Webfoot Technologies had taken the good faith Toei had put into them and released a game with as little effort as possible. The Legacy of Goku was going to capitalize on the DBZ frenzy that was invading America, and while the game did indeed capitalize, it was lambasted by critics for being perhaps the worst possible adaptation of Dragon Ball Z. Toei Animation even went so far as to create a brand new illustration for the cover of the game. In 2002, Webfoot Technologies was given a very special honor: they were given the honor of developing the first American made Dragon Ball Z game. What better genre to represent characters than a role playing game? They weren’t always good, but they were novel, and that alone makes the DBZ RPGs worth looking into.

DBZ is more than just an action anime, it’s a character driven work.

It’s easy to write off the Dragon Ball Z RPGs as just a misrepresentation of what the series is about but, in a way, it actually captures the essence of the franchise better than the fighting games. This served as the staple that so many other Dragon Ball RPGs would follow. Cards were used to move around the world map and cards were used to attack enemies in random battles.

Immediately following Dragon Boy was a card based RPG that followed the King Piccolo saga. To be more specific, the first Dragon Ball was actually an overhead adventure game for the NES called Dragon Power, but the less we speak of that the better. It actually began as a series of RPGs for the Famicom, otherwise known as the Nintendo Entertainment System everywhere else. That said, the series didn’t start out with fighting games.

It makes sense to associate Dragon Ball with the fighting genre. Not all of them were great games, but they did capture the action that made DBZ so popular in the first place. When you think about Dragon Ball Z video games, odds are you’re going to remember all those fighting games: Budokai, Tenkaichi, Raging Blast.

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