Rank'em!! Top Five List

[Rory]

It's been great hearing your opinions over certain games over my years on this board, tastes vary greatly and there's been many a 'heated debate' about certain video games here.
I thought it'd be really great for us to make lists of our top 5 Dragon Ball video games, and reasons why. We already seem to know each other’s preferences by now, but it'd be nice to throw out a solid top 5 list (if you can make one).
I'll try and get us started with mine!
5
Dragon Ball Z Supersonic Warriors

For me Supersonic Warriors was the first game that really conveyed they hectic speed and action of the series. The game was by no means perfect, but it was just damn good simple fun. While its sequel was also fun, it didn't seem to be much of departure from the original, which was a shame really, as there was a lot of potential for it.
Each character was very similar to one another, but the intensity and speed of the game kept you from noticing (and come on, it's a hand-held Dragon Ball title from 2004).

The game really grabbed me back then, and it's still fun to blast out these days.

4
Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension

Now I'll admit, this game was introduced to me via emulation when I was much (much) younger, but boy did I fall for it. The whole look and feel of the game just wowed me. It felt in the same league as Street Fighter (I was introduced to this not long after my friends got me into the 'big' fighting games on the block). The fact that this is a SNES game based on a kids comic/cartoon still really impresses me.

Best pre-Budokai game in my eyes, no questions asked.

3
Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3

While Budokai 2 did a lot to improve the series in terms of graphics and general presentation, it really left a lot to be desired in the game-play department.
Hello Budokai 3. Boy did you change the game. So many little things came together to deliver a seriously beefed up Budokai game. Teleportation, Quick Dodging, Flying (yes, this was pretty awesome at first!), and of course Beam Struggles. Even simple things, such as ditching the Dial-A-Kamehameha, really helped the overall package.
It's a really strong game, as is still pulled from my shelf for multi-player to this day.

2
Dragon Ball Advance Adventure

*Cuddles Dimps*
If it weren't for my sheer adoration of my number 1 (no prizes for guessing what it is), this'd take that place, easy.
Dragon Ball Advance Adventure is a fantastic game, with charm and character coming out of it's ears. When I heard that there was finally a game coming out that wasn't based on the Z portion of the series (for the umpteenth time), I was really hoping for something great, and boy did this game deliver. It's a simple side scrolling beat'em up, sure, but what it does, it does almost masterfully. The game starts off slow, but as you gain more abilities, and more powerful variations of ki and physical attacks, it just keeps getting better and better. Variation is also a great word to use, because if you're not running through stages beating up bad guys and bosses, you're flying on Kinto'Un, and if you're not doing that, you're in the Tenka-Ichi Budokai.
Best thing is, when you've done it with Gokuu, you can unlock over 20 characters to play through the game with, who all play very differently from one another (Kuririn being a person favourite).

An absolutely charming, and all around impressive game. The game I play more regularly to this day... apart from...

1
Super Dragon Ball Z

Suupa Doragon Boru Zetto!! ... -BEOW-
Yeah yeah, you saw it coming, well done.
What can I say? A Dragon Ball game, lead design by Toriyama himself, gameplay from creators of Street Fighter II, music by (I think) Shinji Hosoe (so reminiscent of his Street Fighter EX work that it's not even funny) and customisable characters.
Put all of this together and you've got yourself a fucking legendary Dragon Ball game.
Does it emulate the high speed and intensity and flashiness of the show? No, that isn't the point. This is a fighting game, and that's exactly what you do.
The combinations you can pull off in this game are pretty insane, and just show you how much thought really was put into the game, giving each character such wildly different possibilities and strategies.
The visuals really make it what it is though. It's the manga come to life, and still looks beautiful in terms of animation and art style. The game is just a treat to play, and is easy my most played Dragon Ball game of all time.

Well guys, what about you? Rank'em!

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

5) Budokai 1

-Great graphics for its time

-The cutscenes

-No Dragon Rush/Hyper Mode

-No stupid board game

-No annoying mini-games

-Classic Dragon Ball fighting action


4) Advanced Adventure

-Basically everything Rory said; it's zany, fun, beat 'em up action at its best


3) Budokai Tenkaichi 3

-Cool Anime-styled graphics

-Biggest character roster ever featured in a Dragon Ball game

-Lots of game modes; mutliple tournaments, disc fusion etc.


2) Attack of the Saiyans

-Awesome retro graphics

-A tonne of "what-ifs"

-Simple, yet addicting battle system

-Plenty of places to explore, some from the original series


1) Raging Blast 2

-Spec-fucking-tacular graphics

-Original Story Mode

-Kick-ass opening

-New special

-Tenkaichi gaming at its absolute finest

[MetaMoss]

This list comes out of what I've played (which isn't much).

5

Dragon Ball: Origins
Dragon Ball DS
Nintendo DS


It's Gameplay is inspired by the DS entries of the Legend of Zelda series, but why copy when you can copy the best? I know some people might not like it, but it adds some story elements into the show, like how Goku got that fat girl for Roshi.

4

Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II
Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II International
Gameboy Advance


I know, why the hell do I have this? Because I like it. This was the only one in its series to be good enough to be released in Japan. Yes, it was made in America. Yes, its based off the FUNi dub. But it has quality. Like Origins, it takes cues from the Legend of Zelda, specifically the older ones. But it goes further with the leveling system of an RPG.

3

Dragon Ball Z: SuperSonic Warriors 2
Dragon Ball Z: Intense Battle in the Skies
Nintendo DS


The Japanese title fits the description perfectly. This is the same awesome battle system from the first (which I played, like once) and adds team attacks and a story mode with many what-if paths, like one based on Toriyama's original intention for the Buu arc with Majin Piccolo. And I cant get over this quote by Gotenks:

I'm Gotenks, and I'm gonna kick your ass!

2

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
Dragon Ball Z Sparking! METEOR
Wii/Playstation 2 (played Wii version)


This is, in my opinion, the best of the Tenkaichi/Sparking! series, because it has the most features, such as day/night maps, online (for Wii), and the large choice of characters. Sure some are lame (*cough*Appule*cough*), but its enough to satisfy your DBZ battles (until the 2008 special came out ).

And, finally:

1

Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans
Dragon Ball Kai: Saiyan Invasion
Nintendo DS


The first Dragon Ball RPG to come to the States. When I first played this, I had an awesome feeling. The feeling of "This is it. The Game you've been wanting for years." It has enough filler to disown it's Kai moniker from Japan, but that was just dumb luck. I always like to play this game with the volume all the way up, just to hear Nozawa's "KA...ME...HA...ME...HAAA!!!" or "Kaio-KEN!". Starting it at the Piccolo Jr. Saga was a very good idea. I hope for a sequel to this, maybe on the 3DS?

[Hellspawn28]

My top 5.

5. Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden 2

The best out of all three games, it had a decent story from what I can remember and the game had a good section of the characters. Not to mention the 2D combat was well done for its time. I would have added SB3 and HD on the site but it been ages since I played them.

4. Dragon Ball Z III: Ressen Jinzōningen or Legacy of Goku II

Both are great games, hard to put them on the list. I dobut a lot of people played the Card based games on the NES or SNES (I can't remember which one), but I thought DBZIII was the best in the series since it was a blast to play. LOG2 was a huge improvement over the first game if you ask me. The game had a lot of replay vaule, good boss battles, and it keep you busy for a while. I thought it was the best out of all three LOG games.

3. Dragon Ball Z: Legends

I had to put this game on the list. Its a great game in general due to its 4 vs. 4 combat, and the game was tons of fun. What made it so fun was due to hectic speed and action that made it very close to the series. You had a pretty good story mode, and a great section of character as well. Its too bad this game was never released in the US.

2. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2/Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! NEO

Out of all three Sparking games, this one I enjoy the most. You had a lot of things to do, a good story mode, and a great section of characters. I enjoy how the game had a story mode similar to Budokai 3, and the game had more things to ofter unlike the 3rd game. I would have enjoy the 3rd game more if the 3rd game had more things to unlock and a longer story mode.

1. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3/Dragon Ball Z 3

You saw this coming? Hard to beat Budokai 3 as the best DBZ game due to the fact that it had a great combat system. And that I still remember how hype up I was for this game, and I spend hours on this game more then I did with the past two DBZ games before it. I do wish Dimps had more time on the game since a lot of things where missing afterall.

Honourable mentions:

Dragon Ball Z Supersonic Warriors, Raging Blast 1-2 (Both are good games), Super DBZ, Advanced Adventure, Budokai Tenkaichi 3/Sparking! METEOR, Super Battle 2, V.R.V.S., Buyu Retsuden, II: Gekishin Freeza, Super Saiya Densetsu, Buu's Fury, and Burst Limit.

[songohan619]

My Top 5:

5
If it wasnt for the controlls, Origins would be here aswell. Fantastic retelling of the Red Ribbon Ark.

4
A well made Dragonball RPG, with beautiful spritework and one of the best RPGs i have ever played.

3
Even though it was a bit repetetive, it still was a fun and challenging game to play.

2
The very best of the Sparking Series, with Graphics that really resembles both a modern and the old Dragonball. And, a good fighting engine.

1
My favourite game, dragonball or not, to this day. i still pull it out of the shelf, and enjoy it more than any other game. It had a great fighting engine, i love the dragon rushes, and i think no game has ever come so close as budokai 3 to maching the look of the show.

[Hellspawn28]

It looks like I'm the only one in this thread so far who played the older RPG DBZ games?

[Rory]

Of course not! I've played them too, I just don't think they hold up well when compared to the recent games.
But this is a top 5 list, and tastes vary.

[MetaMoss]

It looks like I'm the only one in this thread so far who played the older RPG DBZ games?

I would love to play all of them, but I'm a cheap 14-year old kid whose parents won't let me buy anything online from ebay... Hm... maybe emulation?

[goku the krump dancer]

5. Budokai 1: The very first DBZ Game I ever played it was fun at the time and the cut scenes have yet to be topped.

4. Budokai 2: The story mode was fun even though it did eventually get boring, the what ifs were fantastic and have also yet to be topped imo and also everyones moves were revamped giving them a much closer feel to the anime.

3. Raging Blast 2: Currently the DBZ game that I'm playing and hasnt let me down all that much. the combos are easy to pull off and fun, a few steps up from Tenkaichi 3 but not leagues better and had characters that werent in any DBZ game prior to that. The super moves vary and are fun to look at.

2.Tie between Budokai 3 and Tenkaichi 3: Budoaki 3 is probably the game that helped put DBZ back on the map, Dragon Rush was a blast, Beam struggles, new stage interactions, awsome planet destruction, cool combos and just overall had that DBZ feel to it.

Tenkaichi 3 fantastic roster though I didnt really like that Spike chopped up certain characters just to increase the overall amount of them. The game was bright and colorful, the super moves were fun to look at and the combos were good. Another thing I liked was that the stage could be destroyed at any moment that a finisher was pulled off and made some kind of contact with the planet(very DB like imo).

1. Super DBZ: Without a doubt the most unique DB game I've ever played. Decent in depth combos, nice presentation, excellent customization , it also has that DB feel to it but much different from the feel I get in B3 or BT3. Even though it sort of lacks in the Character department(some feel a bit unfinished),doesnt have beam struggles or blow struggles and it doesnt go crazy with speacial effects, I always get a sudden urge to play this again and its definatly worthy of a sequal.

As you may notice these are all home console games. I havent really played that many portable DB games but I do plan on buying Ultimate Butoden when it comes out.

[Vegeta Jr]

5. Burst Limit -Insanely good looking, great music and a fighting system that can be as deep as you need it to be.
4. Dragonball Advance Adventure - I love the music in this game, has a certain charm due to it being original Dragonball.
3. Legacy of Goku 2 - Was like playing the show and I love RPG's.
2. Super Dbz - I'm a sucker for traditional fighting games and it has customisable characters. Manga style was also refreshing to see.
1. Budokai 3 - Would have been Infinite World but it removed too much and made certain characters way too OP.

[Jon Jon]

5.) Budokai Tenkaichi 2.

It was a fun game and it was fun to play against friends on the Wii. Not much else to say about it really.

4.) Hyper Dimension

I played this so much via emulation when I was younger. It was a great game. I especially loved winning the story mode battles that you didn't have to win (like beating Freeza with Piccolo).

3.) Budokai 3

I'm actually amazed that you guys enjoyed this game. My friends are all big Tenkaichi fans, where as I preferred Budokai 3. The combat was great, I really enjoyed it.

2.) Dragon Ball Z 3 on Famicom

Great game. I especially loved how when you used energy blasts the enemy character made that nervous "o.O;;" face.


1.) DBZ: Legend of the Super Saiyan.

By far my favorite RPG, only second to Chrono Trigger. I think it was amazing. Everything about it I enjoyed. I really enjoyed how intense the battles could be. I also like how the BP was actually trying to be fairly accurate (basically, when everyone was at the max level of 47, their BP was still drastically different from each other). Fantastic game. Love it. So happy that I finally own it .

EDIT: I also want to point out that I really loved the card battle system, even though it took more forever as a kid to figure out how it worked XD;

[Turtle Marked Stone]

Dragonball: Hyper Dimension

I believe I’ve sang this game’s praise more then any other. It’s the best DBZ fighting game for my money. I love how polished this game was, everything screamed “Dragonball” to me. I especially enjoyed the KI/Health system which was very representative of the series. One last ditch Kamehameha that can turn the tide of the battle or drain you of energy and leave you vulnerable. The arenas were beautifully drawn and the roster impressive. There’s also something to be said for the story mode, while short and inaccurate it had some really fun super hard battles. It’s the little touches like Senzu Beans representing continues or Freeza going through his 3 forms during the character select screen that really puts the cherry on the sundae. Really I can’t find a single thing to complain about (e-except those flying arenas...I just need to play those to remind me how important Sparking’s lock on system is.)

DragonBall Z: Super Legend of Goku -Chapter of Assault-

This is, essentially a Dragonball Choose Your Own Adventure Game. I love it, I love everything about this game’s story mode. It’s a huge shame it never got a proper 100% English patch. You play as an average little kid who’s playing a game of D&D with his buddies (Dragonballs and Dungeons?)
You start off with some witty banter and go right into the game. Here you’re sucked into the story as Son Goku and get to essentially make decisions for him, while some are silly typical slightly altered dialogue branches, some will change the tide of the events you accomplish. Want Goku to win the Tenkaichi Budokai? You can let him. Want him to lose in the first round against Giran? That is possible to. It’s hard to accurately convey how well they get you into Son Goku’s body and mind. You can take down common thugs in seconds and genuinely get excited when you see giant monsters that you feel will put up an actual challenge. In between chapters you get to hear your friends laugh and talk about the events that are going on. It’s a ton of fun and it’s a shame the 2nd game in the series took a lot of what I liked from the first one out.

Dragonball Kai: Attack of the Saiyans

I’ll be honest, I never liked the card RPGs too much. It seemed like a slightly convoluted and awkward way to play a Dragonball RPG. It took us years upon years but we finally got a proper turn based Dragonball JRPG. It’s great fun, everything is very well balanced and there’s even a lot of well written filler for us long time fans of the anime and manga. This game’s music is amazing and I giggled with glee when I heard an old reused tune from my childhood. I adore the spritework, this is overall not only a Dragonball game done right but a JRPG in general done right.


Dragonball: The Mystery of Shenlong
This one might throw people a little. If you don’t like this game I can’t say I blame you in the slightest. It’s really the rose tinted glasses that make this game for me (but I genuinely do feel like this game has a few redeeming qualities.) This most certainly wouldn’t go on my “best 5” list but for a personal “top five” it simply must.

This game and a Famicom was given to me by my buddy in Japan for my birthday. This was the first Dragonball game I played and it was thrilling. I was in control of Son Goku! I could use the Kamehameha and talk to Oolong and Roshi! (Although I didn’t understand what they were saying, the little sprite portrait animations helped.) This game allowed you to play as Goku and that instantly made me spend more time with it then any other game. (For some context he also sent me Rockman and it went played less then this game.) I played it all the way through over and over again, it had gotten to the point where I’m pretty sure I used to beat it everyday after school. While it’s a little archaic and the life draining system makes things tough I do still think it’s a relatively competent beat em’ up with a good sense of humor. For what it’s worth I personally think it also told the story pretty well (and it even had filler predicting GT where you had to go find a Dragonball in the solar system!) I have a lot of fond memories of this game.

Dragonball:Advanced Adventure

Whoo boy, did I play the shit out of this game. It literally felt to me like a redone professionally polished unofficial sequel to my favorite childhood game Mystery of Shenlong. It goes through the story very well it had two separate combat systems for beat em’ up stages and one on one battling stages. I really enjoyed how you powered up Son as he went through his adventure. The sprites and backgrounds are absolutely beautiful. There’s not much I can really say about this game other then it’s the brilliant polished Dragonball beat em’ up I’ve always wanted.

[SSJmole]

top 5 :

5 Budokai : This needs to be on the list. It a huge deal, Dragonball Z was popular, toys were out , a board game , cds (in the uk all of those disappeared luckily i bought them all You go from Final Bout the night before to that it's like Wow! , also bonus points for mini-cell lol

4 Collectible Card Game : This would never make best list. But i was addicted to this. Some kids played pokemon cards, I always loved the Dragonball cards when I was in highschool. I even had to import them from usa to do it but this game was that for gba. I love it.

3 Legacy of goku series : I put this as 1 choice as its one complete story. The games were funny and pretty fun RPG's. I wish we had more DB rpgs instead of the boring and horrible fighters like Raging Blast.

2 Burst Limit : This game has the best Story mode, the best graphics and great controls. It tried new things like Drama pieces. It was a little short yes. But still a great Dragonball game.

1 Budokai 3 : It's a damn near perfect game based on Dragon ball Z. It had a pretty fun story mode. It had a great roster without too many pointless filling (I'm looking at you you BT and RB) the controls were great. We are sadly never going to see this again