Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga began to be published in Shonen Jump in November 1984, so it is almost forty years since the beginning of one of the most important works that have emerged in recent decades. For this reason we decided to present you How many video games has Dragon Ball had? in this time and which of all is the best, as well as our reasons for affirming this.
During the NES and SNES era, seven Dragon Ball titles of the RPG genre with card-based gameplay arrived, called Dragon Ball: Daimao Fukkatsu, Dragon Ball 3: Goku Den, Dragon Ball Z: Kyoshu Saiyan, Dragon Ball Z II: Gekigami Freeza!!, Dragon Ball Z: Cho Saiya Densetsu, Dragon Ball Z III: Ressen Jinzo Ningen!! and Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyan Zetsumetsu Keikaku.
After this, the Butoden series began to be published, which belongs to the fighting genre and was present from the SNES to the NDS with the following five video games: Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden, Dragon Ball: Super Butoden 2, Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden 3, Dragon Ball Z: Shin Butoden and Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden. On the SNES we also saw two action games called DBZ: Super Goku Den Totsugeki-Hen and DBZ: Super Goku Den Kakusei-Hen.
The 1990s saw the release of two arcade titles with Dragon Ball Z: Super Battle and Dragon Ball Z 2: Super Battle, as well as two Game Boy RPGs called Dragon Ball Z: Goku Hishoden and Dragon Ball Z: Goku Gekitoden. Later we saw the Goku Legacy series on the Game Boy Advance with three titles: Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku, Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II, and Dragon Ball Z: Buu’s Fury.
This was followed by the Budokai series (not to be confused with Budokai Tenkaichi) which consisted of the following six games developed by Dimps: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai – Another Road, Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World, and Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit. For its part, Cavia gave us two fighting games with Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors and Dragon Ball Z: Super Sonic Warriors 2.
The most recognized series to date is the Budeokai Tenkaichi series, consisting of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 1, 2, and 3, with a fourth title announced this month for next-generation consoles. Following the release of the original trilogy we also received Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2, Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z, and Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team, all made by Spike. The second most recognized series is Dragon Ball Xenoverse, which has two installments.
Dragon Ball: Origins and Dragon Ball: Origins 2 came to the Nintendo DS, while Bandai created four experiences for Let’s! TV Play, plus four arcade games from the Japan-exclusive DATA Carddas series. That’s not all, because between 1986 and 1995, 21 Dragon Ball video games arrived on electronic laptops exclusive to Japan, the LCD and Tiger Electronic.
Those are not all the Dragon Ball video games that have come out, as we have also seen console releases that do not belong to a particular series. In the eighties there were only two games with Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikuo and Dragon Ball: Shenlong was not born, but in the nineties we saw eight releases starting with Dragon Ball Z: Atsumare! Goku World and ending with Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, a fighting game for the first PlayStation.
After this we have seen the releases of Super Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z: Sagas, Dragon Ball Z: Trilogy, Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo, and more recently Dragon Ball FighterZ from Arc System Works, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot from CyberConnect2 and Dragon Ball: The Breakers by Dimps.
In total they go 85 Dragon Ball video games which have been released from the first in 1988 to the most recent in 2022. Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi 4 was announced this month and rumor has it that ASW is working on Dragon Ball Super FighterZ, so the total number no doubt will continue to increase.
What is the best Dragon Ball video game?
Of the more than eighty Dragon Ball video games that have been developed over the years, only about a dozen are actually available on modern platforms, making it very easy to say which one is the best of all. Although the arrival of Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi 4 could change things, currently The best Dragon Ball video game is Dragon Ball FighterZ from Arc System Works.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PlayStation 5, and PC, so you can play it on any modern gaming platform. This 2D fighting game was made by Arc System Works and features the best graphics we’ve seen in a video game of this type, as it even looks better than the anime.
That’s not all, as the gameplay of Dragon Ball FighterZ is also excellent, with control simple enough for any fan to be able to start playing in a matter of minutes and deep enough to create a competitive scene that forces you to train and serve. the best of you, as well as Goku in the anime and manga.
