Total failure: 1st US release of ‘Dragon Ball’ game fails to take off

Video games are already a fundamental part of human entertainment. Furthermore, most people play or have played some kind of game in their lives. In fact, many titles are hugely successful among the public, especially those based on a successful series or cartoon.

Games based on anime are nothing new, and today we have great hits available for the latest generation consoles, full of graphics and different gameplay, which are highly valued by the gaming community.

But releases inspired by successful animes are not always successful. An example of this was the failure of “Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout”.

The failed ‘Dragon Ball’ game launch

Developed by Tose and released in 1997 in North America, “Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout” was a major failure for the franchise, being the first production to be released in America. The title received criticism for several reasons, including its gameplay quality.

The slowness of the characters and the delay in the response of the controls were major disappointments for players. The game was in 2D, but set in 3D, and had fifteen playable characters, which was not bad for the time, but it still failed to win over the public.

There were a few reasons why the project was not a success. For example, the developer was never known for working on major projects, but rather on background games.

His most famous collaborative work currently is “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”, for Nintendo Switch.

But it doesn’t end there. The biggest reason for the launch’s frustration was, perhaps, the timing of its arrival in America.

The biggest reason for failure

At the time of its release, the anime “Dragon Ball” was not yet the biggest name in the animation industry. The “Dragon Ball Z” saga had recently reached the North American public, and the game features characters from “Z” and “GT”, which the community was not yet familiar with.

This is because they only appeared in future episodes, that is, their launch in the series had not yet occurred.

In reality, not even the “GT” saga was known to exist in many parts of the West, which contributed greatly to the confusion among players when they saw new features like Goku as Super Saiyan 4.

Furthermore, only ten thousand copies were sent to the international market, meaning there was no room for significant growth.

But because of its incredibly low number of media, many current fans of the series, which continues to capture a wide range of viewers today, pay thousands of dollars for a copy of the game that was a tremendous failure upon its release.