For as long as the popularDragon Ballseries has existed, it has put forth dozens upon dozens of video games, ranging from action games, fighting games, RPGs, to card games. What isn’t surprising, especially among fans of the franchise, is that many of the older Dragon Ball games never quite reached North America. However, few of the most obscured Dragon Ball titles have unexpectedly gone on to receive official translations in certain PAL countries.
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From fan favorites likeDragon Ball Z: The LegendtoDragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 3, it is somewhat mysterious why some of these titles received localizations in European countries and not other western territories. For this list, we’re going to break down the best Dragon Ball games that have been specifically closed off to North American markets.
10Dragon Ball: Great Demon King’s Revival
Dragon Ball: Great Demon King’s Revival(Dragon Ball: Daimaō Fukkatsu), a role-playing game developed by TOSE Software Co., is one of the numerous Dragon Ball games that was never localized in America, much less the entire western world.
Released on the Famicom in 1988, Great Demon King’s Revival plays on a board game-like structure in which you move Goku to his designated destination while having him collect battle cards. Goku will encounter enemies he has to fight along the board by utilizing the discovered cards randomly generated in the player’s hand deck. With each successive win, Goku receives experience points needed to level up in the game.
9Dragon Ball 3: Goku’s Story
Another RPG released only in Japanon the Famicom isDragon Ball 3: Goku’s Story(Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden). This title continues the gameplay structure of using a board map to maneuver Goku across the different spaces in which he interacts with the various characters from the earlier arcs of the series. This time, however, the game offers two more playable characters: Krillin and Yamcha.
In terms of story, the game covers all of Dragon Ball up to the end of the fight against Piccolo in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai Tournament. What’s interesting to note is that the player can take liberties in altering story events that played out in theanime, like allowing Goku to receive Baby Gamera from Master Roshi as opposed to Flying Nimbus. The battle mechanics of Dragon Ball 3: Goku’s Story play pretty much exactly as Great Demon King’s Revival.
8Dragon Ball Z: Super Goku’s Story: Assault Arc
Dragon Ball Z: Super Goku’s Story: Assault Arc(Dragon Ball Z: Super Gokuden: Totsugeki-Hen), released in 1995 for the Super Famicom, is a Paper-Rock-Scissors battle-based RPG that chronicles the beginning of the Dragon Ball tale and finishes at the end of the King Piccolo Arc.
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The core of the gameplay involves a group of friends (the player) playing a Dragon Ball video game. They, and by extension, you, can determine what actions Goku can take pertaining to the situations portrayed in themanga. This style of play allows you to alternate the events that transpired from the original canon, making it an almost choose-your-own-adventure type of game.
7Dragon Ball Z: Super Goku’s Story: Awakening Arc
As the sequel to Assault Arc,Dragon Ball Z: Super Goku’s Story: Awakening Arc(Dragon Ball Z: Super Gokuden Kakusei-Hen) is yet another of the many Dragon Ball games that never received an official North American release. The plot of this game begins with the fight between Goku and Piccolo in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai Tournament and concludes at the end of Frieza’s battle with Super Saiyan Goku.
This title is more or less the same as its predecessor, except this time, any wrong choices or actions you make can result in alternate conclusions, with many of them leading to bad endings and game-overs. Maintaining the same combat method as the previous installment, Awakening Arc now requires you to press specific button combinations to perform special attacks such as the Kamehameha and Solar Flare.
6Battle Stadium D.O.N.
While not exclusively a Dragon Ball game,Battle Stadium D.O.N.is an exclusive Japanese-released fighting game featuringShonen Jumpcharacters from the Dragon Ball,One Piece, andNarutouniverse.
Released on the GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2006, Battle Stadium D.O.N. features gameplay elements similar to theSuper Smash Bros. games, such as battle royales and interactive shifting stages. However, what differentiates this game from Smash Bros. is how the players fight to win their matches. Rather than draining the HP of your opponents, the method of winning is to fill the entire portion of your health gauge before your rivals fill up theirs. Your HP fills up by collecting health orbs dropped by damaging your opponents.
5Dragon Ball Z: The Legend
WhileDragon Ball Z: The Legendwas treated with a European release, North America never received the same treatment. Released on the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996, Dragon Ball Z: The Legend is a multi-man fighting game that utilizes 2D sprites fighting in air and ground battles in dynamic 3D environments.
The remarkable thing about this game, story-wise, is that it’s the firstDragon Ball Zgame to cover all four major arcs (Saiyan Arc, Frieza Arc, Cell Arc, and Majin Buu Arc). It was also the first Dragon Ball game to feature some of the most extensive cast of playable characters before the existence of the Budōkai and Budōkai Tenkaichi series.
4Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension
Released around the same time as Dragon Ball Z: The Legend,Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimensionis another Dragon Ball game that would only see localization in Europe and no other western territories. Playing more like a traditional 2D fighter, Hyper Dimension is what you would expect from a Dragon Ball fighting game from the fourth generation of consoles.
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The story mode of Hyper Dimension (a mode excluded in the European version) covers the late Frieza saga spanning to the end of the Buu saga, though with fewer story battles due to the low selection of playable characters. A particular implementation in the story mode is that characters losing to specific fights will still progress the plot rather than result in a game over.
3Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden
Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden, the first title of the long-running Butōden series, was released in both Japan and Europe (more specifically, in France and Spain) for the Super Famicom and Super Nintendo. This title contains around thirteen playable characters.
The main plot starts the game at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai, with Goku facing off against Piccolo, and ending at the Cell saga. Like Hyper Dimension, many crucial fights that transpired in the manga are skipped due to the thin roster of playable characters. Super Butōden is Japan’s best-selling Dragon Ball fighting game, selling well over one million copies in its first few months.
2Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 3
Though the second Butōden game received a North American localization (albeit in 2015 as a bonus game for purchasing Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butōden under specific conditions), its sequel,Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 3, unfortunately, did not meet the same fate. In fact, the only European countries this title got released in were France, Italy, and Spain.
Despite the game being the third installment in the Butōden series, its character roster is roughly the same as its two predecessors. Unlike its two predecessors, however, Super Butōden 3 does not feature a story mode but instead a “Tournament Mode” that serves as its replacement.
1Dragon Ball Online
Perhaps the most well-known and recent Dragon Ball video game to not receive a localization in North America and Europe is the MMORPG Dragon Ball Online. Supervised directly by Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball Online is a title taking place 216 years after the original Dragon Ball manga.
In Dragon Ball Online, you take control of a customized avatar that can be of the three races; Earthling, Namekian, or Majin. Serving as a member of the Time Patrol, the player can take up missions called Time Machine Quests, which allow your avatar to relive certain events of the Dragon Ball series akin to the Xenoverse games. Other than Time Machine Quests, the player can also participate in the World Martial Arts Tournament, hunt for the Dragon Balls, or simply take in the scenery of the various Dragon Ball locations and environments portrayed in the manga.
