Budokai 3 is the star of the show.
Namco Bandai's 2002 and 2004 releases in the Dragon Ball Z Budokai series are fondly remastered in HD, with the recently released Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection. The title contains Budokai, and Budokai 3, with the middle title being left out of the mix. Keeping in mind that Dragon Ball Z Kinect has been out for a short time before the launch of HD Collection, this compilation will hopefully stave off the need for another decent Dragon Ball Z experience on the current platform lineup.
Dragon Ball Z Budokai came out on the PS2 in late 2002, and was an exemplary model of how to build a product based on a popular cartoon - even one so far outside its original airing. The anime series was being rerun on network TV and a new host of viewers were potentially experiencing Dragon Ball Z for the first time. This became an opportunity for Atari and Funimation to cash in on the popularity of the anime.
Previous titles in the Dragon Ball Z franchise were not so well received, for the most part in North America, fans were given clunky 2D fighters. With a great cell shaded art style that closely matched the anime, Budokai moved classic Dragon Ball Z characters and locations into the 3D fighting landscape. Keeping with the art style, Budokai also followed the format of the TV series, where each saga is represented as a television episode, complete with the title card and announcer explaining "Last time on Dragon Ball Z!" The presentation works to get the story across and is a highlight of the title.
The story mode in Budokai presents major story plot points with ingame cutscenes, where the 3D models are paired with their TV Voice actor counterparts to complete the experience. Story mode mostly follows Goku through his battles with Raditz, Vegeta, Frieza, the Androids and Cell. Some mini games appear in the story mode, but most story beats are followed by a fight between the main cast. Players will unlock special powers for Goku during the story mode as well as up to 23 additional characters that can be used in the Tournament and Duel modes.
Moving to Budokai 3, this is a more fleshed out version of Budokai and Budokai 2. Updated visuals, sounds and game modes await, with familiar controls and new combat mechanics. Story Mode has been replaced with Dragon Universe - letting players not just play Goku's story thread, but many other characters from the Z Universe, like Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha and Gohan. Notably, the in game cutscenes have been changed to dialog screens with floating heads of the characters - this is a drawback compared to the ingame cutscenes from Budokai 1, however considering all the other content in the game its easy to skip this and get back to flying around Earth/Namek as the Z Warriors, especially when this is the billionth time the story has been told.
The Versus & Duel roster has been bumped to 40+ characters, including some GT and Movie characters not previously seen in the series. Your Dragon Universe character has unique skills and progression, which can be shared by a password system. The added combat mechanics provide a much more cinematic view of battle and some neat rock/paper/scissors style methods to perform Dragon Ball Z styled attacks. The combat additions like teleportation and Dragon Rush are noted improvements which help update the already accessible fighting systems. Many characters share combos and special move inputs, making transitioning from Goku to Gohan, or from Vegeta to Piccolo relatively straight forward.
The Budokai HD Collection is a great pickup for fans of Dragon Ball Z who might have missed the original launch or those looking to relive the nostalgia of the long running TV series. This is not a disappointing release, unlike Dragon Ball Z Kinect - Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit is a more worthy current-gen title if you can find it, but this fills the void while we wait for the next Super Sayian transformation to appear, likely on next gen systems.
Overall, this is a great update of a PS2 series made for fans of both Dragon Ball Z and fighting games alike. Button mashers will find the combat mechanics forgiving and easy to pick up, while combo experts will find a system that rewards learning more difficult chains of inputs or mechanics. The Dragon Universe mode in Budokai 3 is an great way to condense the many story arcs of the Z world into multiple playthoughs with different characters. Budokai 3 is truly the star of the show here, but the story mode in the original Budokai is worth seeing, even just to compare to how it was produced along with the anime series. A great voice cast and the bevy of playable characters in duel and tournament modes allow players to dig out a little more content aside from the campaign modes. Budokai 3 remains one of the best outings in the Dragon Ball Z franchise, and this HD Collection reminds us of that.