In the West, during the 90s and early 2000s, when Dragon Ball Z✤ was the undisputed king of Toonami, there was one ജthing that its legions of fans wanted more than anything else: a video game based on their favorite show.

Unbeknownst to those thousands of kids, teens and adults, there were actually A LOT of Dragon Ball games, and not just ones based on Z.

Even as far back as the Famicom (the original Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System) there were games following the story of Dragon Ball and Z, and that tr🏅adition would continue on to the Super Famicom, Sega Mega Drive, PlayStation, Saturn and even oddities like Bandai’s Playdia.

Sadly, very few of these ⛎games made it to our shores, but that doesn’t mean that many of them aren’t worth tracking down and playing today.

With our list of 25 Classic 90s Dragon Ball Z Games That Only Super Fans Knew About, we’ll be discussing the many Dragon Ball games we missed out on (and a few we didn’t,) almost꧅ all of which have fallen by the wayside dur🔯ing the ensuing years.

Some are absolutely awesome, some are terrible, and a few are somewhere in between, but we’ll be giving each other them a little time in the spotlight, even if it’s long overdue. And while we are focusing almost exclusively on Dragon Ball Z games, we will have a few that deviate from that rule, such as GT or original Dragon Ball entries.

Let’s get started!

25 Daimao Fukkat🌜su

While 1988 isn’t quite the 90s,it’s cl✱ose enough that we ༒decided to give this Famicom exclusive a pass.

Taking place during the Piccolo Daimao saga of the original Dragon Ball, it f💞eatured unique gameplay that was closer to a board🎐 game than anything else, despite some RPG and trading card elements.

While it’s nice to see a Dragon Ball game that strays from the seemingly default genre of fighter, this particular entr�๊�y in the franchise isn’t that great… unless you’re looking at it from a historical perspective.

24 �ꦑ� Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden

Containing the entirety of the Dragon Ball saga up until the battle against𝐆 Majunior (otherwise known as Piccolo,) players control Goku as both a child and adult, along with Krillin and Yamcha at certain points.

Its gamepღlay is similar to that of its predecessor, but with a few minor improvements to the mechanﷺics and graphics.

This gam🦹e also boasts a remake for the WonderSwan Color in 2002 (of all things,) which is an intriguingly weird bit of trivia and at least one thing going for it.

23 👍 Dragon Power 🔯

“Dragon Power,” as it was known in the USA, was actually a dramatically retooled Dragon Ball game in disguise.

Originally known as “Dragon Ball: ﷽Shenlong no Nazo,” the game follows the earliest of Goku’s adventures, but was completely altered foꦛr the United States.

Gone were familiar characters and music, instead replaced with more s𒐪tereot𝕴ypical “Kung Fu” masters and martial artists, along with a slew of name and plot changes.

The whole situation is incredibly bizarre, considering that a good chunk of people were playing a Dragon Ball game without even knowing it!

22 Dragon Ball Z:♎ Kyoshu! Saiyan ജ

The very first Dragon Ball Z game (as opposed to plain old Dragon Ball) to be released, Dragon Ball Z: Kyoshu! Saiyan is an embellished retelling of the famous Saiyan Saga with Dead Zone thrown in for padding.

Following similar (but not identical) gameplay to its Dragon Ball predecessors, this game features an overworld, RPG 🏅elements and a card based (but tactical)ꦿ battle system.

Its best feature is its graphics, though. Big, detailed sprites carry out dramatic and exciting battles. It’s truly something to behold, especially if you’ve discovered its fan translatಌion out in the wild.

21 🐠 Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza ও

The sequel to Kyoshu! Saiyan, Dragon Ball Z: Gekishin Freeza is more of the same in terms of RPG battle༒s with trading card elements and a board game-esque overworld.

Moving on to the Namek arc in terms of plot, the title (♓which translates to “Freeza the Planet Destroyer”) gi♋ves you a pretty good idea of what you’ll be doing for the majority of the gameplay.

One oddit🧸y about this particular entry is that Chaozu, Tien, and Yamcha are ali✃ve, well and one hundred percent playable, which is a stark contrast from the source material. (Though a necessary one to give players a full party.)

20 Super Saiya Densetsu ﷽

The year is 1992🔜 and the Famicom has given way to its almighty successor, the Super Famicom (“Super Nintendo,” to those of us in other territories.)

Super Saiya Densetsu, or “Legend of the Super Saiyan,” isn’t exactly an original game. Instead, it fuses Gekishin Frieza and Kyoshu! Saiyan into one, remade product, letting Japanese fans re-experience theཧ classics in a new way.

The jump in sound, graphics, and overall quality is as dramatic as expected, but Super Saiya Densetsu doesn’t exactly push the system to its limits as much as 🧸maybe it should have.

19 Dragon B𒁏all Z III: Ressen Jinzoningen ♓

In something of a bizarre mov🙈e, the next entry in🍌 the long-running boardgame/RPG/trading card hybrid didn’t come to the Super Famicom, but instead landed on the comparably obsolete plain old Famicom.

Worse yet, it doesn’t even tell a whole story.

See, while it follows the plot o𝐆f the Android Saga, the game ends after Cell reaches his first form.

We have a lot of problems today with incomplete games 🐬being released and then publishers/developers expecting us to pay for what we should have had in the first place,🅘 but this game shipped without any intention of telling a conclusive tale.

18 Gekito Tenkaichi Budokai ﷽ ꧑

Another NES title, Gekito Tenkaichi Budokai doesn’t pick up where Dragon Ball Z III left off, and instead goes off 💞on a bizarre but genuinely interesting tangent.

Less of an RPG and more of a fighting game, the game has decent graphics and sound, b💯ut its truly standout feature was the real-life gimmick of switching out physical character cards using an external device.

We’re not exactly sure why that gimmick was developed or why it was used for this unusual fighting game experience, but it’s interesting nonetheles💧s.

17 ✅ Super Butoden

Dragon Ball Z: Super Butoden is proba🍌bly familiar to longtiꦫme Western DBZ fans.

During the height of DBZ’s Western popularity, we so badly craved for a video game adaptation of the series that we might as well have been junkies, and the worse part was that we knew these games existed, thanks to unofficial DBZ fan magazines, such as “Pojo’s Dragonball.”

In particular, we’d see this intriguing-but-clunky fighting game, Super Butoden, along with its sequels, being ruthlessly advertised in screenshots, with captions mockingly telling us that it was a Japanese e💛xclusive and we weren’t getting it.

16 ꧃ DBZ Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku

Fans of DBZ III were probably waiting with bated breath for the sequel so they could finally conclude the abruptly ended Cell Saga, but they got Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku instead.

The story, known these days as the elusive “Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans,” is about a surviving Tuffle who wants vengeance against the Saiyans (not unlike the Baby Saga in GT.) Heck, there are even ma🥂levolent ghosts of Turles, Cooler, and others thrown in for good measure.

Once again, this game use🐟s a card-based battle system, which was still fun, but certainly showing its a💜ge.