My idea for a DBZ beat 'em up

[Thanos6]

It's always amazed me that back during DBZ's original run, when the arcade beat 'em up genre was at the height of its popularity, we didn't get a game in that style. So, inspired by some friends of mine, I put together these ideas for what a hypothetical Z-based beat 'em up could be like.

DRAGON BALL Z

In the style of X-MEN!

The action of the smash hit manga and anime now comes to arcades! With an unprecedented 10 characters, supporting up to 6 players at once!

Playable Characters

Goku: The Saiyan from Earth is balanced in all stats.
Vegeta: The Saiyan prince has the worst speed, but is the strongest, and his ki charges fastest.
Piccolo: The cunning Namekian has a little extra speed and the longest range for grabs and throws.
Gohan: Goku’s eldest son has high strength and speed, but low health, and he can’t combo well.
Mirai Trunks: Vegeta’s “eldest” son is a little slow, but strong, and his sword gives him excellent reach.
Yamcha: The former desert bandit is the weakest, but he’s also the fastest, and excels at combos. Occasionally he can have Puar shapeshift into a copy of him to distract enemies.
Tenshinhan: The greatest of the Crane School is a little slower, but a little stronger; he specializes in keeping enemies at a distance. He can optionally sacrifice health to deal massive damage.
Krillin: The scrappy monk is below average in all stats except health, which he has the most of. He can sometimes hang on at 1 HP instead of being KO’d, and can distribute healing senzu beans to other players.
Trunks and Goten: These two best friends have below average stats…when they’re apart. However, if both are chosen as playable, all their stats increase and their moves combo well together. Ideal for co-op play.

Support Characters

Bulma and Oolong: The genius and the pig throw capsules that provide random beneficial effects to all players.
Master Roshi: The perverted Turtle Hermit provides gradual health regeneration to all players.
Chi-Chi: The Ox-King’s daughter uses the Bansho Fan to generate a wind that forces enemies back.
Launch: The split personality thief shoots all enemies, dealing minor damage.
Chiaotzu: The kyonshi paralyzes one enemy for several seconds.
Yajirobe: The samurai gives all players a healing senzu bean.
17 and 18: The cyborg twins dash across the screen, damaging any enemies they hit.
Mr. Satan: The world champion briefly stuns all enemies.
Videl: The heroine of justice increases all players’ ki regeneration rate.

Stages

Saiyan Saga (Bosses: Raditz and Nappa)
Freeza Saga, Part I (Bosses: Dodoria and Zarbon)
Freeza Saga, Part II (Bosses: The Ginyu Force)
Freeza Saga, Part III (Mini-Bosses: Freeza 1st Form, Freeza 2nd Form, Freeza 3rd Form) (Boss: Freeza True Form, then Freeza 100% Power)
Cell Saga, Part I (Mini-Bosses: Mecha-Freeza and King Cold) (Bosses: Android 19 and Dr. Gero)
Cell Saga, Part II (Mini-Bosses: Imperfect Cell, Semi-Perfect Cell) (Boss: Perfect Cell, then Super Perfect Cell)
Majin Buu Saga, Part I (Mini-Bosses: Yamu and Spopovich) (Boss: Dabura)
Majin Buu Saga, Part II (Bosses: Babidi and Fat Buu)
Majin Buu Saga, Part III (Bosses: Super Buu, then Kid Buu)

And if the maximum of six players are playing, two bonus stages then become available!

Movies (Bosses: Cooler, then Broly, then Janemba)
Hell (BOSS RUSH! Battle against Raditz, Nappa, Dodoria, Zarbon, Dodoria, the Ginyu Force, King Cold, Android 19, Dr. Gero, Yamu, Spopovich, Dabura, Babidi, Cooler, Broly, Janemba, ending with Freeza, Cell, and Kid Buu simultaneously)

So, thoughts on this hypothetical game? I tried to make all the characters unique and each useful, in their own way.

[Yuli Ban]

It's always amazed me that back during DBZ's original run, when the arcade beat 'em up genre was at the height of its popularity, we didn't get a game in that style.

I'm also continuously surprised that we never got a dedicated arcade-fighter Dragon Ball game. Even crazier is the fact arcades never died in Japan and are still popular gaming venues. Your idea looks fairly solid, though it needs just a bit of tweaking. I'd personally recommend putting in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai as the proper start (I'm an advocate for starting any and every full-series Dragon Ball Z game with the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai). It would at least make for a good prologue/tutorial stage. And, now that we're in a post-Super world, I can't at all see it making sense for a full-series Z game to stop with Boo except for nostalgia points— the logical stopping point is either the fight with Beerus or Golden Freeza. They can be end-game bosses for clearing the main story, as I can't see any Z games excluding those two since, technically, they're a part of Dragon Ball Z.

Other than that, the roster looks fine; the support characters are also fine; everything's in its right place.

Though I feel you neglected to mention the most important part: the graphics.

Ever since Cuphead hit the scene, people have realized that you don't need to use cel-shaded 3D graphics or digitized sprites to represent cartoons and anime— now you can literally just use drawings. Obviously the realization has been around for much longer (since the 2000s), but that was the first game I saw where the masses suddenly realized "Oh crap, games can literally be fully-interactive cartoons now?" because of just how overwhelming of a response that game got. I'd have preferred Skullgirls be that game, but we can't get everything we want! But at least it's now becoming a viable graphical choice.
In which case, we could get a game that literally looks like the anime because it's actually drawn like the anime (or manga). The sprites aren't pixelated anymore but are actual animation cels. No more cel-shading trying to look like the anime (right as cel-shading started genuinely looking like the anime, a la FighterZ).


A hand-drawn arcade-style beat-em-up? Yes please!

[Thanos6]

And, now that we're in a post-Super world, I can't at all see it making sense for a full-series Z game to stop with Boo except for nostalgia points— the logical stopping point is either the fight with Beerus or Golden Freeza. They can be end-game bosses for clearing the main story, as I can't see any Z games excluding those two since, technically, they're a part of Dragon Ball Z.

Well, one, I was pretending that this game came out back during the 90s, during the beat-em-craze, so Buu is as far as it could go.

Also, two, I hate Super and almost everything involved with it, so I didn't want either of those in "my" game.