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»Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure
"Hey, another anime game."
Color me surprised – we finally have a really good Dragon Ball
adventure game. Legacy of Goku 1, 2 and Buu's Fury plain sucked, and GT
Transformation wasn’t much better. But thanks to Banpresto, we finally
have a great Dragon Ball game. Instead of following the Saiyan Saga to
the Buu Saga, Advanced Adventure does not even delve into Dragon Ball
Z, focusing exclusively on the plot of Dragon Ball, although taking a
few liberties in the process.
The plot of Dragon Ball is well-known by many fans of the series. It
begins with a young boy named Goku, who lives on his own after his
Grandfather died in a mountain forest. One day, he encounters a teenage
girl named Bulma. She notices that he owns a Dragon Ball (a mystical
object that, when seven are gathered together, allow a person to make a
single wish), and attempts to persuade him to give it to her, so she
can add to her Dragon Balls, but he refuses. Eventually, she talks him
into coming with her, so she can eventually use the Dragon Balls to
wish for a boyfriend. Throughout their adventures, they meet many
allies such as Master Roshi, Krillin, Oolong and Yamcha, but also meet
a variety of enemies such as Emperor Pilaf, Commander Red and King
Piccolo - who all come close to killing Goku and company.
The gameplay is very reminiscent of classic side scrolling beat-em-ups.
You play as Goku, who has a variety of techniques, including punches,
kicks and Goku’s power pole, which can be used as a long-ranged weapon,
a spinning attack or as a means to elevate yourself into the air. It
involves a lot of platforming, where you jump from platform to platform
and jump over pits, avoiding the many obstacles in your path. The game
features a large variety of enemies in these areas, most of which taken
from Dragon Ball. The most common enemies found in the game are
animals, half-animals, robots and demons. While there is some variety
in the enemies, many of the enemies are palette swaps, and some are
simply far too similar to others.
You will encounter many enemies throughout these levels, and while you
mostly fight enemies along your path, you will often have to stop and
fight a group of enemies. Before you can leave, you must defeat every
one of the enemies. While this is an element that works in the
excellent Astro Boy: Omega Factor (another anime beat-em-up game), I
was more annoyed than fired-up for battle whenever I had to stop.
Advanced Adventure is significantly faster than Omega Factor, so the
halt in pace is far more frustrating than in Omega Factor. However, I
have to bear with it; if it were not there, the game would be
completely broken, with absolutely no incentive to defeat the enemies
along your path.
There are three variants of gameplay - already discussed was the
platforming/beat-em-up segments of the game, and the remaining two are
a scrolling beat-em-up segment and the battle mode. In the scrolling
levels, Goku rides on the Nimbus Cloud and battles flying enemies,
while in battle mode levels, it’s more of a fighting game than an
adventure game. Many boss battles are in the form of battle mode, such
as General Blue and King Piccolo. While your attacks are the exact same
from sidescrolling levels in battle mode, it’s a noticeably different
system. You cannot take damage from your enemies initially; rather, you
are protected by a guard meter, and with each hit you receive that is
not blocked, your guard meter will drop. Once it is emptied, you can be
damaged, and if they perform a good combo, they could knock you into
the air like a rag doll. While not as deep as other Dragon Ball
fighting games such as Budokai for the PlayStation 2/GameCube, it’s not
a bad attempt.
Advanced Adventure’s visuals are pretty good; Dimps obviously put a lot
of work into the animation and overall quality of the visuals. There is
no slowdown to speak of, either. While the visuals are mostly
well-done, the back/foregrounds are very bland and uninspired. But
overall, they manage to keep the cartoony feel found in the Dragon Ball
cartoon. The audio is pretty good as well; exciting songs and quality
sound effects help make the game more enjoyable. However, there is
nothing particular special about this aspect of the game. The audio is
pretty good, but that is where the bus stops.
Throughout the game, you will find collectible items. Some of these
items have a strict purpose, such as the Nimbus Cloud or the Power Pole
upgrades, while most are just there for the sake of being collected.
But that wasn’t what made the game as replayable as it is. What did was
the unlockable content. Not only is this unlockable content
interesting, but it was in mass quantities. Not only do you get to play
through the game as Krillin, play through the game in Extra mode (which
opens up new hidden content), play in a Battle mode and a Minigame
mode, but you can play through the game as dozens of different
characters, whether they are heroes or villains.
You can play as the standard set of heroes - Goku, Krillin and Yamcha,
major villains - Tambourine, Drum and Pilaf, and you can even play as a
flying security camera and the bear thief boss. And while it does not
damage the overall quality of the characters, several characters have
no real purpose or are completely useless, such as the Piano look-alike
and the bear thief. However, some give a very useful approach to the
levels - for instance, Chiaotzu, Oolong and Krillin can fly, while some
are just significantly more powerful or faster, allowing for them to
kill enemies quicker than others. While the unlockable content in
addition to the Battle mode and Minigame mode really helps, the game
will become boring after a while. The Battle mode may be fun, but it
doesn’t feel like a full-fledged fighting game.
After several failures in the Dragon Ball franchise, such as the
abysmal Taiketsu and the Legacy of Gokus, Dragon Ball: Advanced
Adventure is a breath of fresh air for fans. Not only that, but I have
grown tired of the regular onslaught of Dragon Ball Z/GT games, and I
really hope that Atari encourages more games based on the original
Dragon Ball. Overall, Advanced Adventure is a straight eight. Every
aspect of the game is equal to each other, and with a handful of
tweaks, it could have been even better.
Article by: Alttp
Posted on: Sep. 19th, 2006 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| A quality beat-em-up that should have been faster, but couldn’t work had it been faster. |
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Graphics |
| Quality visuals with some flaws. To put it into contrast, the sprites and special effects are a nine, and the backgrounds/foregrounds are a six. |
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Sound |
| Good music/sound effects, but nothing noteworthy. |
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Replay Value |
| Tons of stuff to unlock and separate modes of play helped to keep me playing for a while. But eventually, I simply lost interest. |
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