First heard of Dragon Ball through the games

[theawesomepossum777]

Who else did? I fondly remember getting Budokai 1 for the PS2 at my local Target. My brother was already a big fan of Z on Toonami, so he told me about the show and it sounded awesome to me. To this day, the Budokai trilogy on the PS2 are my favorite Dragon Ball games.

[samuraix123]

Actually I remember just flipping through the channels when I was a kid and I saw Piccolo and thought he looked awesome. I was watching the saiyan saga. And I've been hooked ever since

[Drew]

I did watch the show before playing the games, but the games were also a key part in me loving the whole franchise. Budokai 1 was one of my first PS2 games, Budokai 2 was pretty good, but Budokai 3 is still, in my opinion, the pinnacle of DBZ games.

[DarkPrince_92]

I heard about DBZ when I was in 3rd grade hearing someone saying: "Did you see, Goku blasted of Cell's head" and I was just confused, went to watch it at home later that day and it was awesome. Then the reruns came on and I caught back up. Then the Buu saga hit when I was in 4th grade, and it was AMAZING....at the time.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

If I hadn't bought DBZ: Supersonic Warriors (my first DB game and I was playing it for years) I don't know if I would be here today.

[MCDaveG]

I watched the show and being fan of fighting games and always dreamed of one based on dragon ball.
It was at the time the internet was in it's beginning here and outside of Pokémon, we didn't know much that there exist games based on franchises, but franchises like Pokémon based on games.
The first thing my friend found by chance was Buu Yuu Retsuden on Sega and we were hyped as hell about it!

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Oh fuck, I forgot to write the first sentence of my previous post!
I watched the anime first, but the video game helped me not to forget the basics of the story, and keep it alive in my memories.

[dbboxkaifan]

First time I heard & watched Dragon Ball was in 1992-1993, I was very little but enjoyed the show and Goku's adventures.

The first game of DB I first played was a pirated copy named Super Butoden 2 NES Pirated (the original game existed already), then in 2000-ish Dragon Ball Final Bout came along, it was a great game while I knew how the hell to play it 'cos now I'm a noob if I try to play it.



By the way, I ain't got no clue how to play Dragon Ball Ultimate Battle 22.

[MCDaveG]

By the way, I ain't got no clue how to play Dragon Ball Ultimate Battle 22.

These era of SNES and PS games are playing the same. arrows and button combos and most of the time, the combination for kamehameha's type superwaves are same for all characters in Butoudens and UB22 and Final Bout, more simmilar to how Street Fighter is played. As I grew up on this generation of games, it was a little letdown for me on the PS2.
Also, I must admit, lot of combos in Budokai 1 and 2 were somewhat harder for me to execute for me as I'm the ''Street Fighter'' type of player and also I hated this punch kick punch arrow punch combos...... But well, it's funny that I also love Mortal Kombat series and that have the combos simmilar too first two Budokai games and I started to play MK more at the same time as Budokai, so I'm more adjusted to it and now the street fighter combos are damn easy for me to execute
and these Budokai/MK controls are more competitive and fun for me.

In this view of things, controls of Budokai 3/IW and Sparking series are rudiculous for a fighting genre, but I still like the last two Budokai games for it being more like ''fun time'' with Dragon Ball franchise and relax than playing a competitive fighter.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I've told this story before, but I'll say it again. I must've been 7 or 8 when my friend first told me about Dragon Ball Z, and I remember being completely confused as to what the hell "Super Saiyan" was. So, when I later went round his house, we played Ultimate Battle 22 and Final Bout. Despite both of them being crappy games, I still have nostalgia for them, since they were what got me sucked into DB, persuaded me to buy a DBZ magazine in which I learned some other things about the series, and later bought Budokai 2.

Budokai 2 was probably my first insight into the actual story, so because of this, I initially thought that Raditz came to Earth with Nappa, Android #20 fought Gokuu personally, Trunks became Super Saiyan 2, Freeza and Cell returned and were possessed by Bobbodi, etc. I remember my aforementioned friend and I staying up late and then getting up early the next morning to play Budokai 2, having unlocked new characters like Gotenks and Vegetto.

[TheGreatness25]

First time I heard & watched Dragon Ball was in 1992-1993, I was very little but enjoyed the show and Goku's adventures.

The first game of DB I first played was a pirated copy named Super Butoden 2 NES Pirated (the original game existed already), then in 2000-ish Dragon Ball Final Bout came along, it was a great game while I knew how the hell to play it 'cos now I'm a noob if I try to play it.



By the way, I ain't got no clue how to play Dragon Ball Ultimate Battle 22.

Come on! Ultimate Battle 22 is the best Dragon Ball game everrr! Ehh...not really, but I will tell you this much, when I was 12 or 13 and first got it, I didn't discriminate, it was something I was hooked on. I always alternated between Ultimate Battle 22, Final Bout, and Legends, all Japanese versions. To me, that was the coolest thing ever and I compared Ultimate Battle 22 with Final Bout and actually appreciated the graphics of UB22 over Final Bout because...while in UB22 they look like themselves, in Final Bout they look like a bunch of colorful blocks.

But no, I knew of the DB series way before the games. In fact I racked my brain trying to find Dragon Ball games. I knew that an English version of Final Bout existed and I must have went to every hole in the wall video game store to find it. Finally my parents bought me Legends and Final Bout (Japanese versions) from a place in China Town. UB22, I actually found in an EB Games...yeah, saw a Japanese game at EB Games. However, since then all of them broke and I replaced them through Amazon or Ebay. It's funny how life turns out. I went through so much trouble as a kid finding these and when I did, it was like the heavens opened up, but now it's just a click away and there's no real sentimental value to it. Also there was a place called Game Cave (888-GAM-ECAV was the phone number lol) and they actually had Sega Genesis DBZ games and I replaced my Legends through them. Sucks they closed down, but it was such a cool time period.

[Dizrythmia]

I first heard of DBZ through Super Nintendo magazine Super Play. It was one of the few magazines that covered import games. I played the games via emulation (back in the days I did things like that) & didn't really get into them all that much, though I liked Hyper Dimension.

Years later I own them all & enjoy them a lot more. Familiarity with the show probably helps there...

[DoomieDoomie911]

My best friend's brother actually introduced me to it. He showed me a episode of the Freeza Ark. I told him it was "all right" but I knew I was already hooked!

[Son Satan]

I was watching the anime for 3 years or so before Budokai came out, so that was my first game. I wasn't into many fighting games as a kid, except for Smash Bros., but I didn't care what kind of game it was. I ended loving the game.
If it weren't for the video games keeping me interested enough in the series, then I might not have cared at all when the DBoxes and Kai came along in '09, since I stopped paying much attention to the series after the UUC episodes on Toonami. The games were also the reason for me deciding to collect the VizBigs when I saw ads for them in the US Shonen Jump.

[DBZfan29]

Like the user who started thinking this account, my brother and our cousin were fans of the series. My brother owned Budokai, and I just picked up the controller one day. I must have been around only eight, but that first battle with Raditz has made the series a part of already half my life. My brother now finds anime childish, but hey, it's his loss.

[DBZfan29]

Like the user who started this topic, my brother and our cousin were fans of the series. My brother owned Budokai, and I just picked up the controller one day. I must have been around only eight, but that first battle with Raditz has made the series a part of already half my life. My brother now finds anime childish, but hey, it's his loss.

[Jord]

When browsing through a Snes game list in about '94 I noticed there were a lot of DBZ games for it. I didn't do anything with it but I've heard about it pretty early.