Dragonball Z: Kakarot is out now, and while the reviews haven’t all been the strongest, many people seem to agree: while it could use a ton of work, it stays as true to the Dragon Ball Z experience as one could imagine. But if there’s one flaw that stands out more than others, it’s the lack of appropriate side content.
There are some cool quests here and there, but it feels like the game is missing out on some of the adventures the Z Warriors had during the original run. Perhaps these would have gone a long way towards helping the world feel more fleshed out. So for this list, we’re looking at ten villains that should have been in DBZ: Kakarot.
10 TURLES
Admittedly, it’s a little boring to have a guy who’s basically a clone of Goku in the game. After all, what is this, Dragonball FighterZ? But the Tree of Might was a fun, if strangely non-canon storyline they inserted as the third film in the DBZ series. It featured the entire Z Warrior cast—it was after Goku had learned Kaio-Ken but somehow Vegeta wasn’t on Earth. Still, Turles was an evil Saiyan that showed everything Goku could’ve been if he’d been the warrior Saiyan society had intended him to be.
9 DR. WHEELO
World’s Strongest might be the Dragon Ball Z movie seen the most by 90s kids the world over. It featured a pair of scientists—Dr. Kochin and Dr. Wheelo, both in search of a body to place Dr. Wheelo’s brain in. The film has some of the better-animated fight scenes of the early films, since it’s still transitioning from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z. Wheelo’s efforts involve him having a group of monstrous assistants and eventually transforming into a massive robot that gives Goku, Krillin, Gohan, and Master Roshi quite a bit of trouble. DBZ: Kakarot is already obsessed with having giant robots in the game, given all the random battles on Earth—why not make one that matters?
8 LORD SLUG
True, Slug doesn’t get the respect most other movie villains have. He doesn’t have the brand new Super Saiyan form that Broly has, he doesn’t have a connection to Freiza like Cooler. But he’s one of the rare instances of a Namekian actually being not only powerful but evil.
A usually peaceful species, Lord Slug not only had hands, but designs on making the Earth his own. Referring to himself as a Super Namek, Slug had the ability to grow giant while also making use of all the techniques Piccolo had, also inspiring the question: why don’t they do more with Piccolo?
7 JANEMBA
Janemba was supposed to be a magical being which was the result of the coalesced evil in the Other World. The original version is a lot more like Fat Buu in that he’s got magic powers galore and he misuses them all over the place. But then there’s the other version—the one everyone remembers with the Dimension Sword attack and reality-altering. That’s the one everyone wants to see, and it also gives us the other fusion of Goku and Vegeta—the one with the Stardust Breaker technique.
6 HIRUDEGARN
Hirudegarn was introduced in the last “original” DBZ film, Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon. The main bad guy in the film was Hirudegarn, a massive monster that existed in the South Galaxy, laying waste to countless people on the planet it originated from. After it was sealed, it was split in half and placed on two opposite ends of the universe...but that didn’t stop it from landing on Earth. This would be a great training mission, as Goku could learn the Dragon Fist to take him out. It wouldn’t be that much different from the battles we had as Piccolo vs. Gohan or Goku vs. Vegeta.
5 PIKKON
We’re cheating here, as Pikkon isn’t exactly a villain. But he did fight Goku in the Otherworld Tournament, and he gave Goku quite the headache. His Thunder Flash and Hyper Tornado are just begging to be animated by CyberConnect.
Of course, if rumors are to be believed, he might yet sneak his way into the game as a DLC character. That said, it seems unfortunate they didn’t take this bit of filler and lean into it a bit more, allowing Goku to fight his way up to the top of the Otherworld Tournament and battle against Pikkon in one final, awesome clash.
4 COOLER
There’s room for both versions of Cooler, frankly. Though the character isn’t strictly canon, he certainly should be because he continues the ongoing theme of their family being far too cocky for their own good, as Cooler was actually around to see Goku’s pod leave Planet Vegeta before Frieza blew it up. That version of Cooler came with his own goons, which could make for some neat side fights for Piccolo and Gohan. The later, Metal Cooler, is even better though, as he allows for Goku and Vegeta to work together as Super Saiyans, something that doesn’t happen often in the Z era.
3 ANDROID 13
Supposedly taking place sometime around the Cell Games, the Super Android 13 film introduces even more Androids between the gap between Androids 8 and Android 16. Unlike some of the other characters, this is a straightforward enough fight—a battle between Androids 13, 14, and 15 versus the Z Warriors, then a battle of Super Android 13 vs. Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Trunks. This would also give us the Spirit Bomb Super Saiyan technique, something that Goku only did in this film.
2 BOJACK
Bojack Unbound is large enough to be an entire set of episodes all on its own. Bojack himself was a villain said to be so powerful King Kai and the other Kais were all sealing him away using their planets, and he broke free after Goku got King Kai killed by Cell’s explosion. In any case, the film sets up a tournament arc in which all the Z Fighters get to compete, first against one another, then against Bojack’s Galaxy Soldiers. This would have been a great story to cement Gohan’s growth into the protector of Earth.
1 BROLY
It’s a little weird story-wise because now technically there are two Broly characters. There’s the sweet guy from the Super movie who has anger issues ‘cause he grew up with an incredibly abusive father on a planet so trash Broly had no clue what water was. And then there’s the psychopath who also had an abusive father but was mostly just nuts because he didn’t like sleeping next to Goku as a baby because he cried all the time. That’s the one they should’ve shoved in DBZ: Kakarot, because the battle Goku and the others had against him was downright legendary.