Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection - Epic Fighting Game for Fans

First off, if you found this review helpful in your decision-making, please click on the helpful button so this review may help others in their decision-making process.Bought this game when it first came out back in 2012, and after my ps3 decided not to read discs anymore, turned her in to gamestop for a measly $10-15. Totally regretted it, and when I bought my next ps3, I knew I had to get it again, especially because I am a trophy hunter, and did not complete the platinum for this game yet, and it is a "rainy day, but can still have fun with friends in the house" kind of game.(as it was one of the BEST local fighting games back on the ps2, one of those "fill up the living room with friends and the loser passes on the controller"-type of games, making it one of my more memorable games from the early 2000s.)Now for the actual game review: ( since it has 2 full seperate games, I shall explain both games), (also, if you HAVE played the earlier ps2 versions, you will be glad to hear that everything seems to have remained the same, except now it is in HD and as mentioned before, now supports trophys, and it DOES NOT allow you to matchmake and face other users online, meaning there is no online portion, similar to earlier versions).Series gameplay: The Budokai series plays like a typical 3-D fighting game. As well as including the regular punch and kick buttons, there is the ability to shoot Ki blasts, which can also be used in specific special moves. The special moves are mainly taken from individual characters' own special moves from the show; including, but not limited to, Goku's Kamehameha, Vegeta's Galick Gun and Frieza's Death Beam.Budokai: The game follows the Dragon Ball Z timeline starting with Goku and Piccolo's fight with Raditz up to Gohan's final battle with Cell with a total of 23 playable characters. Features included in the game were a story mode, a versus mode, a tournament stage, a practice mode, and an items shop which allowed the player to purchase various customization abilities using money that was gained through the various challenges in the story mode and tournament victories to customize and make the most powerful warriors. The story mode also included a few "what if" episodes to play, retelling iconic events in the Dragon Ball history with a few twists.Budokai 3: The game's story mode yet again plays through the events of the Dragon Ball Z timeline, and the game includes several characters and events from the Dragon Ball Z movies (like Cooler, Broly and Bardock), Dragon Ball GT (like Super Saiyan 4 and Omega Shenron), and the original Dragon Ball series itself (Kid Goku). Other features the game includes are a versus mode, an items shop, a tournament, and a battle ranking stage where the player has to challenge the AI in a hundred fighter challenge. Moving a spot above after beating who ever is next in the ranking. The fighting mechanics have also been enhanced from the preceding 2 games making the game closer to its anime counterpart in terms of combat (which was well received by fans of the series and gamers alike). Budokai 3 has a roster of 42 playable characters in recent releases of the game.All in all, if you have a living room full of friends, I think this is one of the best "sharing" games, as everyone gets a turn, matches arent overly long, and its a head to head battle to see whos best with who. And if you are a dragonball z fan, a must have game to add to the collection of memorys.