I was a huge fan of the Budokai series on PS2 as a kid, although I haven't explored all the games DBZ has to offer on newer systems, although I did enjoy raging blast. I recently bought the Budokai HD collection on PS3 this Friday. I wasn't expecting much gameplay wise and I'll have to admit I didn't enjoy it all that much and basically just grinder through all the trophies this weekend so I can return it tomorrow. I should've known that nostalgia glasses made the game seem like the best thing I the world but I did have quite a bit of fun going through countless battles and grinds. It didn't leave me bored I have to say. But I can't help but feel cheated on this HD collection, and not because they left out my personal favorite the Tenkaichi games but they blatantly skipped over Budokai 2. Among that huge flaw the whole presentation seemed lazy and just feels like something they threw together with basically just adding a shity HD coat to old games. I feel like the Dragon Ball series is something that keep pumping out games as long as it makes money. I think Namco should either do a real HD collection or let the series die, awesome games but I just think it should stop

If I could get Budokai 3 on PS4, my friends and I would be so happy. It was a ton of my friends' favorite fighter. I don't like the current one because the mechanics are not great at all for pvp, though it is fun for the first like 20 hours. Ultimately I regret the purchase of XV. But DBZ is a hard series to translate into fighting game because you have to balance as well as stay faithful to the series. Not an easy task.

Your thread title is the secret. There hasn't been a good Dragonball game. 'Even' the Budokai games are trash if you think about what a Dragonball game could be. Xenoverse is showing signs of going in the right direction, but it's still a poor playing game.

Dragonball should be a game with the progress structure of Fable. You start as a kid, you grow up, you level up. You gain levels, strength, by completing quests and defeating enemies. Open world(ish?), non-linear. Certain story missions allow growth of certain powers like becoming a SSJ, which will only happen halfway through the game at the earliest. None of this fighting style nonsense, it's a third person action game like a DmC or Revengeance. With the proper development team, time and budget, it would be so bad ass and one of my favorite games of all time. Also, it will never happen because it will only sell slightly better than the trash they keep putting out with fast turn around times.

As someone who isn't a DBZ "fan" and hasn't played a DBZ game until just recently, I sunk 40-50 hours into Xenoverse and had a great time. There are obvious issues it has (the multiplayer is pretty barebones, really bad drop rates on a lot of items, feels a little grindy, combat can be a tad on the mashy side), but I still think it's a good game. I don't think they even knew what they had when they released Xenoverse, evidenced by the lack of retail copies on shelves, so I'd love to see what Dimps can do if they focused on what makes the game good and fix some of the bullshit.

@zevvion: That is exactly the game that I've always wanted, except I think it should be strictly Dragon Ball. Just Kid Goku with his nimbus cloud and the rod, foiling Red Ribbon shenanigans. They could even take a page from the Naruto games if they have to for story missions. I'm just tired of the current formula that DBZ games keep trotting out for the actual fighting portion of the games.

I went back to Budokai 3 recently and I thought it was still pretty fun, though holy hell I must have gotten really rusty because I remember whooping the AI back in the day. Tenkaichi 3 is also still fun to play, though it's far from balanced and a lot of characters are clones.

I feel like too many people only focus on the DBZ fighting games. Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II, Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury, Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans are all among my favorites.

Some do. I loved Tenkaichi 2 and liked its sequel Tenkaichi 3. Only liked it because it only has more characters and stages, and the tournaments are cumbersome in the last entry.

I'm sorry but you couldn't be more WRONG. Budokai 3 was the epitome of a good fighting system. The controls weren't overly complicated, the Tekken-esque 3D plane was done well and there were actual indept juggle combo's to perform. It did not catch on since balancing was poor, but other than that pretty great hybrid of a DBZ fanservice and a fighter.

I heard Super DBZ was even better.

The worst part about the Budokai HD Collection was that they took out the fantastic soundtracks from the PS2 versions and replaced them with the generic garbage from one of the more recent games. Never bothered picking that collection up because of it.

That was because of plagiarism. The composer of those tracks straight-up ripped them from Stratovarius tracks. For the HD rerelease they were forced to replace the tracks. For reference:

Nah, let's not pull the plug right after they released the first good DBZ game in like 5-6 years. Rock, Paper, Scissors.. I'm sorry; Ultimate Tenkaichi came out in 2011.. meaning since Raging Blast came out in '10, we've had 2 shitty games, one mediocre game, and one mediocre HD collection of 10 year old games.

I'm stoked that Xenoverse is doing so well, if only to help them understand that there is a market for good Dragonball games, and that it's not kids who find something like DBZ Kinect entertaining.

As far as that HD collection is concerned, I think it would have been awesome to see some Tenkaichi in there, but I doubt there's enough people who think like us to make the extra work worth it. I also remember Budokai 2 becoming completely irrelevant with the release of Budokai 3, but I could be wrong.

Also I remember the GameBoy Advance games like Buu's Fury were pretty great. It was basically an RPG with an overworld, true to the original story and flashy combat.

The more obscure Street Fighter-like games on the Genesis (Bu Yuu Retsuden/L'Appel Du Destin) that only got released in Japan and France or Shin Butoden (Sefa Saturn) were also pretty great games. The fixation on Tenkaichi-like garbage caused the downfall of the game. Not great fighters due to the overhead 3rd person perspective and not great DBZ simulators due to the hardware limitations.

DBZ games can work in a limited but focused scope.

Budokai games were good, Tenkaichi/Raging Blast was fun, Xenoverse is good, the portable games that were kind of like rpg games were good. I don't see a problem.

Legends for the ps1 is the best dragonball game of all time. (Although I haven't tried the new one.)

@trafalgarlaw: those game boy ones where fun as hell I'll have to say I have a bunch of memries playing those

I'm pretty excited for the new 3DS game being made by Arc System Works

@trafalgarlaw: Fuck man, the first 30 seconds of the Namek Theme... a grenade of nostalgia going off right in the feels!

Oh yes it was weird for me to find out I was listening to finnish metal band all along. But the weirdness doesn't stop there either, both the original Dragonball Z as well as the 2013 Dragonball Kai music composers have all commited plagiarism or have taken liberties with inspiration. It's weird how plagiarism keeps plagueing anything Dragonball related.

I think Dragonball Z as a fighting game is the same thing as if Mass Effect was exclusively shooter. You're taking out everything about the universe that could make it one of the greatest games ever. Heck, the gameplay in the Mass Effect games got significantly better with each game, but I doubt you'll find a lot of people who would play it exclusively for its shooting gameplay. That's what these Dragonball Z games do.

Nah they weren't all junk, Budokai 3 was great fun and I remember Budokai 2 fondly for it's unique story angle, where you can actually fight Majin Buu every step of the way and watch him absorb basically everyone (including Cell and Frieza for some reason).

Tenkaiichi was also pretty great aside from the moves feeling toned down a bit, less big cutscene moves and more occasional move clones.

Still they don't all suck, I was playing Budokai and Tenkaiichi with friends only a few years ago so I doubt it's Nostalgia Glasses. One thing for sure is I'd say more modern ones haven't left me thrilled but that's only really Raging Blast I've played.