Son Goku, Vegeta, Bulma, and Beerus have all made their way onto Fortnite as of Tuesday morning. The cast of characters are fully playable in Fortnite, and come to the game as part of a larger in-game event and collaboration Epic is doing with Dragon Ball Super.
Goku hits the Griddy, changing Fortnite forever
He doesn’t just have strength, he also has moves
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Image: Epic Games/YouTube
Ana Diaz (she/her) is a culture writer at Polygon, covering internet culture, fandom, and video games. Her work has previously appeared at NPR, Wired, and The Verge.
Of course, part of the charm of these characters coming to the popular battle royale game is the inherent comedy of seeing all powerful heroes emote and shake their booties to popular dances from TikTok and beyond. Now, clips of the characters dancing have taken social media platforms by storm. Here, for example, is Goku hitting the Griddy, a dance created by a New Orleans high school student that was later popularized by NFL football players.
There are loads of dance emotes in Fortnite, and clips of them have taken off on Twitter.
Akira Toriyama released the first chapter of the Dragon Ball series in 1984. Since then, the manga has become a genre-defining series in shonen, and has gone on to receive several spin-offs and anime adaptations. Its lasting appeal is evident even in recent news, as the streaming service CrunchyRoll added the subtitled version of Dragon Ball Z in to its library. In the original story, Goku and Bulma set off on a journey to find the seven dragon balls in order to summon a mythical dragon and be granted a wish. Now, we can add dancing to their epic story.
Why it mattersWhen Epic Games released the battle royale game, it took players and new platforms like Twitch by storm and drew more than 125 million players in its first year. Since then, Fortnite has become a receptacle for digital culture where you play a Lego survival game or hit the griddy as Goku.
— Ana Diaz, Culture Writer
