What was your first game in the franchise?

[Yuli Ban]

I started humbly with Legacy of Goku back around 2002. This was around the time Toonami was feeling nostalgic for the shift from Kids WB to Cartoon Network, so they replayed the Ocean dub Saiyan and Namek arcs at least twice, which is when I got the game (secondhand as a kid at my school just gave it to me; didn't even sell it, just wanted it off his hands).

This means... Ugh... Legacy of Goku was my first ever introduction to Super Saiyan.

Yep. Outside the clipshow intro to the DBZ dub showing short flashes of it, the first time I ever encountered Super Saiyan was at the end of Legacy of Goku. I distinctly remember not even knowing if his voice changed as well as thinking "Oh cool, Goku looks like Vegeta now" due to the skyward hair.

I remember liking the game at the time... Until I played Legacy of Goku 2 and subsequently never touched part one again.

My favorite thing to do was just explore the open hubs whenever I could. And I distinctly remember a guide (maybe the instruction manual) saying you could kick. I nearly broke my GBA's buttons trying to find the combination to kick. I even thought I remember a character kicking, completely with a scummy, crunched
soundclip. But that was a lie. Or not a lie, but a promotional bit greatly overselling how action packed the game was.

The only thing I liked about the game even after turning on it is that there were some decent musical tracks, mainly the battle theme of the Saiyans and Freeza.


All in all, a pitiful first showing that only an inexperienced sheltered 8 year old could like.


Bonus!


My first PS2 game was Budokai Tenkaichi 2/Sparking! NEO (in fact, it might have literally been my first PS2 game period) (the first PS2 game I'd ever played on MY OWN PS2, I should clarify; my first PS2 game ever was either GTA 3 or Kingdom Hearts well over half a decade prior).
That gave me hundreds of hours of fun and fanfiction. I never played Sparking! METEOR/Tenkaichi 3. And while I eventually got around to the Budokai series, that was a decade after they were still hot. Tenkaichi 2 remains my favorite.

My first Super Famicom game was Super Butoden 2, downloaded untranslated sometime back in 2004. I never played the story mode; I just unlocked Broly and slammed everyone with him. That's also the first time I've ever heard "Kakarotto" or learned that the series was fully Japanese in origin. As a result of playing that game I learned Goku's name is Son Goku... But the damn Angelfire site didn't understand that Japanese names work by Surname-Familiar Name (Last Name - First Name by Western standards) so I thought it was Goku Son. Which... It is. But put that way, my 9 year old brain thought "Son" was literally "son" and was confused as all hell.

[DBZAOTA482]

The first game I remember seeing was Legendary Super Warriors for the gameboy color but the first (official) Dragon Ball game I played was the first Budokai.

[Koitsukai]

I think it was Ultimate Battle 22 on PS1, which I didn't enjoy that much, it bored me pretty soon, I didn't enjoy much DBZ games when I was a kid. When I got Final Bout, in japanese only, I had no idea who the characters were. The anime airing on TV at that time was nowhere near the Buu arc let alone GT, so that game went right by me, there was a kid SS Goku, a girl, Trunks was back, a huge golden ape, a red monkey. The first game I truly enjoyed was Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu.

In PS2 the first game I played was DBZ Sagas. I got a lot of fun out of that game, even though it hasn't aged very well.

[Locust]

If I recall correct, my first game of this series was Dragon Ball Kai: Saiyan Invasion
I still really like this game a lot, it's a solid RPG

[Dbzfan94]

I believe it was Budokai 1 on Gamecube. Followed by Buu's Fury.

I never had PS2 so i didnt get Budokai 2 and 3 till much later. But then I explicitly remember buying a PS2 solely for BT1 when that was brand new.

[SuperSaiyanPan]

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 | Playstation 1

[jamiljamtheman]

Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout on PS1. It along with watching Broly Second Coming were some of my earliest dips into Dragon Ball, just a little before BoG came out. Clunky, yes, but I enjoyed it enough to watch GT and get more into the franchise as a result.

[mute_proxy]

A PC port of Dragon Ball Z Super Saiya Densetsu, don't think it had a translation mod, so I played by intuition

[Xeno Goku Black]

I believe I bought Budokai 1, Tenkaichi 1 and Legacy of Goku 1 all from eBay on the same day back in 2007.

[sunsetshimmer]

It was Final Bout.
Then The Legend and Ultimate Battle 22.

So basically all of PS1 games. After that i moved into GameBoy emulators.

I think it was Ultimate Battle 22 on PS1, which I didn't enjoy that much, it bored me pretty soon, I didn't enjoy much DBZ games when I was a kid. When I got Final Bout, in japanese only, I had no idea who the characters were. The anime airing on TV at that time was nowhere near the Buu arc let alone GT, so that game went right by me, there was a kid SS Goku, a girl, Trunks was back, a huge golden ape, a red monkey. The first game I truly enjoyed was Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu.

In PS2 the first game I played was DBZ Sagas. I got a lot of fun out of that game, even though it hasn't aged very well.

UB22 sucked ass, let's be honest. It was awful.
I knew all Final Bout characters by the time i got japanese version of it, i already watched both DBZ and GT.
For "Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu" aka "The Legend" i still consider it one of the greatest DB titles ever released.

[Bebi Hatchiyack]

My first ever Dragon Ball game was Dragon Ball GT Final Bout lmao I thought at the time the game was amazing but with retrospect nah tho good memories. ♥

[Kaywayk]

My first game (and really, my first introduction to the franchise, outside of some brief glimpses I caught on TV) was Budokai Tenkaichi 1 on ps2.

I actually really loved it. The gameplay was fast and flashy, which was enough to grab my attention. I didn't know anything about the plot of the show so I'd replay story mode fights over and over again, trying to piece together the plot from the pre-fight dialogues (which I could barely understand as the game didn't have an option for my language).

Years later I found out 3 completely blows it out the water; by that point my disk was too scratched to play so I never went back to it.

[Hellspawn28]

DBZ Legends on the PS1. I just moved into a new house and a neighbor of mine had a PS1 with swap magic that allows him to play Japanese games. It was the first time that I probably heard Goku's voice in Japanese and I didn't care to be honest if Goku sound like a woman.

[Thanos]

My first experience with Dragon Ball in video game form (this distinction matters) was playing a modded version of Pokémon Yellow with a Dragon Ball Z mod using NO$GMB on PC. It obviously didn't work very well at all, but I remember Mewtwo being changed to Freeza which kinda makes sense. Eventually I got my hands on the Quake II Arena mod, Bid for Power, and the Half-Life mod, Earth's Special Forces. Shortly thereafter I learned about the Famicom/Super Famicom games stuff and the rest is history.

My first proper game on its native platform though would have been Legacy of Goku because I believe that was the first Infogrames outing for the franchise.

[Nickolaidas]

I want you to imagine living in 1995, in a foreign country like Greece, where there is no internet yet at that time. Imagine watching a dragon ball dub every weekend, imagine that you have NO WAY of knowing how popular this anime is in the world and figure it's just another anime which you personally, your brother and a friend of yours got to love a lot, but no one else really gives a fuck.

Imagine having watched up to the Red Ribbon saga so far. Not even Piccolo Daimao's arc.

Now, imagine getting a PC gaming magazine, which comes with a CD filled with official and unofficial game demos. Imagine using DOS (no windows yet back then). Imagine typing dir/w, and looking at folders like 'achelon', 'pwrdrum', 'doom', and then ... a folder is called 'dragball'.

Imagine your heart skipping a beat. Imagine saying, 'nah ... it couldn't be ... there are no dragon ball games ...'

Imagine running the demo and it's a demo of an indie Dragon Ball game with the only characters being renamed Goku (23rd Tournament) and Krillin. And despite being nearly unplayable, you lose your shit. Because it's your favorite anime as a video game, and as far as you know, there aren't any others. That was my first experience.

The next were Final Bout, then emulated NES/SNES/Genesis DBZ games (when I finally got internet), then Ultimate Battle 22 and Legends (imported from America when I finally got internet), then ... the Atari games (Budokai and the rest). Good games. Good times. I lost my shit when I learned that Dragon Ball was amazingly popular and that there were like 30 DBZ games.

[BlackMagicianX]

First game was Ultimate Battle 22. It was... something. But I enjoyed playing it. I also had the Legend. Both on the PS1.

[Luso Saiyan]

Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden for the Sega Mega Drive. Unfortunately it was only in japanese, so it was hard to navigate the menus, but it had great gameplay and a nice character roster to choose from.

[Xeogran]

Super Butouden 3.. on an emulator. It was an amazing experience when I first saw the intro with 3D-looking World Tournament arena and Goku standing on it, doing the Kamehameha. Pure excitement

[Codarik]

Budokai 1 on the PS2. Vividly remember having trouble defeating Perfect Cell for a week and ended up getting a friend to beat him for me. Next was Legacy of Goku 1, I really loved it at the time, played for countless hours.