Dragon Ball Z is a series you either remember fondly or have been forced to remember from countless iterations. While Xbox 360 owners were able to have Dragon Ball Z for Kinect for themselves, the newly released Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection is letting everyone join in.
While both games in this collection look fantastic in their own right, Budokai 1 hasn’t aged as well as one might hope. While it looks far superior to the original, strange dubbing and old character models were too much to correct. This wouldn’t be so amazingly apparent if Budokai 3 didn’t look light-years better. Worse still is that you fight many of the same fights in the beginning of both games, further cementing Budokai 3 as the better game to play if graphics is your flavor.
Since this is a re-release of sorts, most things are just improved upon, though there were some odd decisions. I find it particularly perplexing that Budokai 2 wasn’t included on the disc, as the what-if scenarios of that game were a wonderous experience. Budokai 3 also had much of its music changed, with the intro and menu music being the most jarring. One troubling fact is there is no way to switch between games, a feature that could have easily been put in. It seems as though this collection is an attempt at the bare minimum, which in a series about bettering oneself feels more like going Kaio-ken than Super Saiyan.
We’ve provided some gameplay of both Dragon Ball Z Budokai 1 and 3 to enjoy – the HD Collection is available now for $39.99 from Namco Bandai.
Dragon Ball Z Budokai 1 Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsYfIWoBLps
Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS0TwgGfab8