Reasonable explanation why Dragon Ball games never made to US/EU?

[FamicomRetroGamer]

Famicom has Dragon Ball games, they're fun to play and cool to own, but I can't understand why a title like Dragon Ball never made to NES..

Dragon Ball (Z) is one of the best anime's of all time.

[Strider_Hiryu]

When the games were relased, nobody cares about dragon ball on US/EU

Well, sheng long no nazo was relased for the NES but in a different way...

I really don´t understad why the SFC games (the fighting ones) never come here

[UglyJoe]

The first Dragon Ball game was released on the NES, retitled as Dragon Power and censored.  Most notably, Master Roshi wants Bulma's sandwich rather than her panties.

[FamicomRetroGamer]

Thanks for the replies, so they came but in different aspects, that's why I never noticed them.

Dragon Power?! lol..

[Jedi Master Baiter]

It's actually surprising that Dragon Power made it here.

Doesn't it use it's own mapper?  Or a very rare one?  Anyways, Dragon Ball itself, the series, wasn't around in the U.S. at the time.

(Actually, it was, but under different conditions): http://www.retrojunk.com/details_tvshows/175-dragonball/

[satoshi_matrix]

If I recall correctly, aren't the bulk of the Dragonball Famicom games weird turn-based strategy card based RPGs?

Not only was Dragonball not around at the time, but all those genres sold incredibly poorly on the NES. This also explains why none of the Gameboy Dragonball games were translated.

I think the reason DragonPower was released was because it was the only one that wasn't part of those.

As for why the Super Famicom fighters didn't get translated, well.....if I recall correctly, the Freiza saga didn't being airing in English until at least 1999, well after the Super NES' lifespan.

But ultimately, the Dragonball 8-bit games are rather poor. Nowadays, there are indeed a handful of fairly decent Dragonball related games you should check out:

Dragonball Advance [GBA]  - this is a sidescrolling beat em up that fits well into the classic Dragonball design.

Dragonball Revenge of King Piccolo [Wii] - this is a better looking sidescrolling beat em up that fits well into the classic Dragonball design.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 [PS2] - This is a Dragonball fighting game that gets it right. Its not nearly as complex as any real fighting game, but no Dragonball game ever is.

Dragonball Z The Legacy of Goku 2 [GBA] this is an action RPG that follows the events of the Cell Saga. Extremely well done little game developed outside of Japan.

Dragonball Z Legacy of Goku 3 Buu's Fury [GBA] the follow up, tries to add some new ideas that just don't work as well. Ultimately not as good, but still quite acceptable and playable. 


With these, I think it's quite forgivable that the Famicom I-don't-even-know genre games were not translated.

[FamicomFreak]

I think it was mostly of the anime series not running during that time and it was just wise that the game wouldn't sell well if it wasn't popular. We ended up getting DBZ games in the end just for later consoles, and still do! I personally loved DBZ 1 and 2 for the Famicom. The card system was pretty easy to understand and fun as well. I did finished both of those games and could really play them again. The SNES ones are crap except for hyper dimension, that game kicks ass!!