Dragon Ball in Games: from the 80s to today!

Dragon Ball No introduction needed! Akira Toriyama's franchise is probably the most popular anime/manga of all time, or at least “one of the most popular”.

Popularity ended up “overflowing” both media, and Goku and his friends are successful in practically every segment in which they appear, including games.

So, let's take a quick look at the trajectory of Dragon Ball in the world of video games, which by the time this article was written, had already reached the mark of 50 million units sold.

1980s – Dragon Ball games are mostly set in Japan

The first Dragon Ball game in history is virtually unknown Dragon Daihikyouwhich loosely translated would be “The Unexplored Dragon Region”. This was developed by Epoch, and released in September 1986 for the little-known Epoch Super Cassette Vision. Basically, it is a shoot'em'up (spaceship game), starring Goku.

Shenlong's Mystery arrived in the United States and Europe, but with several modifications to “westernize” it, and distancing itself from Dragon Ball. In these parts, it arrived under the name DragonPower. Its gameplay is adventure-like, with defeating enemies and bosses.

In August 1988, Bandai released the first RPG in the series, being the Daimao Fukkatsuset during the King Piccolo saga. The gameplay works like a board with playing cards for battles, and Goku is controlled by a map to reach a destination.

In October of the following year, another game from the Bandai and Tose partnership came out, which is Dragon Ball 3: Gokudenbeing the last of the original saga to be explored, considering that the following ones explore the “Z saga”, and also the last of the 1980s. Its gameplay is similar to its predecessor, and its biggest difference is in the story, which tells a summary of the original episodes.

1990s – First fighting game and first 3D Dragon Ball game

Over the 10 years that make up the 90s, the Dragon Ball series gained around 22 games for various video games of the time.

Highlights include Dragon Ball Z: Kyoshu Saiyanwhich came out in October 1990, and was the first game in the “Z saga” in history. Being released for the Japanese Nintendo, it was extremely popular, even reaching the best-seller list in the land of the rising sun in 1992. In terms of gameplay, it is a natural evolution of the previous two, and gained a sequel the following year called Gekishin Freeza.

In 1992 the first one was released for the Super Famicom (Japanese Super Nintendo), called Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsubeing a remake of the two titles released for the Nintendo, and this became very popular here in Brazil with the distribution of games through emulators during the 90s and 2000s.

In 93 the first fighting game arrived Super Butoudenbeing one of the rare titles to gain a version outside Japan, as France and Spain also had it officially. Released for the Super Nintendo, there are 13 characters, 5 of which are unlockable, and it also features the possibility of fighting in the air. Another interesting fact is that it is the most commercially successful Dragon Ball game in Japan, selling 1.5 million copies.

Super Butouden 2 arrived in 1993, being another great success, and in 1994 came the third, which continued to be successful, but this one was criticized for the lack of a story mode, and that it lacked a little more innovation.

The Mega Drive also got a fighting game: Buyu Retsuden from 1994, along the lines of Super Butoden, but this one exclusive to Japan; the Gameboy received an RPG called Goku Hishoudenbeing the first in the “Goku RPG” series that received some games for Nintendo’s old handheld.

In 1995 the first Dragon Ball arrived for PlayStation: Ultimate Battle 22. It was originally supposed to be a sequel to the Butoden saga, but ended up becoming a separate game and receiving poor reviews. Despite this, it was a considerable commercial success.

Probably wanting to “remedy” the situation, Tose and Bandai launched the Shin Butoden for the Sega Saturn a few months later, once again taking advantage of the “Butoden” brand. Being a much bigger success than its predecessor, it receives much praise for its gameplay, presentation, music and animations.

In 96 it arrived Dragon Ball Z Densetsu for both the Sega Saturn and the PlayStation. This is also very well-known by Brazilians who had a PlayStation during the 90s, and is another fighting game, but with a revamped gameplay, as there are now three controllable characters fighting against three opponents.

Finally, came the first 3D game and the first in the GT saga: Final Bout for the first Playstation in 1997. Despite being quite popular among the public at the time, it was massively criticized for its clunky gameplay and underwhelming visuals. This was one of the rare cases of a Goku game that officially arrived in the United States at that time.

2000s – Infrogames acquires the license to release Dragon Ball games!

And for those who thought that with the end of the classic anime, the games would stop being produced, they were wrong, since in this decade there were about 40 games. Another interesting point is that this decade marks the end of Bandai as the sole publisher of the games, since Infrogames acquired the license in the year 2000, and from then on, most games are released worldwide and there are cases that are only released in the West.

From the highlights we start with Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku for the Gameboy Advance released in 2002, starting a trilogy of action RPGs. Despite receiving mixed to positive reviews, the three games were very successful commercially. Interestingly, the first game was not released in Japan.

In 2002 also arrived the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai for the Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube and Xbox Classic, a fighting game developed by DIMPS that adapts the first sagas of Dragon Ball Z, and also features a storyline called “What if…” proposing changes to the original story if the characters had made other decisions. Despite receiving mixed to positive reviews, it was a huge commercial success, selling around 2 million and 600 thousand copies worldwide, and starting a series.

Its sequel was also released for the same consoles except the Xbox Classicand received slightly higher scores from experts, but commercial success remained virtually the same. The biggest improvement over its predecessor is the graphics.

Already Budokai 3from 2004, breaks away from the previous ones and was very well received not only by the public, but also by the media. Considered a “leap” compared to the previous two in all aspects, it was even nominated for “best fighting game of the year” for the Academy of Interactive Arts and Awards.

The following year came the first title in the Budokai sub-series, with the suffix “Tenkaichi”, cementing the popularity of the game franchise, and introducing a very high number of playable characters. Another success is the Burst Limitfor PS3 and Xbox 360, being another fighting game developed by DIMPS.

It is worth mentioning that in 2009, the not so successful film Dragon Ball Evolution won a game for PSP, which had as little popularity as the feature film itself.

2010S – Less quantity, more quality!

The 2010s saw a slowdown in the number of games featuring Goku and his friends, with an average of 20 titles. Despite this, many of the names that will be mentioned are well-known.

The first game of the decade was Dragon Ball: Origins 2following on from a title released for the Nintendo DS that tells the story of Goku's first adventures. It was a considerable success with both the public and critics.

However, one of the most anticipated titles was the Korean one Dragon Ball Onlinewhich was an MMORPG released in 2011 that takes place in the universe created by Akira Toriyama, who, interestingly, was the game's designer. It was set 216 years after the events of the Buu saga, and therefore none of the characters we know are present, but rather their descendants. Unfortunately, the servers were shut down in 2013.

In 2015 came the Dragon Ball Xenoverse for various consoles, and this one has an online multiplayer mode where players can walk around a city, form groups, and carry out missions. This one was notable for its extensive character customization system, something already seen before, but not with so many possibilities.

Yielding commercial success and positive, but not very enthusiastic reviews, the game reached 1.5 million copies and ended up gaining a sequel. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 It sought to “boost” everything that the first one did right and was much better received, selling 10 million copies and therefore considered a huge success.

Speaking of 10 million units, another game that had the same commercial number was Dragon Ball FighterZa game made in Unreal Engine 4 and developed by Ark System Works. It was praised for its artistic design, giving the feeling that we are “playing the anime”, the combat mechanics and the versatility of play styles.

It is worth mentioning that in 2019 a game was released for iOS and Android called Dragon Ball Legendswhich had 40 million downloads as of March 2021.

2020S – Still getting Dragon Ball games

As of the closing of this article, there have been two releases: Dragon Ball Z Kakarot from 2020, which is an action RPG released for several consoles and which received positive reviews from the media; and the The Breakersreleased in 2022, and which is an online action game that did not receive such positive reviews from the public on Steam.

However, the most anticipated is the Dragon Ball: Sparkling Zero which will be released on October 10, 2024. This will be a continuation of the Budokai Tenkaichi series after more than a decade, but using current technology to its maximum splendor.