Forgotten Dragon Ball Games You Might Not Know Exist

Dragon Ball is, without a doubt, one of the most popular anime to ever come out of Japan, point blank. Its hundreds of action-packed episodes spread over 5 different series have done an incredible job of bringing the wonders of the shonen anime genre all over the world for almost 40 years, and that’s to say nothing of the excellent manga it’s based on.

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Naturally, this uber-popular franchise has spawned a plethora of video games spanning across gaming history, with many of them getting lost in instant transmission. Below are just a few of the games fans might have missed within the storied history of the Z Fighters.

10 Dragon Ball: Daimaō Fukkatsu

Sales According to VGChartz: 1.25M

• Platform(s): Famicom
• Released: August 12, 1988
• Developer: Tose Sofware
• Genre(s): RPG, Card Battle

Daimaō Fukkatsu retells the story of the search and inevitable defeat of King Piccolo, but with a unique twist. The game is the first in what would eventually be a number of DBZ games to utilize a card-based battle system.

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Every action taken, from attacking, to healing, to even moving across each stage’s board, requires the strategic use of a card. All of this is realized beautifully on the limited hardware of the Famicom system.

9 Super Dragon Ball Z

Sales According to VGChartz: 0.46M

Unlike the Tenkaichi games, the first of which came out around the same time, Super Dragon Ball Z stops just short of that series’ more immersive presentation. Nevertheless, it carved out its own place as one of the most beloved fighters based on the anime.

Robust is an understatement for this game, with tons of character customization options, including alternate costumes serving as throwbacks spanning the entirety of both Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball. In fact, every feature of the game seems to serve the purpose of keeping the controller in the player’s hands so they can unlock more stuff.

8 Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout

Sales According to VGChartz: 0.27M

• Platform(s): Playstation
• Released: August 21, 1997
• Developer: Tose
• Genre(s): Fighting

Some cool character and transformation designs aside, Dragon Ball GT is by far the least liked series in the Dragon Ball-verse, to the point that fans argue about its status in the canon to this day. And frankly, the PlayStation game, Final Bout, is no better.

Bad animations accompany some poor character models, while disastrous controls make it hard for players to make any use of them. Thankfully, it being one of the United States’ first tastes of a video game in the DBZ universe didn’t deal any lasting damage to the series’ reputation.

7 Dragon Ball: Revenge Of King Piccolo

Sales According to VGChartz: 0.20M

• Platform(s): Nintendo Wii
• Released: July 23, 2009
• Developer: Media.Vision
• Genre(s): Action-Adventure, Beat-Em-Up

At the end of the 2000’s, developer Media.Vision decided to revisit the story of Dragon Ball, which, by Revenge of King Piccolo’s release, was over two decades old. Of course, the lighter tone of the original series is a perfect fit for a game released on one of Nintendo’s most family-friendly consoles.

Easy, 2D platforming sections break up the game’s 3D brawls, transitioning between each other surprisingly smoothly. What’s more, boss battles turn into 1-on-1 bouts reminiscent of the fighting games that the franchise has become famous for in the years since

6 Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure

Sales According to VGChartz: 0.04M

Goku’s epic adventure throughout the well-trodden story of Dragon Ball is given new life on the Game Boy Advance. The heart-pumping, beat-em-up action against an entertaining swath of varying enemies practically begs for players to explore stages to find the secrets hidden within.

Advanced Adventure’s charming and unassuming pixel art does wonders for bringing players into the colorful world of the anime, and the abundance of post-game content follows up to make sure fans stay busy with the game for a long time after the credits roll.

5 Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai – Another Road

Sales According to VGChartz: N/A

Despite being a PSP game, Another Road is a full-featured title with a number of interesting modes, like Challenge and Survival Modes. This is on top of telling a totally original story involving the future versions of many fan-favorite characters.

Story progression is malleable, as winning and losing battles can send players in completely different directions. However, everything inevitably culminates in another harrowing battle with Buu that will, no doubt, satisfy fans.

4 Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō

Sales According to VGChartz: N/A

• Platform(s): Epoch Super Cassette Vision
• Released: September 27, 1986
• Developer: Epoch
• Genre(s): Shoot-Em-Up

Taking a page from one of gaming’s all-time classics, Galaga, Dragon Daihkyō auto-scrolls through stages from a top-down perspective. Movement atop the nimbus cloud through environments is extremely rudimentary, but that can only be expected from a game released back when Glam Metal ruled the scene.

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Combat is as simple as it comes as well, with Goku only having a few attacks to keep enemies at bay. That being said, power-ups arrive in steady supply, with just about everything fans of Dragon Ball know, like Capsule Corps and Master Roshi, playing their helpful parts.

3 Dragon Ball: Zenkai Battle

Sales According to VGChartz: N/A

• Platform(s): Arcade
• Released: February 4, 2011
• Developer: Bandai Namco
• Genre(s): Fighting

Arcades in Japan are well known for having some fully-featured games that attendees can sink their teeth into over multiple visits. Zenkai Battle takes this approach and runs with it, shoving the powerfully popular fighting system of the Tenkaichi series into a cabinet.

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Featuring 44 characters from Mr. Satan to Majin Buu, fighters can duke it out on a selection of 8 stages. While that stage list might be a bit small, they are nonetheless excellently detailed arenas considering they’re in an arcade game.

2 Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Son Goku Densetsu

Sales According to VGChartz: N/A

• Platform(s): PC
• Released: November 11, 1994
• Developer: Bandai
• Genre(s): Fighting

Many gamers praise Mortal Kombat for just about perfecting story modes in fighting games, but way back in ’94 Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Son Goku Densetsu had its own fascinating take on the genre. Framing the game as Goku’s exploits being reminisced upon by the children he left behind after the Cell Games is, frankly, both profound and ingenious.

It did some pretty cool things with gameplay as well, playing with perspective in a fight by having the camera stay stationary while players could traverse the battlefield in a faux-3D space. Some might say that the way the story is told is a bit intrusive, with cutscenes being doled out in the middle of the action. Then again, a faithful retelling of the franchise’s most iconic battles is often what players are after.

1 Dragon Ball Z 2: Super Battle

Sales According to VGChartz: N/A

• Platform(s): Arcade
• Released: 1994
• Developer: Banpresto
• Genre(s): Fighting

Not unlike other 2D fighters of the era, Dragon Ball Z 2: Super Battle is definitely not a game to be scoffed at. With 10 playable characters and just as many stages spanning a sizable chunk of the series, there is a lot for DBZ fans to be happy about with this entry.

The combat is as deep as players could ask for in a 90s fighting game as well, as each character comes with their own fighting style and quirks in line with what fighting game fans have come to expect. For instance, Dr. Gero, Android 20, goes to battle with Android 19 at his side at all times, utilizing him in some of his attacks.

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