Best Dragon Ball Z Video Games - The first knowledge sharing application in Vietnam

From classics on the SNES to the newest games, we’ve got the best games for Dragon Ball Z fans.

No other anime outside of Pokemon has impacted the world of gaming quite like Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super have long been licensed to gaming studios, and new games continue to be churned out like clockwork. The games are definitely hit or miss: some are a masterstroke, but others are Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22, a game dropped into game stores without any fanfare or critical love.

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With the recent resurgence in Dragon Ball popularity stemming from popular titles like Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, it’s worth taking a long look back at the breadth of Dragon Ball games and highlighting modern successes, fan-favorite classics, and some hidden gems.

Updated January 11, 2023 by Andrew Scariati: Dragon Ball has a long history in the video game space, frequently releasing titles that reflect the spirit of the times. Some Dragon Ball Z games are undeniably tethered to the year of their release, reflecting graphics or mechanics that are relics to modern audiences. However, the best DBZ games of all time transcend temporal conventions. Dokkan Battle is one such example, as the mobile game phenom redefines success year after year, showing no signs of slowing down. Fans of the franchise seem content to keep Dokkan alive and thriving with record-breaking spending, but that success in the mobile sphere won’t discourage the release of console hits like Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot from pushing the fighting game envelope.

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Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit

The first thing to notice about Burst Limit is how beautiful the game looks; it makes a serious argument for the most beautiful Dragon Ball Z game. Few Dragon Ball titles include character models as stunning as the cel-shaded ones featured in this 2008 fighter. While Burst Limit’s visuals are its biggest strength, it’s not the only thing the game offers.

Battles provide plenty of substance to go with the game’s style as each fight plays out at a brisk and enjoyable pace. Even though it might seem simple at first, there is satisfying depth to the gameplay. If only there were more depth to the roster, as one of the few downsides to the title is its small set of characters. Luckily, all the main figures pre-Buu saga make the cut.

Dragon Ball Z Supersonic Warriors

Most of the best Dragon Ball Z games simply re-tell story arcs from the anime. Supersonic Warriors is no exception, but it also includes multiple ‘what if’ scenarios. These unique stories play around with the well-known DBZ narrative to provide something different. For instance, at one point in Piccolo’s scenario, he brings back and fuses with Demon King Piccolo to gain the strength required to take on Buu.

These somewhat original storylines are fascinating and allow for the spotlight to be shined on characters who deserve some extra attention. The gameplay, on the other hand, isn’t as groundbreaking, but it’s enough to keep you entertained.

Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy Of Goku II

It’s always nice when the DB franchise dabbles in other genres. In fact, some of the best Dragon Ball Z games don’t focus solely on fighting, such as Legacy of Goku II. This 16-bit title is an RPG that equally focuses on the adventures and epic battles in the series.

Of course, there are still many fights to be had in the game, but you don’t jump from fighting Android 19 to immediately squaring up to Android 18. Instead, you travel around the immersive world of Dragon Ball, finding treasures and talking to people. On the whole, combat is simple, yet oddly satisfying.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast

Raging Blast aimed to take the formula for 3D, action-packed fights to the next level with more cinematic elements and grand, flashy attacks. For the time, (and even now) the game is a graphical masterpiece that expertly captures the style of the DBZ manga and anime.

Gameplay-wise, Raging Blast doesn’t introduce many new elements to the series as it plays similarly to the Tenkaichi series. Yet, battles are still fluid and fun, even if the wonky camera can be annoying. Plus, it provides something the anime never did: Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta.

Dragon Ball Z: Xenoverse 2

While the Xenoverse titles might not be ranked among the best RPGs of the generation, they’re still two of the most fun DBZ games. Overall, Xenoverse 2 edges out its predecessor due to a significant increase in content. Knowing what to expect in Xenoverse 2 also helps to improve the experience.

One of the best parts of the game is the story, which takes the original Dragon Ball Z tale and uses time travel to make some alterations. Unfortunately, fights don’t quite hold up to the quality of the narrative, as Xenoverse 2 doesn’t provide the same arena fighter experience. However, there’s still plenty of fun to be had with the title, and it’s one of the best Dragon Ball Z games ever.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

There remains an intense division between fans of the Budokai games and those who prefer Budokai Tenkaichi. Budokai is a fighter, but Tenkaichi, in part because the developers knew it couldn’t compete, made Tenkaichi an arena fighter. All DBZ fighting games (until FighterZ) tried to copy the mechanics of both of these games.

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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is the best of the Dragon Ball Z arena fighting games. While the gameplay is nothing special and most of the characters feel like model swaps, it is filled with dozens of fighters, including obscure characters who rarely see much screen time. It exists as the ultimate Dragon Ball Z toy box game. Every other arena fighting game to follow has just been following.

Dragon Ball: Fusions

Dragon Ball: Fusions is a surprising video game that few imagined would be as enjoyable as it is. As a Dragon Ball RPG, it is already a rare beast in the DBZ Universe. It is an off-the-wall RPG that focuses primarily on fan service, full of tongue-in-cheek references throughout the universe.

The game is a bit of an oddball that serves up a unique RPG experience, offering fans the sort of quirky content never really seen in a DBZ title before. However, it can leave a few fans feeling a little off, so go into it with an open mind if you plan on diving into this bizarre journey.

Super Dragon Ball Z

When it released on the PlayStation 2, many fans didn’t really care for Super Dragon Ball Z. The fast-paced gameplay of the Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi series left fans hoping Super Dragon Ball Z would be an exciting action game, but what they got was a far slower-paced, technical fighter with far fewer characters than expected. Tenkaichi 3 had over 150 fighters, so it was a shock when Super Dragon Ball Z’s roster fell far short of that mark.

But as time passed on, fans of well-structured fighting games re-discovered this hidden gem, and remembered “Wait, this game was made by Akira Nishitani — you know, the guy who made Street Fighter 2.” And you can tell. Plus, you get to play as Chi-Chi, which is a rarity worth celebrating.

Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure

There are very few specifically Dragon Ball games out there as most titles are rooted in the popular Dragon Ball Z saga. The old-school series is often neglected for the more over-the-top action, and fans who go back to the old series often don’t care for the softer, comedic tone of Dragon Ball.

Many fans made a huge mistake overlooking Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure, a Gameboy Advance beat-em-up game where you play from the start of the series to the final fight with King Piccolo. With a combination of platforming, flying, and fighting stages, the game boasts incredible variety even before considering you can play through it using multiple characters. It’s one of the best Dragon Ball handheld titles and well-worth a revisit.

Dragon Ball Z: Buu’s Fury

For many Americans growing up in the early Toonami era of Dragon Ball Z, Legacy of Goku 2 was the best Dragon Ball Z game. Sadly, when the Budokai series came out, many gamers forgot about these old-school games in order to focus on the new 3D fighting game entries.

Many didn’t even play Buu’s Fury, Legacy of Goku 2’s sequel. It took all the great gameplay of the prior games — western RPG gameplay, for example — and made it even better. Plus, it has digital renditions of Bruce Faulconer’s Dragon Ball Z music, which, for many growing up with the series, provides a huge dose of nostalgia.

Dragon Ball Z: Attack Of The Saiyans

Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans for the DS is another often-forgotten entry by fans of the series. It isn’t the first adventure game to tell the story of the Saiyans — or even the first RPG to dive into the Saiyan Saga.

While that doesn’t sound like a lot of content, it starts in the Dragon Ball era and adds a lot of content to pad things out. However, what it offers is a complex, interesting JRPG gameplay system. For fans sick of DBZ fighters, this game is a great example of the variety of genres the series encompasses.

Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World

As the PlayStation 2 neared its demise in 2008, one last Dragon Ball game was released to add to the already fantastic lineup the PS2 was known for. This game is essentially like a Budokai 4, taking most good elements from Budokai 3 and tweaking some major flaws.

The “Dragon Rush” feature from Budokai is entirely left out here, which is a huge plus. While not nearly as popular as its predecessors, garnering quite a few low review scores from game critics, this game is loved by many fans and stands as one of the most underrated and underplayed games in the franchise.

Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden 2

To modern players, it may seem like borderline blasphemy to place some ancient, 2D fighting game above the like of Budokai Tenkaichi or Xenoverse. Other people who might’ve been on the old-school internet should recognize the sprites as being omnipresent on forum signatures since the early ’00s.

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But few have actually played this incredible SNES fighting game. Among SNES fighters, this game was superb. It features stages so massive with so many different environments the game needed a split-screen. While it features far fewer characters than modern Dragon Ball Z games, none of them feel like model swaps. It also features a unique story that leads to some strange plot threads involving Bojack.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

One of the newer entries in the long list of Dragon Ball games is the highly-rated Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. It attempts to do what has been done countless times: having the player punch and ki-blast their way through Dragon Ball’s lovable story, but this time adding in some key RPG elements and polishing the 3D battle system.

Kakarot is a fantastic single-player experience that really appeals to die-hard fans, but one of the few downsides is the lack of content for players who haven’t grown up with this anime titan. The RPG elements are fun and intuitive, but get extremely repetitive and stale quickly. However, looking past the minor flaws, this is a must-play for any aspiring Saiyan warrior.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3

For several years, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 was the best fighting game in the series. It featured a terrific balance of characters, gameplay mechanics, fast-paced action, story mode, and just plain fun. No other game has managed to integrate a rock-paper-scissors mechanic or featured a cast of well-balanced Dragon Ball Z fighters like Budokai 3 did.

Budokai 3 exists as a love letter to the whole franchise, featuring characters from the entire timeline. It offered fans a way to compete against one another (in a sense) in the pre-online heavy days of video games. It made the less-appreciated Dragon Ball GT cool — arguably more so than anything has before or since. It even made character transformations feel valuable.

Dragon Ball FighterZ

So how many Dragon Ball Z fighting games are played competitively? Very few, but FighterZ has such a balanced, responsive, and technical fighting system that the game remains a popular choice in Esports. The 2D title is also very easy for less-experienced fighting game fans to enjoy, and it’s arguably the purest fighter ever released under the Dragon Ball banner.

Battles are fast, fluid, and look beautiful. Plus, the best characters feel distinct from each other and not just like mere remodels. The game even attempts to deliver a unique storyline, and while it’s not the best Dragon Ball narrative ever told, it’s still compelling.

Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle

From its incredibly powerful LR units to its fantastic animation quality, Dokkan Battle continues to dominate the mobile gaming space, frequently finding itself at the pinnacle of the top-grossing charts. Since its split release in Japan and globally in 2015, Dokkan has made immense strides, revolutionizing the franchise as well as the mobile gaming space.

Longtime fans of Dokkan can attest to the incredibly high standard of animation that Akatsuki adheres to, with the game’s seventh-anniversary units pushing the boundaries of what is possible on mobile devices. The gameplay remains simple, with a larger emphasis placed on team-building and pre-fight strategy. While there’s certainly more to fights than just tapping bubbles, you can absolutely clear a majority of the available content without fully understanding how collecting KI spheres even works.

This low bar of entry is welcoming to new players, but beware of the most difficult modes, like Red Zone, which are tailored for expert players with a diverse roster of powerful Saiyans and villains to choose from for their team.

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