Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball is one of the biggest pop culture sensations that’s endured for more than three decades. Dragon Ball’s success as an anime and manga is nearly unparalleled, but this popularity has also helped the battle shonen series make waves in the video game industry. Dozens of Dragon Ball video games exist, and they’ve been around for nearly as long as the anime series. Goku is Dragon Ball’s ongoing protagonist and typically the main character in any corresponding video game. However, Gohan is Goku’s son, and he becomes a valuable second lead across Dragon Ball Z.
Many younger audiences grew up alongside Gohan and the character has gone through a remarkable journey. Fortunately, many Dragon Ball video games allow fans to step into the Super Saiyan’s shoes and bring Gohan’s exciting adventures to life.
10 Dragon Ball Z: Buyu Retsuden
Release Date: April 1, 1994
Super Nintendo gamers had many available options when it came to Dragon Ball games, but the Sega Genesis was considerably more limited on this front. Dragon Ball Z: Buyu Retsuden was developed as the Sega Genesis' answer to the Super Nintendo's Butoden trilogy. Buyu Retsuden feels like a combination of the first two Butoden games with a roster of 11 characters that span across the series' Freza and Cell story arcs.
Gohan gets a hearty showcase in Buyu Restuden as the only Super Saiyan 2 character and a diverse moveset that makes him one of the game's best characters. Dragon Ball Z: Buyu Retsuden is a must-play for Dragon Ball fans who have a Genesis, but it's a little slower and clunkier than the console's Mortal Kombat games.
9 Dragon Ball Z 2: Super Battle
Release Date: December 17, 1993
Banpresto's Dragon Ball Z from '93 was the franchise's first arcade game and its success led to both a sequel, Dragon Ball Z 2: Super Battle, as well as a VR expansion. Dragon Ball Z plays very much like a Street Fighter game from the era or Dragon Ball's corresponding Butoden series on the Super Nintendo. Detailed sprite graphics, creative attack movesets, destructible environments, and unique game endings for different characters really help Dragon Ball Z 2: Super Battle stand out.
Gohan is present in the previous entry, as a child, but Super Battle features Gohan in his teenage Super Saiyan 2 form, which is an exciting upgrade. Super Battle is set during the series' Cell Saga, so there's also healthy Android representation on the roster in addition to Super Saiyan 2 Gohan.
8 Dragon Ball Z: Shin Butoden
Release Date: November 17, 1995
Dragon Ball Z: Shin Butoden, also known as Dragon Ball Z: True Fighting Story, is essentially Sega Saturn's upgraded port of the PlayStation's Ultimate Battle 22. Shin Butoden is a high-quality hybrid between the Butoden games and Ultimate Battle 22 with an impressive roster of 27 characters that cover the Frieza, Cell, and Buu Sagas. Super Saiyan 2 Gohan is a standout character, but Shin Butoden also features some deeper character cuts like Dabura, Shin, Zarbon, and Hercule Satan.
A satisfying array of battle stages and background Easter Eggs also properly celebrate the series. Shin Butoden's eight-player World Martial Arts Tournament mode is another strong selling point, but the gambling-based Mr. Satan Mode where the eponymous character tries to cheat and sway other people's fights in his favor is a surprisingly fun addition.
7 Dragon Ball Z: The Legend
Release Date: May 31, 1996
Dragon Ball Z: The Legend has fallen through the cracks over the years, but it was a pivotal video game in the series that properly took advantage of the PlayStation and Sega Saturn's advanced hardware. Dragon Ball Z: The Legend adopts a unique gameplay approach that features 2D sprites in 3D environments that can be explored in-depth. There's also a sophisticated ki meter that limits how often players take to the skies or exhaust energy attacks.
Dragon Ball Z: The Legend is the first Dragon Ball Z video game that covers the entire series, which the game divides into eight episodes. There's also a massive roster of 35 characters that includes three distinct versions of Gohan — Kid Gohan, Super Saiyan 2 Teen Gohan, and Ultimate Gohan.
6 Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors
Release Date: June 30, 2002
Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors is a Game Boy Color title that came out towards the end of the portable's lifespan and it's one of its most impressive titles as a result. Legendary Super Warriors is a turn-based strategy fighter that uses in-game cards to execute attacks. The game covers the entirety of Dragon Ball Z, as well as the History of Trunks special. This translates into a roster of 48 characters, many of which need to be unlocked under special conditions.
What's so entertaining about Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors is that any character can be used during the game's second playthrough, which adds a lot of replayability. Gohan is available as a teenager, who can also become Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2, as well as adult Gohan, who can use these transformations as well as go Ultimate. Legendary Super Warriors packs so much into a tiny package and even includes wired multiplayer.
5 Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury
Release Date: September 14, 2004
The Game Boy Advance's Legacy of Goku trilogy is an excellent collection of handheld video games that collectively cover the entirety of Dragon Ball Z. Gohan is a playable character in Legacy of Goku II, but he's in the spotlight much more in the concluding entry, Buu's Fury. Buu's Fury has many playable characters that range from Goten, Trunks, and Gogeta as Buu's Fury begins with Goku's participation in the Other World Tournament and concludes with the end of the series (while also squeezing in the events of popular movies, Broly - Second Coming and Fusion Reborn).
Buu's Fury is set during Gohan's adult years, so he's represented through his two Super Saiyan forms, as well as Ultimate Gohan. One of the best things about Buu's Fury is its unique boss battles against characters like Pikkon, Pui Pui, Spopovich, and Broly.
4 Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors & Supersonic Warriors 2
Release Date: March 26, 2004 & November 20, 2005
Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors and its sequel are a pair of fighting games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS that are such creative love letters to the franchise. These fighting games are rich in content and the original title has a roster of 13 unique characters —each with three separate forms — that all have distinct story modes that aren’t afraid to veer from Dragon Ball canon and engage in creative “What If?...” scenarios.
Gohan’s whole Dragon Ball Z career is reflected in Supersonic Warriors and the Nintendo DS sequel only builds upon this excellent foundation through the addition of movie characters like Cooler, Meta-Cooler, and Broly. Supersonic Warriors 2 incorporates beam battle mini-games and even fringe figures from some of Akira Toriyama’s other series, like Neko Majin Z.
3 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi Trilogy
Release Date: October 6, 2005; October 5, 2006; October 4, 2007
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi has a trilogy of titles on home consoles and is largely regarded as one of the best fighting franchises of the 2000s. The love for Budokai Tenkaichi is still so massive that a long-awaited fourth installment has been announced for 2024 and is destined to usurp Dragon Ball: XenoVerse 2 and Dragon Ball FighterZ. The Budokai Tenkaichi games love excess and feature multiple "What If" original characters as well as characters from other Akira Toriyama series, like Dr. Slump.
The first Budokai Tenkaichi has a roster of 64 characters, but Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has 98 characters and 161 forms between them all. This includes six Gohan variations, including Future Gohan from Future Trunks' fractured timeline. Collectively, the Budokai Tenkaichi trilogy has every Dragon Ball character that fans would want, as well as plenty of others that they’d never even consider.
2 Dragon Ball FighterZ
Release Date: January 26, 2018
The majority of Dragon Ball Z games fit into the fighting genre, but Dragon Ball FighterZ is a tremendous step forward and continues to have a dedicated, passionate base of players five years since its release. Developed by Arc System Works, who made waves with their BlazBlue and Guilty Gear fighting series, FighterZ utilizes a gorgeous 2.5D cel-shaded aesthetic with three-on-three team gameplay.
FighterZ has accrued a roster of 44 fighters after several DLC releases that cover everything from Dragon Ball GT to various movies. There are six separate versions of Goku in FighterZ, but Gohan is also present in both his teen and adult forms. There's also been heavy speculation that any future DLC will incorporate Gohan Beast from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
1 Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
Release Date: January 16, 2020
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot received a ton of attention as an open-world action RPG release that covers the complete Dragon Ball Z saga, including some of the more celebrated filler installments. Kakarot's ongoing DLC expansions have also gradually incorporated story elements, characters, and transformations from not only Dragon Ball Super, but also the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament from the original Dragon Ball.
Kakarot can be somewhat limited in the characters that it allows audiences to control, but the next-gen game effectively shares the spotlight between Dragon Ball Z's biggest players. The game begins with Goku as its playable protagonist. However, the game actually features more material where Gohan is the main playable character, which comes as a bit of a surprise considering that the game's subtitle is Kakarot.
