Consoles With the Most Dragon Ball Games

There are a ton of Dragon Ball games out there, be they fighting games, arena fighters, RPGs, collectible card games, etc. The opportunity to play a part in the Dragon Ball story, or blitz their friends with Big Bang Attacks, is one keen fans of the series can’t pass up. However, these chances often depended on which console they had.

Sega Saturn owners only had 2 DBZ games to import, which was an improvement over Genesis’ solitary entry. The original Xbox also only had the risible DBZ Sagas in its library. But if players had any of these machines, they had a wealth of DBZ games to play. This list only counts full-on DBZ games. Otherwise, it would have to calculate the fractions over how much DBZ to One Piece/Naruto/Gintama/Reborn, etc., crossover games like Jump Super Stars have.

7 Nintendo DS

When 6 Games Are More Than Enough

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• Highest Rated Game: Dragon Ball: Origins
• Lowest Rated Game:Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu

Just making the list, the Nintendo DS managed to have just one more game over the last generation of consoles, as the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch all have 5 games apiece. However, that could all change, as the Switch and PS4 are still active. They won’t be getting Dragon Ball Sparking Zero anytime soon, though they could get a compilation or re-release of older games.

For example, the DS went through the original Dragon Ball series in the DB: Origins duology, and the Saiyan arc in DBZ: Attack of the Saiyans. DBZ: Supersonic Warriors 2 was an improvement over its GBA predecessor, as was DB Kai: Ultimate Butouden over DB GT: Final Bout on the PS1. While DBZ: Harukanaru Densetsu lets players battle it out with cards instead of ki.

6 SNES/Super Famicom

7 Games, 16 Bits, Plenty of Fun

• Highest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension
• Lowest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu

By the time DBZ reached the West, the SNES, or Super Famicom, was fading out and the PS1 was on the rise. This might be why only a handful of its 7 DBZ games made it out of Japan. Even then, they usually turned up in mainland Europe over North America, like the Butouden games. As simplistic as they are now, they were to the 16-bit era what the Budokai games are to the 128-bit era.

Still, if people didn’t like Butouden’s scrappy-looking sprites, TOSE cleaned them up for DBZ: Hyper Dimension. Then, for RPG fans, the two Super Gokuden games went through Goku’s story from the start of DB to when he went Super Saiyan against Freeza on Planet Namek. While DBZ: Super Saiya Densetsu was essentially a remake of 2 Famicom card-based RPGs put together.

5 PlayStation 3

Managing Lucky 7 Entries

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• Highest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
• Lowest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z

Technically, one could say the PlayStation 3 had 8 DBZ games, as the Budokai HD Collection had 2 games on it. But they’re only available on one disc as they didn’t get separate digital releases before they were delisted from the PS3 store. As such, it just became one of 7 games to make up the console’s DBZ library.

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Fans had a reasonable bunch of games to play, though they were a step down from the previous generation. The two Raging Blast games were average at best, as was Ultimate Tenkaichi. Burst Limit was okay though not as solid as the Budokai games, and Battle of Z only thrived while players were online. It did get the first Xenoverse game, even if it was a down-port of the PS4 version.

4 Xbox 360

Edging Out the Competition with 8 Games

• Highest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
• Lowest Rated Game:Dragon Ball Z for Kinect

With the PS3’s terrible launch and tricky cell processor, it’s perhaps no surprise that the Xbox 360 ended up getting ahead. Console-exclusive series like Tekken went multi-format to give the new console some games, and the likes of Dimps, Spike, Artdink, etc., took the chance to port their wares to the machine. Which is why the 360 has the exact same library of games as the PS3.

Burst Limit, Ultimate Tenkaichi, Battle of Z, Xenoverse 1, the Budokai collection, and both Raging Blast games could be run on Microsoft’s box of wonders just as well as Sony’s pricey machine. Then it got one more, as DBZ for Kinect tried to use the 360’s maligned motion-detecting webcam for its controls. It didn’t work, but it was still enough to give the machine more DBZ games than the PS3.

3 NES/Famicom

Two Irresistible Forces Clash to Produce 8 Games

• Highest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z 2: Gekishin Freeza
• Lowest Rated Game: Dragon Ball: Shenron no Nazo (Dragon Power)

The Famicom (aka the NES) was already a Japanese phenomenon when Goku first met Bulma in the woods in Dragon Ball. But the strip was such a smash that it got a wealth of games on the console. Fans might recognize the first, DB: Shenron no Nazo, as it got a Western release. Except, since no one knew what a ‘Goku’ was back then, it was turned into Dragon Power. It’s a strange game to go back to now that DBZ has caught on worldwide.

The rest stayed in Japan, with many of the games being RPGs. DBZ: Gekitou Tenkaichi Budokai stood out as it came with a card reader accessory that let players add characters and items by swiping cards against it. The rest, from Daimaou Fukkatsu to Ressen Jinzouningen, used in-game cards, until DBZ Gaiden stuck to regular RPG action for an original story where Goku & co had to stop the evil Dr Lychee from eradicating the Saiyans.

2 Game Boy Advance

8 Ways to Game with Goku on the Go

• Highest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku 2
• Lowest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu

By the early 2000s, DBZ was global in its appeal, with an international audience eager to play more than the scant offerings on the PS1. The GameCube was out of luck, offering just 3 DBZ games (though its versions of Budokai 1 & 2 are arguably the best). However, Nintendo fans still had hope to get some DBZ action if they had a handheld like the Game Boy Advance.

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The device is still the handheld with the most DBZ games on it, even over mobile phones. They weren’t all winners, like the dreadful DBZ: Taiketsu and the iffy Legacy of Goku. But Legacy of Goku 2 was a vast improvement, Buu’s Fury was solid, and Supersonic Warriors offered a much better fighting game experience than Taiketsu.

1 PlayStation 2

Sets the Number for Other Consoles to Beat at 10

• Highest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3
• Lowest Rated Game: Dragon Ball Z: Sagas

Handhelds are fine and all, but when it comes to consoles, the PlayStation 2 still has the most to offer DB fans. Owners of the mighty machine could treat themselves to all 3 Budokai games, all 3 Budokai Tenkaichi games (the precursors to Sparking Zero), the underrated Super Dragon Ball Z, and the rightly slated DBZ: Sagas and DBZ: Infinite World.

However, if those fans tried to collect all 10 games, they’d have trouble finding that last one. DBZ 2 V was a souped-up version of Budokai 2 released only in Japan as part of a contest held by V-Jump magazine. Only 2,000 discs at best still exist, and it came with all its content unlocked at the start, and Cooler and Kuriza as alternate skins for Freeza.

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