Dragonball and Dragonball Z Games

Dragonball and Dragonball Z are popular manga and anime stories originally created by Akira Toriyama in the early-mid 1980's. In Japan the series ran for over a decade with two main storylines each called Dragonball, while in the U.S. the second story was titled Dragonball Z. The series has been featured as comics and cartoons extensively around the world. It wasn't long before Atari picked up the license and finally made video games featuring our favorite super saiyans.

There are nearly three dozen of these games to date on nearly every popular video gaming system on the market. Around 20 have been released only in Japan, with half that number enjoying a worldwide release.

The entire series of games are all based on the Dragonball universe. There are fighting games, role playing games, strategy games, and even a collectible card game for the Game Boy Advance.

One of the most popular and longest-running games is the Budokai series. Running on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube consoles, Dragonball Z: Budokai are fighting games featuring a host of characters from the animated universe.

Each fighter has a host of moves taken directly from the series. Using seven unique skill slots, players customize the fighters to give them different moves and abilities.

One of the outstanding characteristics are the cell-shaded graphics that lend a cartoon look to the game. While far from realistic, these visuals are more or less true to the original manga/cartoon drawings.

The Budokai series receives fair reviews, usually with the advice that only hardcore fans will enjoy the titles.

A new game called Dragonball Z: Sparking was released in October of 2005 in Japan (elsewhere later in the year). Featuring a similar skill set and gameplay style of Budokai, many improvements were added to the new game that is billed as a follow up, not a sequel, to the Budokai games.

Additions include completely interactive/destructible environments, 56 characters with a total of 90 playable forms, and a reworked behind-the-back camera system as used in the anime.

The following is a list of Dragon Ball Z games released in Europe, North America, Japan and Australia/New Zealand.

• Legendary Super Warriors (Game Boy Color)
• Legacy of Goku 2 (Game Boy Advance)
• Ultimate Battle 22 (PlayStation)
• Budokai (PlayStation 2 and GameCube)
• Budokai 2 (PlayStation 2 and GameCube)
• Budokai 3 (PlayStation 2)
• Budokai Tenkaichi (PlayStation 2)
• Super Sonic Warriors (Game Boy Advance)
• Super Sonic Warriors 2 (Nintendo DS)

• Collectible Card Game (Game Boy Advance)
• Buu's Fury (Game Boy Advance)
• Sagas for the (PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox)

• The Legacy of Goku (Game Boy Advance)
• Taiketsu (Game Boy Advance)

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