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Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butōden

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I've been a fan of the Dragon Ball franchise since I was a kid, and I've always enjoyed playing the associated video games - particularly the fighting games like the iconic Budokai Tenkaichi series. Recently I found Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butōden in my local Gamestop, and picked up on a whim. I had never heard of this title, but figured it would be a fun change of pace as I haven't played a DBZ game since Dragon Ball FighterZ, which was a great tag fighter developed by Arc System Works. It turns out that Extreme Butōden was also developed by ArcSys, and actually seems to be the precursor to the afforementioned FighterZ. While I didn't know this at first, it became quickly apparent as a lot of the character movesets are quite similar. Given that it is a 3DS fighting game Extreme Butōden is fairly abridged, with simple combo trees to make up for the awkward circle pad. The single-player content is standard for a DBZ game, with a "Story" mode that recounts the classic plotline from the perspective of various characters - it's quite simple but tells the classic story well enough. There is also an "Adventure" mode which tells a new story, albeit a pretty bad one. Like any fighting game, the single player battles are easily cheesed with one or two super-effective moves - the standard ki blast in particular seems to fry the CPU on virtually all difficulties. The gameplay is ultimately fun, and it really shines as a precursor to the afforementioned FighterZ. The roster is limited as far as DBZ games go, but they make up for it by supplying a million different Z-assists - including some truly obscure characters. Extreme Butōden is an interesting curiosity, especially for a fan of ArcSys fighting games and Dragon Ball Z, but aside from that it won't blow you away.

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Reviewed on 2026-03-13


Piccolo is my guy - they did a good job with his moveset here.

★★★☆☆

3 out of 5