Believe it or not, Dragon Ball turns 34 years old this year. Nearly three and a half decades later and the series is still pumping out content at a healthy pace. Dragon Ball Super just came to an end, there’s a manga currently running, and we’re getting a brand new movie at the end of the year. There has never been a better time to be a Dragon Ball fan since the series’ original serialization in Shonen Jump. That said, the franchise wasn’t always this lively. For years after Dragon Ball GT’s end, fans suffered through a content drought where the only reminder of their beloved series lived on through video games.
If you were a fan of Dragon Ball while it wasn’t running, chances are you only remained as hardcore a fan thanks to the video games. Just about every year saw a new Dragon Ball game for fans to rub their grubby fingers all over. Some were excellent and truly captures the essence of the franchise while most dropped the (Dragon) ball on every front offering little more than a quick cash grab to satiate the masses. The good are good, but the bad outweighs the good double. These are the ten best Dragon Ball games you’ll ever find. And the twenty worst.
30 WORST: The Legacy Of Goku
The first RPG most fans of the series would have played, The Legacy of Goku couldn’t have been worse if Webfoot tried to deliberately sabotage it. Not only does it completely butcher the Saiyan and Frieza sagas by making the only playable character Goku, someone who barely appears in both story arcs, the actual gameplay suffers from a horrific difficulty curve and a battle system that’s less an action RPG and more a mindless beat ‘em up.
It's hard to believe The Legacy of Goku paved the way for both The Legacy of Goku II and Buu's Fury.
In a perfect world, The Legacy of Goku would have featured Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta alongside Goku, making the two most popular and well-regarded arcs in the series come to life on the GameBoy Advance. Sure, it might not fix the gameplay, but Dragon Ball fans time and time again prove they’re willing to put with a lot as long as the story mode is good. Sadly, we don’t live in a perfect world.
29 WORST: Ultimate Battle 22
Easily one of the worst fighting games in the series, Ultimate Battle 22 is a continuation of the Super Famicom’s Super Butoden sub-series without any of the charm. While it’s certainly cool to see the characters fight with their actual anime models, hand-drawn and everything, fights are painfully slow, characters are horribly unbalanced, and load times are nauseatingly long.
Want to go one round with a friend? Hope you have a few minutes to spare, because most of your game time is going to be spent waiting for the game to actually start up. Ultimate Battle 22 is an enormous disappointment. The worst part? It was one of the few Dragon Ball games we had access to for years, meaning you were forced to suffer through it if you were a fan.
28 BEST: Hyper Dimension
Chances are you haven’t heard of Hyper Dimension, and for good reason: it never released outside of Japan. As you likely already know, Dragon Ball Z was coming to a close by the time it made its journey to the west. That meant, unfortunately, we didn’t get access to several games that defined the series during its serialization. One such game was Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension.
Every fan owes it to themselves to play Hyper Dimension.
With beautiful sprites modeled directly off the manga and featuring one of the greatest mechanics in a DBZ fighting game, Hyper Dimension is as close a game got to capturing the Dragon Ball experience for years. Health and Ki are shared meaning every special and combo takes a little bit out of you, but you can also charge up, rewarding zoning and careful play. It’s an adrenaline rush unlike any other, and if DBZ hits the States earlier, you would’ve been able to play it on your SNES.
27 WORST: Final Bout
You know what’s horrifying? The fact Final Bout predates Dragon Ball Z’s dub overseas. For many people, a Dragon Ball GT fighting game was their introduction to the franchise, and what a truly terrible introducing it was. Hideous character models, a truly bizarre roster, and mechanics that make Ultimate Battle 22 look like Street Fighter II, Final Bout is a blemish on the franchise’s history. Sure, maybe you can force yourself to have with it in the company of friends, but is it really worth it at this point in time? Ultimate Battle 22 at least looked like the anime. Final Bout looks like a tech demo that was dated on release.
26 WORST: Sagas
The worst part about Sagas isn’t its terrible gameplay, ear-grating music, uninspired story mode, or laughably bad level design. Rather, it’s the fact it was marketed as an open world action RPG. The greatest lie ever told, Avalanche Software was simply incapable of tempering expectations for what would go on to be one of the worst video games ever made. Sagas is offensively bad in every sense of the word. The only reason it isn’t lower on the list is because Avalanche Software, inexplicably, got Toei to whip up new animation for the game. If only they knew the horror they were contributing to...
25 BEST: Advanced Adventure
When people think of video games within the series, they almost always think about a Dragon Ball Z game. Which is a shame considering one of the best games in the franchise, and on the GBA in general, is an OG Dragon Ball. Advanced Adventure is a platformer-beat ‘em up hybrid that follows Goku from the very start of the series all the way up to the Demon King Piccolo saga. And it’s kind of amazing.
The level design is superb, the script actually follows the real story so closely that it could serve as a legitimate adaptation of the first five arcs, and there’s even a one on one battle mode that brings the Tenkaichi Budokai to life like no game has ever done. If you’re a fan of Dragon Ball, you owe it to yourself to play Advanced Adventure. Did I mention it has nearly thirty playable characters?
24 WORST: Revenge Of King Piccolo
Originally released on the Nintendo Wii, Revenge of King Piccolo is less bad and more… misguided. It’s perfectly playable and even done a fine enough job at covering the second half of the original Dragon Ball, but that’s kind of the problem: it only covers the second half of the original Dragon Ball.
The knockoff is never as good as the original.
In many ways, Revenge of King Piccolo is a neutered Advanced Adventure. It covers similar material in a similar way, but it lacks the amount of content and depth its GBA counterpart has leading to a fairly watered down experience. It’s like if somebody made a Dragon Ball Z that only covered half the Cell saga and not in a particularly fun way. Speaking of...
23 WORST: Hot Battle! Artificial Humans!
For the longest time, Dragon Ball video games were defined just as much by their fighting qualities as they were their RPG. For years, the original Famicom, NES worldwide, got to experience the Dragon Ball saga in an RPG format. Gokuden, Fierce Attack! Saiyan, and Frieza the Planet Destroyer!! all took their time adapting the series’ story into a turn based, card centric RPG. Although the third game cut off before Goku became a Super Saiyan, the series had done an excellent job at bringing the story to life.
Until the fourth game, that is. Hot Battle! Artificial Humans! removed several of the series’ defining features, simplified the battle system, and ended with Cell’s introduction. It is an incomplete game by design and the worst part is that it didn’t need to be. Had the developer simply waited a few months, the Cell saga would have been over and they could have adapted the entire arc. Instead, fans got a half finished game and the series ended mid-fight.
22 BEST: The Legacy Of Goku II
It’s honestly a miracle in and of itself The Legacy of Goku II was even allowed to be made. After the disastrous first game, who honestly would look forward to a sequel? Webfoot proved themselves incompetent on every front. In a redemption tale unlike any other, however, they took their criticisms to heart and pulled through to deliver one of the greatest RPGs in the series.
Between The Legacy of Goku II and Buu's Fury, the GBA has some solid DBZ RPGs.
Covering the entirety of the Cell saga, The Legacy of Goku II features five playable characters, a refined playstyle with proper enemy design this time around, great boss fights, and music right out of the English dub. The Legacy of Goku II is such an improvement over the original that you have to wonder how Webfoot made such an awful game in the first place.
21 WORST: Transformation
Following the success of both The Legacy of Goku II and Buu’s Fury, the next logical step was to adapt Dragon Ball GT in the same format. Transformation, originally titled The Legacy of Goku IV, should have been the beacon of light sent down to redeem GT as a series. Unfortunately, thanks to a genre shift nobody wanted, Transformation simply solidified that GT could find no redemption.
Even in video game format, GT's little more than a blunder.
A traditional side-scrolling beat ‘em up instead of an action RPG, Transformation is a game absolutely nobody wanted. Not only are its mechanics far too barebones and mindless for the genre, it also just does a terrible job adapting GT’s first two arcs, skipping major details and, like with the Legacy of Goku, keeping the focus mainly on one character. It’s an enormous disappoint that ends on a cliffhanger that’ll never be resolved.
20 WORST: Dragon Power
Remember how I said Final Bout was the first glimpse at Dragon Ball many Western fans got? Well, that’s not wrong, but it’s not exactly true either. There was one game that actually predated it all the way back in 1986. Originally released in Japan as Dragon Ball: Shenlong no Nazo, Bandai chose to rename the game Dragon Power for a stateside release on account of the series not existing overseas yet.
Dragon Power's the kind of game that makes you appreciate Final Bout.
While Shenlong no Nazo was by no means a good game, it at least had Dragon Ball’s charm and aesthetic. Dragon Power, however, removed all references to the series and outright edited sprites to unrecognizable extremes. Goku became a generic karate kid, Dragon Balls were turned into Crystal Balls, and Roshi loved sandwiches instead of panties. That last one’s actually not so bad.
19 BEST: Super Butoden 2
Often considered to be the height of Dragon Ball Z’s run on the Super Famicom, Super Butoden 2 is an action-packed fighting that, while not as mechanically demanding or visually striking as Hyper Dimension, plays up the series’ inherent chaos for the sake of spectacle. Battles look and feel great, pitting players against each other on ground and in the air, but the game’s claim to fame has to be its story mode.
Super Butoden 2 just goes to show you don't need Goku for quality Dragon Ball content.
Rather than adapting an entire arc, Super Butoden 2 covers the Cell Games, Bojack Unbound, and ends with a fight against Broly. You can only play as Gohan, Vegeta, Trunks, or Piccolo and your actions in-game actually determine the course of the story. Worth noting, Goku is actually a secret character this time around, totally unplayable when first starting the game. This also marks Broly’s first appearance as a playable character in the series!
18 WORST: Super Butoden
Before there was the legendary Super Butoden 2, there was the mediocre Super Butoden 1. Despite having a larger roster, a story mode that covers the series from the end of the 23rd Budokai all the way up to the Cell Games, and more varied stages, the original Super Butoden suffers from stiff movement, counterintuitive inputs, and battles that simply aren’t fun to play. It’s a great first attempt at a fighting game, and with an incredible soundtrack at that, but it’s just too clunky for its own. There’s no reason to play Super Butoden in a world where Super Butoden 2 exists.
17 WORST: Super Butoden 3
Following the success of Super Butoden 2, you’d think, or at least hope, Super Butoden 3 would be similarly as impressive. Sadly, with absolute no story mode, a far less interesting roster, and a focus on only the first half of the Buu saga, Super Butoden 3 ends up fairly disappointing. It’s not as if the gameplay is bad, it’s near identical to Super Butoden 2, but that’s kind of the problem. Why play Super Butoden 3 when the second game has the better roster and an actual story mode? Super Butoden 3 was redundant on release, and that’s arguably worse than just being straight up bad.
16 BEST: Super Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Z games tend to have the habit of prioritizing simulating the anime than actually providing an authentic, fighting game experience. At least nowadays. While the Super Famicom had its fair share of traditional DBZ fighters, most games nowadays aim elsewhere. It’s not an inherently bad decision, but it has left the Dragon Ball market a bit over saturated. For that reason, it’s important we celebrate the games that truly strive to be games first.
It's arcade goodness right from your PlayStation 2. What more could you ask for?
Originally an arcade fighter, and one developed by remnants of Street Fighter II’s team at that, Super Dragon Ball Z is as traditional as the series gets. A legitimate fighting game with hard to pull off combos; a small, but detailed roster; and an emphasis on pure gameplay over all else, Super Dragon Ball Z is one of the few games in the franchise that caters to the genre’s strength. If you haven’t played it yet, bust out that PS2 and start practicing. You’re gonna need it.
15 WORST: The Call Of Destiny
The Call of Destiny, by all accounts, is a game that should be good but simply isn’t thanks to the console it’s on. A continuation of the Super Famicom’s Super Butoden series on the Sega Mega Drive of all things, The Call of Destiny actually makes an active effort at improving upon the foundation left behind by its predecessors. It has a nice roster, it changes up the combat just enough, and it actually has game modes unlike Super Butoden 3. It also has the single worst control scheme in the franchise thanks to the Genesis’ monster of a controller. It’s perfectly playable, but at what cost? Fighters just weren’t meant for a controller with six buttons haphazardly slapped on the right.
14 WORST: Collectible Card Game
Dragon Ball Z had a mediocre card game for a few years so logically it ended up getting a video game adaptation for the Game Boy Advance. It wasn’t very good as I’m sure you can probably tell. Trading card games are fun because they’re inherently social events that give you a chance to display your knowledge and skill set of a game against an actual opponent. On top of that, you’re using a deck that you spent time, money, and effort into building. There’s a physical, personal attachment at play. Collectible Card Game has none of that along with some truly terrible balancing making it virtually impossible to get any enjoyment out of the experience. It was so bad, they had to package in a Future Trunks card to get anyone to buy it.
13 BEST: The Legend
Although this game was actually released outside of Japan, there’s still a very good chance you haven’t played it. More a simulation than a fighting game, The Legend covers the entirety of Dragon Ball Z with one of the weirdest battle systems in the entire franchise. Characters fight in large groups, causing chaos on every front, and battles can even be interrupted for dialogue. It’s actually kind of amazing.
The greatest game you never played.
Though it falls into the trap of catering to fans looking for the DBZ experience over an actual video game, The Legend’s combat is so weirdly in-depth that the simulation angle actually works. Battles feel like proper endurance matches and the cutscene interruptions make you feel like you’re playing the anime in a literal sense. It’s all very strange, but in the best way possible.
12 WORST: Plan To Eradicate The Saiyans
With Hot Battle! Artificial Humans! ending on an enormous cliffhanger, it was only natural to assume the next game would pick up where it left off and complete the Cell saga in full. It would be difficult considering less than half the arc remained, but previous had tossed in movies and filler episodes to pad out their lengths. This next game could redeem the Famicom’s DBZ RPG sub-series and bring it to a respectable close.
That didn’t happen, obviously. Rather than continuing the story proper, Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans told an all new story that left the RPGs in a perpetual limbo. To make matters worse, the game made no real attempts at making the battle system more engaging. The only interesting thing about it is its similarly lacking companion film.
11 WORST: Budokai Tenkaichi
As beloved as Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3 are, it’s important to remember that the beginning of the sub-series was anything but mediocre at best. Following the smash success of Budokai 3, a new series of games almost seemed criminal. While it made sense for a series shift considering Budokai’s three game run, Budokai Tenkaichi nonetheless had a quite a lot to live up to.
A less than ideal start to what would go on to be one of DBZ's best game series.
Unfortunately, it failed on nearly every front. Although the roster was certainly bigger than Budokai 3’s, the gameplay was severely dumbed down in favor of arena esque stages and Budokai’s level of customization was ripped out entirely. To make matters worse, the story mode was boiled down to a “best of” format with no conscious or cohesive story.