Derivative Dragon Ball Games - Dragon Ball
There have been many Dragon Ball games released since the 1980s. Most are fighting games, while some are action-adventures and some are even RPGs. Many of the RPG games feature card-based battle systems.
Dragon Ball Games in the 1980s
Four major Dragon Ball games were released in the 1980s.
Dragon Ball: Dragon's Great Exploration was the first ever Dragon Ball game released in 1986 for the Super Cassette Vision by Epoch. It is a scrolling shooting adventure game and is the only game to not involve Namco Bandai.
Dragon Ball: Shenron’s Riddle was released in 1986 on the Famicom. The game was released in North America as Dragon Power and heavily edited and Goku’s sprite to make it look more like a generic kung-fu fighter.
Dragon Ball: Great Demon King’s Revival was a Famicom game released in 1988 and featured card based gameplay.
Dragon Ball 3: Goku’s Story also for the Famicom was released in 1989 and includes all of the story up until the fight against Piccolo Jr.. This is the first game to feature playable characters other than Goku.
Dragon Ball Games in the 1990s
On the Famicom, a trio series of Dragon Ball Z games were released (Fierce Attack, Frieza the Planet Destroyer!!, and Hot Battle! Artificial Humans!) During that time, Gekito Tenkaichi Budokai was also released. In 1993, the final Dragon Ball game released for the Famicom was created, Side Story: Plan To Eradicate the Saiyans.
With the release of the Super Famicom came 1992’s Dragon Ball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyan, a remake of the previous two games. It features a card-based battle system and a free roaming world. The next big release for the Super Famicom was the fighting game Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden. It features 13 playable characters from the Piccolo Jr. saga to the end of the Cell saga. Two more Butoden games were released in 1993 and 1994 respectively. Super Butoden 2 is the only Dragon Ball game in which Goku is not a default playable character, but can be unlocked with a cheat code (as can Broly). Instead of losing after being knocked out, the storyline of the game is altered. In 1995, despite the name of Dragon Ball Z: Super Goku Story, this game follows Goku’s story from Dragon Ball. Its sequel starts with the fight with Piccolo Jr. and ends with the demise of Frieza. The final and arguably most impressive game for the Super Famicom is Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension. A combination of beautiful sprites and well-developed mechanics brings the Super Famicom era to a brilliant close.
The Sega Mega Drive received one title in 1994, Dragon Ball Z: Buyuu Retsuden, which plays very similarly to the Super Butoden series.
Sony’s PlayStation system saw a few Dragon Ball releases in the mid to late 1990s to lukewarm reception. In 1995, Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 was widely panned by critics due to it’s slow, cumbersome controls and less than stellar visuals. In 1996, Dragon Ball Z: The Legend saw a number of improvements on the previous year’s release, including a battle royale style gameplay and a large roster of characters. Finally, in 1997, Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout was released to mediocre reviews once again.
Dragon Ball Games in the 2000s
The 2000s were privy to the release of a number of Dragon Ball games that all saw varying levels of success across a number of platforms from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.
The first of the 2000s’ Dragon Ball series releases was the well recieved Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series by Dimps. This game was released in 2002 on the Playstation 2 (and later on the Gamecube in 2003). It included 23 unique characters and good game mechanics, quickly making it a fan favorite. The next two installments included improvements like larger rosters and better gameplay. Shin Budokai was released in 2006 for the PlayStation Portable with a story mode based on the movie Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn with a sequel in 2007 about Majin Buu’s release in Future Trunks timeline. Infinite World was released in 2008 and was the last of the original Budokai series to be released.
2005 saw the release of the first non-Japanese Dragon Ball title, Dragon Ball Z: Sagas. It was published by Atari and developed by Avalanche Software. Sagas was unfortunately panned and compared fairly negatively to the successful Budokai series.
Super Dragon Ball Z is an arcade game that saw a port to the PlayStation 2 in 2006 and met with average reception.
Burst Limit was developed by Dimps and was the first game to come out for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2008. Burst Limit is a throwback to the Budokai series with side-scrolling fighting action. The visuals and gameplay were widely acclaimed and praised for the time, often being compared to the previous Budokai 3 game. The next game to come out for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 was Dragon Ball: Raging Blast in 2009. Raging Blast is similar to Tenkaichi, but received criticism for its simpler controls and lack of a lock-on camera.
Dragon Ball Games in the 2010s
From the beginning of the 2010s, games show a shift from PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to the Xbox One and interestingly also Microsoft Windows.
The follow-up to 2009’s Raging Blast came in 2010 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Raging Blast 2 received mixed reviews citing improvements on the previous title, but receiving criticism for complicated, yet unvaried controls between characters. The final installment of the Tenkaichi series came out in 2011 to less than desirable reviews.
2014’s Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z features a similar style to the arcade game Dragon Ball: Zenkai Battle Royale and allows for battles with up to eight players. The game has a roster of 70 characters (including transformations). Combined attacks can be performed with teammates, while KO’ed characters can be revived mid-battle, allowing for some strategy elements unseen in previous games.
The last game to be released in the 2010s was 2019’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission for Nintendo Switch, which is based on the Super Dragon Ball Heroes web series.
Links
Dragon Ball Series
Dragon Ball Z Series
Dragon Ball Kai Series
Dragon Ball Super Series
Dragon Ball GT Series
Super Dragon Ball Heros
Akira Toriyama