Hey, obviously the Dragon Ball franchises doesn't exactly have the best reputation as far as its gaming portfolio goes but the release of Kakarot got me wondering which ones ppl liked before FighterZ.

I grew up on DBZ like probably many of you but actually haven't played many DB games. The one that I had and most likely spent the most time on was Budokai, which was a real bummer for me cuz I was a kid and it took me a ton of begging to get that game and than I was stuck w/ it for a long time. And I know I played a little bit of a GBA adventure game but I can't remember which one it was. That one actually seemed decent.

Anyways, which ones have y'all enjoyed in the past? Also, did anybody play the Xenoverse games? Kind wanted to pick one up and was wondering how they were and which one's better.

Personally, I’ve always loved the Tenkaichi games with Tenkaichi 3 being my favorite. They’re the only games that even sort of captured the feel of a fight in Dragon Ball and I always found them really fun to play.

All the games afterward, Xenoverse included, just always played poorly to me. I feel like if someone expanded on the Tenkaichi combat and fleshed it out a bit more, they could be great games.

I enjoyed the PS2 Budokai games, with 3 being surprisingly deep for a licenced tie-in fighting game.

@hermes: Yup, came to say the same one. I remember grinding tournaments to afford capsules to get the last 1% to 100% the game. Never did and disc eventually wore out. That game's story mode was great because it had you flying between locations and depending on the order you triggered events, you would unlock different paths on the current run. Loved experimenting and finding all the different secrets. It had great customizing for local vs as well. Loved that game as a casual fighter vs friends and for Dragon Universe single player mode, particularly because you could play through so many different characters' perspectives, with their own branching paths.

Oh, and of course for this game they still had in-match transformations rather than selecting them as separate characters.

Budokai 3

The only DBZ game I've ever played was Chrono Trigger. Every time I get excited about one, I see the footage and nope right off. DBZ Figtherz would've been my jam, but all my fighting game friends moved away over the years or fell out of contact and I'm just not into fighting online so I only really play Netherrealms games to get my fighting fix anymore.

I love the DBZ Legacy of Goku series on the GBA. I feel each entry in the series got better and better culminating in the 3rd one which was real fun. Legacy of Goku 3 added fusions and the map was huge.

I like the Xenoverse games, they aren't the best playing games out there but they didn't feel particularly bad for me, and they both have a lot of fun "what if" story stuff rather than just being a 100% retread.

Attack of the Saiyans on DS is a great little turn based JRPG. Kind of want to play it now that I'm thinking about it.

I also really like Budokai 2 and Budokai 3. All these other games that have come out in the last few years use the Tenkaichi battle system; the behind the back 3d flying engine, and I just don't find any of them enjoyable.

Legacy of Goku, Legacy of Goku II and Buu's Fury on GBA are also fun Action/Adventure RPG games. I bought a GBA to play those back in the day.

Super Dragonball Z - A PS2 fighting game that plays like a 3D Street fighter.

I had fun with the Tenkaichi games. Once I got used to the controls I felt like I was able to control the characters quite well and the vertical 3D movement made it feel different than other fighting games.

I played the first two Legacy of Goku gameboy advance games (maybe the adventure games you're thinking about?) quite a bit as a kid. I have no idea how good they actually are as I was like 10 and pretty into DBZ. I also spent a decent amount of time with Budokai playing with my brothers and some friends. It was really the only fighting game I ever got into.

That new DBZ game is sad but not surprising.

Dragon Ball Z: Legend (ps1) and Budokai 3, never played fighterZ

Both Xenoverse games are fantastic from a purely fan-servicey standpoint. The gameplay in 2 is better, but the storyline in 1 is MUCH better (more fun what-ifs, less emphasis on it being The Goku Show). They work better when you realize they're MUCH more realtime combat RPG than they are anything close to a fighting game, but the writing and story ideas really carry it, in my opinion.

And frankly, while the saiyans clearly had more work put into them, the create-a-character is about as close as your OC (do not steal) character is going to get to canonically rubbing elbows with Vegeta, Piccolo and the Great Yamcha.

As far as time spent playing it was probably a tossup between Dragonball GT Final Bout for the PS1 or Dragonball Z Sparking! NEO for the Wii. The former is very not good but I was so determined tomake a Vegetto that wouldn't immediately get bodied by a simple punch that I spent way more time than I should have playing that broken mess.

Sparking! NEO had some weeeird controls on the Wii but once I figured it out the game was alright, especially with the "What If..." stories they put in.

As far as fond memories though it's gotta be DragonballZ Butouden 2 for the SFC, spent a bunch of time with my friends just putting in the extra character code as many times as we could before it wouldn't let us to see who could put in the most before time went out. Reset, repeat until everyone had a turn.

Legacy of Goku 2, one of the best retellings of the Dragon Ball Z saga.

Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure for the GBA is a pretty fantastic adaptation of OG DB. The platforming and beat-em-up segments are fast and fluid, it has a pretty good 1-on-1 fighting game built-in (used in the Story Mode during certain boss battles, and as a separate mode), and it has a bunch of unlockables in the post-game Extra Mode.

For DBZ in particular, I might say Legacy of Goku II. It fixed a lot of issues from the first game, had a good sense of humor about the world of DBZ, and was, overall, a great Zelda-esque adaptation of the Android/Cell saga. The sequel Buu's Fury is good too, but I'd still put II over it, as BF is weighed down by the baggage from adapting the Buu Saga.

(Of course the real best one is Jump Ultimate Stars for the DS, but that wouldn't count, since it's not exclusively focused on DBZ. Huge roster, tons of unlocks, a great fighting system, and overall an excellent love letter to the Jump universe. Probably the only Smash-like that manages to surpass Smash (or at least comes very close).)

Super Gokuden 1 & 2 for the SNES are pretty great imo. Pretty much a VN with a sort of rock-paper-scissors fighting system for the fights. 1 covers Dragon Ball and 2 covers DBZ until the end of Frieza Saga.

I'd also have to throw my hat in for Legacy of Goku 2 & 3 and had a lot of fun with the Budokai/Budokai Tenkaichi games myself.