Dragon Ball and handheld gaming go📖 surprisingly well together. While most fans will attest that the best Dragon Ball games are all on home consoles, it’s hard to deny the sheer level of quality 🅺across the board with most of Dragon Ball’s𓄧 handheld installments. This is a franchise that’s at its best in controll🧸ed, digestible doses. That goes for the games, too.
While the overall quality of Dragon Ball’s handheld scene is higher than it has any right being, there are quite a few duds to waft through. With such a massive backlog of games to comb through, it’s only natural to want to have the ൩best in mind be🐟fore embarking on such a daunting journey.
10 Buu’s Fury
The last entry in the Legacy of Goku trilogy (kind of,) Buu’s Fury is a great example of an overall very good RPG. It isn’t great, but it’s by no means bad. Itꦕ doesn’t really dip in quality, but it doesn’t exactly get better either. What you see is what you get, and that can be pretty damn fun with the right gameplay loop.
Adapting the Buu arc, Buu’s Fury is the most RPG heavy of the Legacy of Goku games, featuring equipment and stat customization. It makes for a pretty fun game, if a bit on the easy side. If nothing else, it’s not often a🌠 Dragon Ball game shines a spotlight on the Bu🐬u arc and just the Buu arc.
9 Supersonic Warriors
One of the most creative fighting games♋ in the series, Supersonic Warriors rather interestingly features What-If story modes for all its playable cha🔜racters. Not just that, they aren’t lazy What-Ifs either. Thꦉey sincerely allow supporting characters to enter the spotlight as the main character🍰. It honestly leads to some really cool sceꦯnarios.
Even without the What-Ifs, Supersonic Warriors would still be worth pওlaying, though. It’s a fast, frantic fighter that really captures the speed and ferocity of DBZ. At least as we💛ll as a game can do🐼 in 2D. The game had a sequel on the Nintendo DS, but Supersonic Warriors 2 isn’t as good.
8 Shin Budokai – Another Road
A sequel to Shin Budokai on the PSP, Another Road is yet another take at transferring the Budokai formula towards the handheld scene. Just like the firstౠ game, it works rather well, but Another Road irons out some mechanical kinks while expanding the roster and fe༒aturing a very cool story mode depicting Trunks’ struggles against Majin Buu in his timeline.
It’s obviously incompatible with the Goku Black arc and the♛ rest of Dragon Ball Super, but it’s a nice little story mode that brings Trunks back into the fold years before Toriyama e🌄ver came up with the idea. In many respects, Another Road even does a better job.
7 Origins
Origins 1 and 2 for the Nintendo DS are both worth playing, but the first one deserves considerable mention for covering a rather under discussed part of the ser♔ies and for being one of the more creative takes on a Dragon Ball game. Origins is the first two story arcs as if a Legend of Zelda game.
It’s not as good as Zelda, but the heart and charm are there, and Origins does have the game design to warrant at least one full playthroꦦugh. It’s also just a great adaptation overall, bringing the first two arcs to life better than any other games in the series. Play Origins, then dive into Origins 2 for the Red Ribbon Army arc.
6 The Legacy Of Goku II
Focusing exclusively on the Cell arc, The Legacy of Goku II is the su🌌rprise sequel no one expected to actually be good. The o𒊎riginal Legacy of Goku is a mess bordering on a disaster. It i𓂃s legitimately one of the worst games on♓ the GBA, if not the worst action RPG outright. The Legacy of Goku II on the other hand? N🐓ow tha♛t’s a fine game. Respectable.
The Legacy of Goku II really only has the most basic RPG elements, but that’s probably for the best. It not only keeps the൲ difficulty curve in tact, it keeps the focus on the action– not so much the RPG. Which is really what works best for a series like Dragon Ball!
5 Ultimate Butoden
A fighting game covering all of Dragon Ball Z (technically Dragon Ball Kai,) Ultimate Butoden exclusively releasღed in Japan, but is still very much worth playing. Not only does it have one of the most charming aesthetic for a Dragon Ball game, it has a great core gameplay loop and ✃presents the story in a re🌟ally cinematic way.
It’s one of the best visual adaptations of the Z-era, and there’s even plenty of unlockables to find on the gameplay side. It’s really a shame this game never released overseas. It’s far too good a fighting game to be a Japanese exclusive. It’s just another great DS game we were deprived. Looking a🅠t you Jump Ultimate Stars.
4 Fusions
Fusions is one of the best Dragon Ball games in recent m🧔emory, and it’s largely ꧂because it uses Dragon Ball as an aesthetic and little more. The series’ fingerprints are aജll over the game, but Fusions brꦜav💮es to be bold and does something wholly unique with its gameplay– something that didn’t necessarily need Dragon Ball.
At the same time, the Dragon Ball aesthetic gives Fusion a lot of i𒐪ts charm. It makes for one of the most eclectic games on the 3DS, but it’s also one of the handheld’s best RPG. Packed with combat and home to a great ga♌meplay loop, fans of Dragon Ball and RPGs owe it to themselves to play Fusions.
3 Legendary Super Warriors
A card based RPG for the Game Boy Color, Legendary Super Warriors rather notably adapts all of Dragon Ball Z, starting with Raditz’s defeat aඣnd covering the rest of the series. Not only is it incredibly bold for a Game Boy Color game of all things, it’s actually impeccably well done, framing most of the narrative through Gohan and managing to justify it in the process.
The card based gameplay is just top notch. There’s plenty of deck variety to play around with, and battles manage to be long all while turn based. Even with just cards, the gameplay captures the intensity oꦰf Dragon Ball Z’s best battles.
2 Attack Of The Saiyans
A Dragon Ball RPG developওed by a studio actually known for developing RPGs? Yes please. Now, Attack of the Saiyans has some problems, most notably its god awful music placement (aside from a few tracks, the score in general isn’t very good.) Other than that,🔯 though, this is far and away the best Dragon Ball RPG there is.
Fantastic refleꦏx based combat, an excellent adaptation of the Saiyan arc, and surprisingly decent dungeon design, Attack of the Saiyans is a Dragon Ball treat unlike any other. It’s just criminal there’s not a sequel. A follow up could have ironed out what little kinks the game had. In regards to aꦉctually adapting the story, Attack of the Saiyans is on top.
1 Advanced Adventure
Attack of the Saiyans might be king when it comes to Dragon Ball video games, as far as adapting the main story is conc🌠erned, but Advanced Adventure is just a damn good game in general. An action platformer, the pre-23rd Tenkaichi ꦦBudokai era lends itself very well to a GBA game.
The level design is🃏 so💧lid, the combat is even better, and Advanced Adventure manages to adap🥀t the first six story arcs incredibly well, even condensing stuff down. To say nothing of Advanced Adventure’s wealth of bonus combat. Everyone with a sprite is playable in this game, and there’s even a ridiculously fun 1 on 1♔ mode that emulates tourn💙ament battles.