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Dragon Ballsits near the top of shonen anime and manga, if not on the very throne itself. When it comes to influence over the shonen genre as a whole,Dragon Ballmay only be surpassed by members of the Big Three or perhapsFist of the North Star. Of course, the sheer magnitude ofDragon Ball’s success as a franchise extends not only to anime and manga, but to the world of gaming as well.
Although the term originates as a descriptor for a target demographic, shonen can also be understood as shorthand for battle manga. This shorthand is largely thanks toDragon Ballitself, which was one of theearliest shonen manga seriesto generate massive popularity among international audiences. Thanks to the action-packed sagas found within the pages ofDragon Ball, it’s no surprise that fighting games would prove to be the perfect genre for an adaptation.
Dragon Ballhas earned plenty of video game adaptations over the years, but its fighting games have often proven the most popular. Many titles withinDragon Ball’s fighting game historycan be organized into either theBudokai TenkaichiorXenoverseseries, although there are exceptions to every rule. Regardless, many of these titles hold drastically different priorities from one another, and can be appropriately judged along those lines.
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Dragon Ball Legends
S-Tier Dragon Ball Fighting Games
Although a tier list is subjective by nature, there’s very little dispute when it comes to the title of bestDragon Ballfighting game.Dragon BallFighterzpushed the limitsof how anime art styles could be translated into a video game, and injected new life into a fighting game community which was desperately struggling at the time.Fighterzsits at the perfect cross-section between casualDragon Ballfans and competitive fighting game fans, which helps it pull ahead of its competitors that mostly appeal to one group or the other.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zerois currently the most recent game on this list, and just so happens to also be one of the best.Sparking Zerois a direct continuation of the belovedBudokai Tenkaichiseries, and does the impossible by nearly outdoing these classic titles. It would be more objective to state thatSparking Zerohas updated the series for the modern day, and that is an impressive feat in its own right.Sparking Zerois hardly designed for tournament play, but the sheer content density on display is second to none.
A-Tier Dragon Ball Fighting Games
TheBudokai Tenkaichiseries has become practically synonymous with classicDragon Ballgames. Although each version has its own merits,Dragon Ball Z:Budokai Tenkaichi 3stands atop of the pyramid for good reason. Between its roster size and story content,Budokai Tenkaichi 3remains nearly unmatchedto this day. Even withSparking ZerosurpassingBudokai Tenkaichi 3in a few ways,Tenkaichi 3’s approach to What Ifs remains unchallenged by its successor.
As much as theBudokai Tenkaichiseries has been responsible for the image of classicDragon Ballgames,Xenoverseholds an equally iron grip over the franchise’s modern forays into gaming.Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2is equal parts fighting game and expansive RPG, and uses its time-travel premise to create original chapters of iconic stories.Xenoverse 2is still receiving new contentwith every newDragon Ballproject that is released, which helpsXenoverse 2stay as fresh as any other game on this list.
B-Tier Dragon Ball Fighting Games
Considering it was released only a year after the first game, one would be shocked at how muchDragon Ball Z:Budokai Tenkaichi 2improved on the series' formula.Budokai Tenkaichi 2contains double the content of its predecessor, and helped to deepen battle mechanics significantly. In fact,Budokai Tenkaichi 2andBudokai Tenkaichi 3both contain features the other lacks. This makesBudokai Tenkaichi 2well worth a revisit, and doubles as the reason many could even rank it aboveBudokai Tenkaichi 3.
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichibarely falls short by comparison. Still, there’s no doubt that it laid a foundation that nearly every subsequentDragon Ballgame would follow. Including 64 characters and 10 stages on a first outing is no small task, andBudokai Tenkaichican even be credited for inventing What Ifs, which help developers to include stories that can still surprise players despite their general familiarity withDragon Ball’s best story arcs.
C-Tier Dragon Ball Fighting Games
When compared to its competition,Dragon Ball Xenoversedrew the short end of the stick. There’s simply very little reason to return to the title anymore, as it was outdone byXenoverse 2only one year after its release. In simpler terms,Xenoversewalked soXenoverse 2could run.Xenoversecan still be upheld for introducing so many concepts and mechanics that have been developed by its sequel, but there’s no doubt that the underdevelopment of its gameplay could be felt if one were to takeXenoverseout for a spin today.
Dragon Ball Legendsisn’t a bad game by any means, it simply can’t compete with its peers on this list. Although it is billed as a fighting game alongside the rest, it is equal parts a card battler. Combined with the limitations inherent to a free-to-play mobile game,Legendslacks the mechanical depth found in the many expansive fighting games developed throughoutDragon Ball’s history.
