➤ The legend of the Super Saiyans 🎮

Ten years on and with the franchise still churning out new titles (although the recent Dragon Ball Z for Kinect turned out to be a mediocre product), Namco Bandai decided to make a collection by putting together the first and third episodes of one. of the most successful tie-ins for the series created by Akira Toriyama: Dragon Ball Z Budokai. Where with the subsequent Budokai Tenkaichi we tried to explore the potential of a three-dimensional action context, Budokai stands as a traditional fighting game, which in some ways tries to take stock of the situation after years of experimentation, which began even at the time of Super Nintendo, or as soon as the hardware of home consoles has allowed developers to create a beat'em-up using the various Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo and so on.

When Dragon Ball Z Budokai came out on PlayStation 2, way back in 2002, there was really a lot of excitement around the project and fans of the manga were immediately won over by the new approach, with clashes and sequences much faster than the slowness they had been at. used to earlier. While for the sequel the experimentation card was played once again, the third episode, Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3, did nothing but confirm the good things done by the series, enhancing each sector and inserting truly spectacular sequences, such as those related to special moves, capable of literally devastating an entire planet.

All together passionately

Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection it therefore contains two games in a single disc, and it is possible to start one or the other at will, managing them as separate entities. The impact with the first Budokai, let's say it immediately, was not the best: beyond the cutscenes displayed in 4: 3 with two "curtains" on the sides of the screen, the game has aged very badly both from a technical point of view and from the point of view of gameplay, and obviously the high resolution is not enough to make the product current.

In fact, we have rather angular characters with slightly discreet animations, which move within completely empty scenarios, a factor already highlighted at the time of the original review. Three modes available: story mode, versus mode and the traditional Tenkaichi Tournament. The latter represents a nice extra and allows us to freely use all the characters on the roster in the context of clashes that can end in an instant, if one of the two contenders is thrown out of the "ring" with a powerful enough attack. The story mode is clearly the fulcrum of the experience and starts from the advent of the Saiyans on Earth, with the arrival of Raditz, up to the Cell saga. The management of this mode is classic, that is, you change your character to depending on how the events unfolded, mostly playing the role of Goku but also controlling on many occasions even excellent supporting actors such as Gohan, Vegeta, Trunks, etc. On the front of the actual gameplay, the difficulty in connecting the current controllers with the key combinations required by the game are evident. We are in fact talking about a period in which fighting games were always played with the d-pad, and as we all know the directional cross is perhaps the only weak point of the Xbox 360 controller. Being able to choose, therefore, the superiority of the version is clear. PS3 of the collection, also because performing the special moves with the analog sticks is practically impossible.

Xbox 360 achievements

There are forty-three achievements that you can unlock in Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection, for a total of 1000 Gamerpoints. Most of them are obtained simply by completing the various chapters of the story mode, completing the Tenkaichi Tournament at various degrees of difficulty and obtaining the hidden scenarios. Then there are several secret objectives related to the unlocking of the characters.

There's no two without three

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 is probably the highest point reached by Dimps with the series and, while it cannot compete with the current offering in terms of fighting games on HD consoles, it boasts a much better cosmetics, richer in elements on the screen, with greater attention to detail and a higher quality design than in the first episode.

The experience is also richer from the point of view of content, thanks to the presence of the "Dragon Universe" mode, which traces the plot of DBZ even here since the advent of the Saiyans but up to the GT series. In short, many more events, but above all an approach that allows us to choose any character and play the moments that have seen him involved in the story, moreover with the introduction of exploratory elements and objects that at a certain point become vital in order to proceed and successfully face our opponents, such as the capsules for the enhancement of skills. Therefore, both the roster and the available moves increase, which also means multiple transformations for Goku, Vegeta and the other Saiyans, essential to bring home the result during the more advanced stages. The system of execution of the special maneuvers does not change, which are activated by guessing certain combinations of punches, kicks, direction of the d-pad and button for the emission of spiritual energy. On the technical realization front, the "remastering" work done by Namco Bandai unfortunately seems barely enough. Simply increasing the resolution does not mean actually making a ten-year-old product current, which, however, did not already represent something extraordinary in terms of graphics on the consoles of the previous generation. If we add to this the very sad 4: 3 cutscenes, it goes without saying that a little more effort could have been made, especially to justify the selling price.

Comment

Version tested: Xbox 360 Resources4Gaming.com

5.5

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6.0

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Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection is a product dedicated solely to fans of the series and nostalgics, who risk however to come to terms with a reality different from the one they remembered, as often happens. The two titles included in the collection are in fact terribly dated, especially the first episode, and cannot in any way represent a valid alternative to the current videogame offer as regards the genre of fighting games. The "remastering" work concerns only the graphic resolution, but leaves out important elements such as the cutscenes (displayed in 4: 3) and does not act, as known, on the polygonal count and / or on the quantity of elements present on the screen. In short, the purchase is recommended only for those who want to try the two Dimps titles again, driven mostly by curiosity. But be careful not to be too disappointed.