were removed in Infinite World. Pick Infinite World If you want GT Goku (Base, SSJ, SSJ3), GT Vegeta (Base, SSJ, SSJ4), Great Saiyaman, GT Pan, Baby Vegeta, Super 17, Syn Shenron, Janemba, and Pikkon. Pick Budokai 3 (GH or CE) if you want Cell Jr., Uub, and Kid Goku. Infinite World also has a couple of new stages added. Visually, they also changed a few minor things – like the color of the Ki Burst Aura (Budokai 3 used red, while Infinite World used blue auras.)
The capsule system is also tweaked, although in this case not necessarily for the better. Budokai 3 allowed you to only pick specific transformation capsules, so you can build a Goku that only transforms up to Kaioken. In IW, the transformation capsules level up and add better transformations, so it’s not possible to just pick one transformation. Once you get Goku’s SSJ4 transformation, his transformation capsule will contain Kaioken, SSJ, SSJ2, SSJ3, and SSJ4. I can see where this could be problematic if you want to replicate anime/movie battles.
Gameplay
This is where the differences start to decide which one you’ll enjoy more. Infinite tweaked the engine in order to serve as the middleground between Budokai 3 and the Shin Budokai games on the PSP. Such as:
1. Ultimate Attacks – IW adds new instant ultimate attacks, which are basically similar to the supers in the Shin Budokai games where the background goes dark and the attacks happen in real time instead of going into a cutscene minigame. Additionally, IW has some characters like Super 17, Baby Vegeta, and Janemba whose ultimate attacks rely on a cut scene but don’t have a minigame. If you launch it and it connects, the success rate is 100%.
2. Basic Controls – Ki Charge is now done with one button (L1 by default), whereas Budokai 3 required you to block and tap backwards twice. Transformations in IW only needed you to press Down + Ki Blast (Budokai 3’s transformation is punch + kick + guard.) Ultimate attacks are also easier to do, Budokai 3 required you to enter Ki Burst mode first, and then press Punch, Kick, Block, and Ki Blast at the same time. Infinite World only required you to press UP and Ki Blast.
3. Dragon Rush – Infinite World removed Dragon Rush, so if you really loved those lengthy cut-scene-based attacks, you’ll want to stick with Budokai 3.
4. Beam Struggles – this is another thing that Infinite World lacks, which we have to admit is a travesty. Beam struggles is as much a part of Dragonball fighting games as transformations. Even the old 16-bit games on the SNES – which had no in-game transformations – had beam struggles. This is one Infinite World change that we never understood the reason for.
5. Dueling – IW removed dueling. Like Beam Struggles, we don’t understand why, but we’re a little bit more lenient on this one because we don’t consider it as important nor as fun as beam struggles.
6. Fatigue – in order to get your opponent dizzy in B3, you have to hit your opponent when his ki bar is empty. In IW, on the other hand, there is a fatigue meter that goes up when hit. Hit your opponent until it fills up and he gets dizzy. This means IW makes it easier to get your opponent dizzy and open to punishment.
7. Speed – most players won’t notice this upon initial play, but your character in Infinite World will generally move faster, both in how they move, dash, and how they launch attacks. There’s also free flight. You just need to dash backwards or forward then press up in order to start floating into the air. These changes to the speed make Infinite World’s fights look more dynamic and more friendly to button mashing BUT…
8. Difficulty – IW dialed up the difficulty a bit, so you won’t button mash in this one. It’s not Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny by any means, but even at the lowest AI setting, the CPU is perfectly capable of defending itself against scrubs.
Conclusion
As mentioned above, both Infinite World and Budokai 3 GH/CE are worthy and logical updates to Budokai 1 and 2, but if you can’t have both, your choice will depend on what you really want in your Dragonball Fighting game. There are dragonball fans who prefer Budokai 3 due to the various bells and whistles that were cut off from IW, but many others prefer IW and consider it better suited to streamlined, competitive play.
