Dragon Ball Z: V.R.V.S.

Dragon Ball Z: V.R.V.S. is a 2D arcade fighting game that uses behind-the-character camera positioning to create the impression of a three-dimensional arena. The game is controlled with a joystick and three buttons, and a deluxe cabinet variant incorporates motion sensors that allow the player to physically move their body to influence the in-game character. This motion control feature was a notable hardware novelty for its time, designed to heighten the immersive quality of the arcade experience.

Gameplay proceeds in a fixed sequence: the player selects one of five fighters and faces the entire roster one by one, earning a Dragon Ball with each victory. After four consecutive wins, the fifth opponent is a black-and-white copy of the player's own character that mimics their fighting style exactly. Once this doppelganger is defeated, it reveals itself as the final boss, an original character named Majin Ozotto. Defeating Ozotto earns the seventh Dragon Ball and triggers a character-specific wish ending. The game is set during the nine-day waiting period before the Cell Games, as indicated by the characters' Cell Saga appearances.

V.R.V.S. features five playable fighters: Super Saiyan Goku, Piccolo, Super Saiyan Vegeta, Super Saiyan Gohan, and Super Saiyan Future Trunks. Each character comes with a dedicated battle arena, ranging from Goku's cloud-covered sky stage to Piccolo's North Pole battleground and Trunks' orange-cloud arena. The final boss Ozotto fights on two distinct stages: first using a copied form of the player's character on a sea stage, then in his true alien form on an alien green planet landscape.

After defeating Ozotto, each character receives a unique wish granted by Shenron. Goku wishes for food. Gohan asks his mother to forget about his studies for a while so he can play with Icarus. Vegeta wishes for the world beneath his feet, which Shenron misinterprets by making Vegeta a giant. Piccolo wishes to fight the strongest person in the world and is paired against Mr. Satan. Future Trunks wishes for his father to be revived in his own timeline, a poignant callback to his backstory from the anime.

V.R.V.S. was developed and released by Sega and Banpresto in 1994 for the Sega System 32 arcade platform. As an arcade exclusive, it was never ported to home consoles, limiting its accessibility to players with access to the specific cabinet. The Sega System 32 hardware was a high-end arcade board for its era, capable of scaling and rotating sprites in ways that contributed to the game's pseudo-3D visual style.

The original character Majin Ozotto, created for this game, remains a notable piece of Dragon Ball Z game history as one of the few wholly new villains introduced exclusively through a licensed game. His design and story role as a shapeshifting final boss with personal wish fulfillment as the victory reward gives the game a narrative hook that distinguishes it from straightforward roster-vs-roster fighters of the same period. The motion-control deluxe cabinet version stands as an early example of physical interaction mechanics in arcade games.