Weather you loved it or not, no one can deny what an impact Dragon Ball Z had. For a lot of people, myself included, it was their first introduction to anime. Most remember coming home and trying to catch one of the nineteen (not exaggerating) episodes of Goku fighting Frieza or Gohan fighting Cell. And what better to do with a series that blew up than make a game out of it.

And not just that, but many video games off of it. Its still even to the point where

A game that by no means was bad, but didn’t stand out amongst the mountain of games with it. Image Source: Drangobnball.wikia.com

games are still coming out even now, with Xenoverse 2 scheduled for release later this year. I even contemplated doing a “Games Gone By” of one of the series of games, but there really is no one to choose. Do you consider Budokai  within the same series as Budokai Tenkaichi or Raging Blast as its own line with Ultimate Tenkaichi being a one-off? My point is, is that there is no definitive series for the game.

And why should there be? It can work in a traditional fighting game style (Budokai and Burst Limit) as well as an open range fighting game (Tenkaichi and Raging Blast) or as something entirely different (The Legacy of Goku series on Game Boy). The limits are endless, and no matter how many times you tell the story, it always seems to have people coming back for more.

An element of nostalgia is present for sure, but for a lot of people, they still are just as involved into it as they are Pokemon. But they always progress in what seems like a natural way. Now an online character creator game has been doing well with Xenoverse, and the sequel will no doubt do just as well.

A failed experiment for sure, but Dragon Ball Z Kinect showed the developers trying to listen to what fans wanted. And thankfully this lead to some great changes. Image Source: Game Shogun.com

But why? Why is Bandai Namco able to make game after game? The answer is simple:

THEY KNOW THEIR AUDIENCE

When the Kinect title didn’t work out, they scrapped it and built something familiar but still inventive with Battle of Z. When that did slightly better, they decided to build something that the fans have always wanted by taking the Dragon Ball Online from Japan and making it into Xenoverse for the Playstation 4. The developers listen to feedback, and while they may try and re-use a formula with a new coat of paint on it, they use the formula that worked and fans likes. It still showed that they pay attention to what people like and don’t. And for me, that is extremely important for any consumer company to do.

So now I say, enjoy Xenoverse, but if you can’t afford the newer games, put in one the old Budokai games r Super Dragon Ball Z, because no matter the time, Dragon Ball Z stands out as a beloved franchise that people can enjoy.