DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 HD Remake - Why people want it

It was THE Dragon Ball Z fighting game for the PlayStation 2. 161 characters and the way of fighting came really close to how it would be in the TV series. Despite many new games have been released since then - many fans want that game from 2007 back.

The currently quite popular Dragon Ball games are Xenoverse and its recently released successor Xenoverse 2. These games are in terms of story with the Time Patrols quite interesting and playing it online is also quite cool. 

But - in my view - the fighting system or the handling itself is not as fun as in the final part of the Budokai Tenkaichi series. I admit, nostalgia is also playing a part, but playing a Dragon Ball game having been released since then is mostly disappointing, if you know Tenkaichi 3 from 2007. 

Of course, the story in Tenkaichi 3 was quite short and easy to get through, but it's always awesome for having a fast 5 vs. 5 match against a friend. The controls are easy, the battles are fast and really fun - and that after almost 10 years.

Modded Tenkaichi 3 games on YouTube

An update on the current console generation like PS4 would have much potential. Especially now, where the Dragon Ball universe has expanded with new characters and the story of Dragon Ball Super. And people are still loving Tenkaichi 3 - just go to YouTube and look for videos of modded Tenkaichi 3 like grognougnou's channel.

You'll find videos of fusions with SSJ Blue mods with millions of clicks. I also couldn't help and modded my Tenkaichi 3 game with instructions and downloads being published on another website. So Namco Bandai would surely sell enough copies if they would release an updated version of Tenkaichi 3 for the PS4 or other consoles. And how often you read comments like 'best DBZ game ever made'?

Answers from Bandai Namco

Such a re-release happened in 2012 with Budokai and Budokai 3 being released as 'Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection'. So what's the situation with a new Budokai Tenkaichi 3 release?

The guys from the YouTube channel Rhymestyle actually talked to a guy from Bandai Namco about this topic in January 2015 (see video above), the man seemed interested, but they never heard of him again. 

And if you the Internet about that topic most reports are from the first half of 2015 - but apparently no recent information. It seems that it was considered, news of that possibility were spread, but that was it.

There were also several petitions, but all I could see was that they were closed by now never reaching 6,000 signatures. 

Interestingly, Treevax (the guy who is working on game concepts for a possible Raging Blast 3) also got some answers from Bandai staff concerning Tenkaichi 3 - but this is from February 2013:

Will there ever be a Tenkaichi HD Collection?First, you must know that making the Budokai HD Collection has been a real copyright maze. This is one of the reasons why we didn’t have Budokai 2 in the collection. Though, they succeeded into obtaining the rights, and made the game. I’ve been told that making Tenkaichi HD Collection would be even more complicated. Thus, it might never been made, because of copyright issues (game content, BGM…).

So, copyright issues... I'm aware within the Budokai series there were tracks produced by Kenji Yamamoto, but facing some plagiarism issues around 2011 the composer didn't produce any more Dragon Ball music. About Tenkaichi 3 I just know that the theme song 'Super Survivor' was produced by Yamamoto. So there's more behind it.

To sum this up: Many fans want it, but there are apparently issues with the rights making this even more difficult. I don't know if they're working on it or not - we may just have to be more patient...