These fighting games offered retellings of the anime storyline alongside an increasing number of playable characters, all modelled fully in 3D - with Budokai 3 reaching 42, including characters from outside of the anime’s story, such as Gogeta and Cooler from the movies.
The three Budokai games of the early 2000s restored Dragon Ball Z games’ public favour. While the character models were well received, the gameplay was not - with many critics noting that flight animations were punctuated by characters just standing idle in mid-air.ĭespite disappointing critics, the original Japanese version sold enough to earn a spot in PlayStation’s “Best for Family” branding campaign - there’s likely a lot of disappointed families.
The following year’s Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout shifted to a fully 3D fighter along the lines of its contemporaries like Tekken. One review called it “one of the worst-looking titles ever released on the PS1,” which is impressive, considering the fact that Bubsy 3D had come out seven years earlier. The first PS1 Dragon Ball game, Ultimate Battle 22, had 3D backgrounds but 2D character models, and was panned critically for its imprecise controls and outdated graphics (yes, even back then). The arrival of Sony’s PlayStation in the mid-nineties offered a fresh opportunity for the Dragon Ball franchise - though its transition to 3D graphics wasn’t exactly an easy one. The disc-based medium led to plenty of FMV-style titles, but short of licensed titles like Sailor Moon and the aforementioned Dragon Ball titles, the console faded into obscurity - despite a bizarre late push from Bandai to publish more. The system only lasted on the market for two years, but boasted a wireless joypad (with infrared connectivity - a fairly novel idea at the time but one that Atari championed as far back as 1983 with the 2600’s CX-42 Joysticks) and was one of the earlier consoles to adopt running games from CD Roms. With animated battle scenes and a wealth of characters (and an original story, something not found often in the franchise), Uchū-Hen was well-received by fans.īoth Chikyū-Hen and Uchū-Hen even made their way to Playdia, Bandai’s proprietary console. In 1994, the Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku titles, Chikyū-Hen and the re-release, Uchū-Hen, (which translates to the catchily-titled DBZ Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans), were Japanese-exclusive card-battlers - similar in many ways to something like Slay The Spire, where moves and attacks are dictated by the cards drawn by the player. It would scan barcodes on trading cards that would unlock characters and items in the game. The early nineties saw a multitude of Dragon Ball titles on the Famicom and Super Famicom consoles, and while many mesh into a homogenous blur of 2D fighting titles, there are a few surprisingly unique additions.ĭragon Ball Z: Gekitō Tenkaichi Budokai was a 1992 fighting game that required a peripheral for the NES called the Datach Joint ROM System, which was in many ways a precursor to Amiibo.
This nod to the anime (Goku is constantly eating) - is something latest release Kakarot builds upon with stat boosts awarded when our hero eats.
1986: Humble, Muscley BeginningsĪ top-down shooter for the Epoch Super Cassette Vision, Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō sent Goku into battle atop his cloud companion the Nimbus, tasked with collecting the Dragon Balls by firing Kamehamehas and swinging his Power Pole at enemies in a top-down shoot-em-up.ĭragon Daihikyō was unique at the time, thanks to it’s more tactical take on the action/shooter – the hungrier our hero gets, the shorter his Power Pole becomes meaning he has to refuel with items occasionally thrown by Chi-Chi. Flip through the gallery above to see all the Dragon Ball games, or scroll down for a breakdown of some of the franchises best, worst, and most unique games since the 1980s.
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