Do you know how many Dragon Ball video games there are to date?

The truth is that trying to catalog absolutely all Dragon Ball games is a very difficult task. We are talking about a franchise that has been squeezed from the time when floppy disks were cutting-edge technology to the current Unreal Engine 5 era.

Many grew up smashing joysticks with Budokai Tenkaichi 3, but the history of Goku in pixels is much darker, vast and sometimes bizarre. Want to know how many games really exist? Even those you played on a pirated emulator or the mods you installed in internet cafes? Get your Hermit Seeds ready, because this journey is a long one.

How many Dragon Ball games exist in total? To date, there are more than 160 official Dragon Ball video games, released on more than 30 different platforms since 1986. If we add the Japanese exclusive arcades, browser titles, mobile games (porridge), and indie projects or massive community mods (such as MUGEN or Earth's Special Forces), the figure is well over 250 playable titles. The first official game was Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō (1986) for the obscure Super Cassette Vision console, and not on the NES as many believe.

Genesis: When Goku was just a bunch of pixels (1986 - 1993)

Before 3D combat dominated the market, the adventures of Goku were role-playing games with cards, relentless platforming and bizarre experiments that rarely left Japan.

The First Steps and the 8-Bit Era

Nintendo Famicom (NES) was the home of the initial madness. There were no 50-hit combos here; there was math, RNG (randomness) and absurd difficulty.

• Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō (1986): The real first game. A shoot ’em up where you controlled Goku on his Flying Cloud. A forgotten piece of history.

• Saga Shenron no Nazo (1986): It came to the west deformed as Dragon Power (the references to DB were removed for licensing). An unbearably difficult top-down action game.

• The Daimaō Fukkatsu / Gokūden Series (1988-1989): This is where the Japanese obsession with card battle RPGs was born. You moved characters and fought using cards with stars on them.

• Kyōshū Saga! Saiyan to Gekishin Freeza (1990-1991): The consolidation of the card RPG. Embraced the story of Z.

The Leap to 16-Bits: The Butōden Series (SNES and Mega Drive)

Super Nintendo changed everything. We could finally punch each other.

• Super Butōden 1, 2 and 3 (1993-1994): 2 is a masterpiece of the genre. Dynamic split-screen that zoomed out when the characters flew.

• Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension (1996): For many, the best 2D DB fighting game on classic consoles. Beautiful pre-rendered graphics and a fast combat system that punished mistakes.

• Buyū Retsuden (1994): The only official Sega Mega Drive/Genesis offspring. A decent game but overshadowed by the SNES.

“Let's face it: the early Famicom card games were boring to anyone who didn't speak Japanese, but they established the tactical model that Dokkan Battle would later use.”

Polygons and Awkwardness: The Transition to 3D (1995 - 1998)

Along came the PlayStation 1 and the Sega Saturn. We wanted to see Goku in three dimensions, but the technology was still in its infancy. The result was... mixed.

The Tabletop Trilogy

• Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 (1995): Recycled 2D sprites on hideous 3D backgrounds. Slow, clunky, but the animated intro was pure cinema. (There is the version Shin Butōden for Saturn, which is infinitely better).

• Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu [Legends] (1996): A jewel ahead of its time. Battles up to 3 vs 3. You didn't lower life with normal hits, but by filling a “momentum bar” to launch a special.

• Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout (1997): Uncomfortable fact about Final Bout:

  The first 100% polygonal fighting game of the franchise. It was a technical disaster: slow controls, broken hitboxes and Goku moved as if he weighed 400 kilos. However, its soundtrack (with Hironobu Kageyama) and the fact of having Super Saiyan 4 made it a myth in the video stores of the 90s.

The Golden Age: World Domination on PS2 (2002 - 2007)

This is where the franchise exploded globally. Bandai (not yet Namco Bandai) discovered the formula for printing money.

Dimps and Budokai Saga (2.5D Combat)

• Budokai 1 (2002): Revolutionized storytelling with incredible cutscenes using the game engine.

• Budokai 2 (2003): The one with the tabletop and the bizarre fusions (Gokule? Tiencha?).

• Budokai 3 (2004): The absolute peak of 2.5D. Perfect cel-shading, the Dragon Universe and fights at the speed of light.

Spike and the Sparking Saga / Budokai Tenkaichi (3D Anime Simulator)

While Dimps focused on a style similar to Street Fighter or Tekken, Spike created the ultimate “Dragon Ball simulator”. Camera on the back and total freedom.

• Budokai Tenkaichi 1 and 2 (2005-2006): Pure evolution of mechanics.

• Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (2007): The Bible. 161 playable characters (including beautiful aberrations like Appule or King Cold). The gameplay was deep: z-counters, perfect teleports and blast crashes. Nothing surpassed it in quantity until the arrival of Sparking! ZERO.

The Dark Side of the PS2 / Xbox Era

• Dragon Ball Z: Sagas (2005): Developed by Avalanche Software (Westerners). A beat 'em up boring and repetitive.

• Super Dragon Ball Z (2006): A pure fighting game, classic arcade style, with complex combos. Very underrated.

Handhelds: The Hidden Jewels Shelter (GBA, NDS, PSP)

While desktop consoles bet on graphics, Nintendo and Sony handhelds gave us the most refined and experimental mechanics.

The Transition Generation and the Restart (PS3, Xbox 360, PS4)

There was a blip. After hitting a ceiling, Bandai didn't know what to do and released several mediocre games before finding the light again.

• Stumbling Blocks: Burst Limit (very little content), Raging Blast 1 and 2 (good Tenkaichi heirs, but no soul), Ultimate Tenkaichi (a rock-paper-scissors based game that was an insult to the player), and Battle of Z (a co-op disaster).

The Resurgence (The Modern Era):

• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1 and 2 (2015-2016): They introduced the MMO factor. Creating your own character and altering the story was the breath of fresh air the franchise was crying out for.

• Dragon Ball FighterZ (2018): Arc System Works broke the internet. The ultimate 2D competitive fighting game. Unreal Engine graphics that surpass Super anime and high-level e-sports mechanics.

• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (2020): The open-world Action RPG we always wanted as kids.

• Dragon Ball: The Breakers (2022): An asymmetric multiplayer Dead by Daylight style. Strange, niche, but fun if you want to run away from Cell as a simple human.

• Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO (2024+): The rightful heir to Budokai Tenkaichi 3. The return of the king of the massive 3D arena.

The Alternative Scene: Indies, Mods and “The Unofficial”.”

No encyclopedic guide is complete without mentioning the internet underworld. The community has created projects that sometimes surpass the official titles.

1. Earth's Special Forces (ESF): A historical mod for Half-Life. In the early 2000s, if you wanted to fly in a giant 3D environment, you would log into an ESF server, charge your ki for 5 minutes and destroy half the map.

2. Hyper Dragon Ball Z: Developed by Team Z2 on the MUGEN engine. It is, without exaggeration, one of the best DB fighting games. Sprites made from scratch in Street Fighter Alpha style, parry mechanics and competitive balancing. Totally free.

3. Lemmingball Z: An old indie parody where little Lemmings-like creatures threw destructive Kamehamehas at each other in 3D. Pure 2004 forum nostalgia.

4. Roblox and MUGEN: From “Dragon Blox” to the endless MUGEN bundling on YouTube (those “Dragon Ball AF MUGEN 200 chars” ones), piracy and fan passion have kept the franchise alive in the drought years.

There are many video games and many tastes of gamers with respect to Dragon Ball, and surely more videogames of such a beloved franchise will continue to be developed. Tell us, did you play any of these video games? What other video game did you play that we have not mentioned in this article?

Image: Geekine