Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden

Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden is a role-playing video game released exclusively in Japan by Bandai on October 27, 1989, for the Famicom. It is the third Dragon Ball video game for that platform and the final entry in the original Dragon Ball Famicom series, as the franchise then moved forward into Dragon Ball Z territory. The game uses a board-style world map that Goku traverses space by space, encountering characters along the way. Some offer information, while others must be defeated in combat.

Battles are resolved through a card-based system inherited from its predecessor, Dragon Ball: Daimaou Fukkatsu. Both players draw a hand of cards and take turns revealing them; the combination of card actions and the order of their reveal determines each attack, which plays out as an animated sequence above the card display. The system rewards understanding card interactions over reflexes, giving the combat a strategic puzzle quality. Goku can also be briefly replaced by Krillin or Yamcha in specific segments of the story.

Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden covers the full Dragon Ball storyline from Goku's early adventures through the battle with Piccolo Jr., adapting the major story beats with some notable modifications for the game format. General Blue becomes the boss of Muscle Tower and kidnaps Upa, replacing the game's version of General White. The Pirate Cave and Penguin Village sections of the original story are omitted, and Mercenary Tao is fought directly at the Red Ribbon Army Headquarters rather than at the Sacred Land of Korin. King Piccolo appears already in his youth, bypassing the need to summon Shenron, and his lackey Piano transforms into Goku for a mid-game battle.

The game also includes optional boss encounters that reward exploration. Pressing the A button when certain cards are flipped during the credits sequence allows players to fight Raditz and Arale Norimaki, two characters who technically fall outside the main Dragon Ball storyline but were connected to it. Goku can visit Fire Mountain before the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament and make his promise to Chi-Chi there, a moment of character continuity that mirrors the original manga even within the game's condensed narrative.

Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden holds a distinguished place as the last Dragon Ball Famicom title and the conclusion of a trilogy that adapted Toriyama's original series for that platform. The Gokuden series helped establish what Dragon Ball video games could be during the franchise's formative years in Japan, laying groundwork for the far larger industry that would develop around Dragon Ball Z in subsequent console generations.

The game received a remake under the simple title Dragon Ball, planned for release on an updated platform on November 20, 2003, demonstrating that the original Famicom content retained enough appeal to justify a revisit more than a decade later. Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden is also included in J Legend Retsuden for the Nintendo 3DS, a compilation that preserves several of the foundational Jump-franchise games for modern audiences.