Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few fights deliver the exact fantasy you want from a Dragon Ball Z game: pick a recognizable fighter, trade blows, build Ki, and look for the moment to turn a close match around with something huge. Raging Blast has enough familiar faces to make experimentation part of the fun, and transformations make returning to characters such as Goku or Vegeta feel worthwhile instead of purely cosmetic roster padding.

Ki is the match’s most important pressure point. Super Attacks consume a meaningful amount of it, while Ultimate Attacks demand a completely charged blue meter, so you cannot simply fire off the strongest move whenever you feel like it. That creates a useful push and pull: conserve your meter for a decisive option, or spend it now and risk having less available when the fight swings back.

The trouble is that the package spreads itself across many modes without making every mode feel equally essential. Versus battles, team battles, World Tournament runs, and Super Battle Trial variants such as Survival, Time Attack, and Score Attack will keep a committed fan busy. Still, the core remains one-on-one fighting, and if that rhythm does not grab you, extra rule sets and unlockable moves will not transform the experience.

Graphics

The game’s strongest visual draw is the chance to field a large Dragon Ball Z cast, including transformed forms and unusual what-if versions such as Super Saiyan 3 Broly and Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta. Seeing those matchups available matters more here than any single mode’s framing.

Story

Dragon Battle Collection is built for fans who want to revisit the major Dragon Ball Z conflicts rather than discover a new storyline. Its seven chapters move through the Saiyan, Frieza, Bardock, Androids, Majin Buu, and Legendary Super Saiyan material, then make room for what-if stories. That is a sensible structure for a licensed fighter: it gets you to the fights people remember.

The familiar saga format is both its strength and limitation. You already know why a showdown with Frieza or a clash from the Androids period matters, so the mode has immediate context for anyone attached to the anime. On the other hand, the attraction depends heavily on that attachment; these are revisited battles, not a fresh narrative reason to care.

The what-if chapter is the more tempting detour, especially alongside the game’s alternate character forms. It gives the roster a little extra room to play beyond strict anime recreation. If you mainly want to relive canonical Z material, the saga chapters are the obvious destination; if you want novelty, save some attention for the alternate scenarios.

Overall Experience

Raging Blast is at its best when you treat it as a Dragon Ball Z playground with a fighting-game framework. There are 43 characters before transformations and fusions expand the selection past 120 forms, which is a lot of room to chase favorite matchups, test different abilities, and find the version of a character you enjoy using most.

There is also a respectable amount to do after the story chapters: local or CPU Versus play, World Tournament progression, online ranked matches, custom online tournaments, and the Super Battle Trial challenges. The Museum is a nice fan-service extra, letting you browse character information, saved replays, music, and character conversations. None of that fixes a fight system you do not enjoy, but it does give a fan reasons to return.

At 6.2, this lands as a serviceable recommendation for Dragon Ball Z devotees rather than a broadly essential fighting game. You will get the most from it if the roster, transformations, and chance to replay famous battles are your main reasons for showing up. If you need every mode to feel equally compelling or want the license to carry the whole experience, frustration can set in; for the right fan, though, the roster-driven payoff is real.

Retro Replay Score

6.2/10