 Review By: Andrew Joy |
Developer: | Dimps |
| Publisher: | Atari | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Everyone 10+ | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 | |
| Online Play: | N/A | |
| Accessories: | Game Boy Advance Game Link cable | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Just to jump right in, I think we can all agree that one of the worst things a game can do is end too soon. If it is a bad game then, of course, we naturally feel even more gypped than we already do, but even if it is a great game, we usually want more and probably don’t want it to end. Ever. Since it is a sort of damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario, it is hard to say which is worse. However, for the first time in my video gaming life, I really don’t mind that a game was too short. Certainly it has to be taken into consideration when I write this review, but I just had to say that right up front. Now, whether that is because I have just been playing a constant stream of crappy game, or because it is genuinely that good, I’ll let you decide – and there is plenty of evidence to support both, I’m sure – but Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure for the Game Boy Advance has been some of the most fun I have had playing a game in a long time.
To be honest, the entire Dragon Ball TV series has been nothing but enjoyment for me. Like most people in the states, I think, my initial exposure to the series came from the more action-packed Dragon Ball Z portion, though I did branch off and explore many of the other works of Akira Toriyama, something I believe most people unfortunately do not do. If you’ve never seen Toriyama’s work...well, what am I talking about, chances are you’ve probably seen, or even played, it before and don’t even realize it. In addition to the Dragon Ball series, Toriyama has had a hand in a number of other popular works, from manga and anime to video games, including Dr. Slump and Sand Land (both manga, the latter being one of my personal favorites), Dragon Quest and the upcoming Xbox 360 game Blue Dragon (is anybody else noticing a recurring theme?), but I digress.
As anybody who has read the manga, seen the anime, played the games or basically in any way come in contact with the myriad of merchandise related to this series can tell you, Dragon Ball follows the story of Son Goku on his quest to (most of the time) collect the seven titular Dragon Balls, which will summon a wish-granting dragon when they are all brought together. Naturally, the Dragon Balls are sought after for this reason, and Goku encounters a variety of villainous parties on his journey, and Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure covers a most of them during his younger years (DBZ covers his adult years). Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure is just short of 20 missions, which, as anyone who has seen the series can tell you, hardly seems enough to encompass even the childhood of Dragon Ball hero Goku. However, from a friendly rivalry with Krillin to Goku’s campaign against the Red Ribbon Army and beyond, most of the major story arcs up until the end of the Piccolo Daimaō saga are present in some form or another. Unfortunately, “some form or another” is just as shady as it sounds. You see, while much of the story from the canon is represented by missions in the game, some of them are only alluded to in the endless dialogue you’ll see before your real mission begins, other times areas on the map actually are nothing but a cutscene and, beyond that, there are even a couple of occasions when you are plunked down in a mission that you cannot win, with a predetermined outcome to the fight no matter how close you get or how many times you try it (and, believe me, I tried them many times before I got fed up and discovered the truth online). Unfortunately, as the likely audience of this game is probably much more knowledgeable of the series than I am, they will undoubtedly find many more instances of suitable story arcs and events that could have been turned into some really fun missions. All in all, it really amounts to a lot of missed opportunities in a game that is already far to short and repetitive.
From the moment you start the game until the moment you end, there are really only two main types of combat in this game: stop-and-go and tournament style. A majority of the game suffers through the first method, in which players will run through the levels, beating up scores of classic foes until a giant "!" appears on screen and they can go no further. At that point, players have to stay within a locked screen killing every opponent that walks in, with the game telling you to "Go!" once you have finished. And the other type of combat, the tournament-style combat, is used mostly when you face a boss. In those instances, both players are given a defensive meter and, once you beat down your opponent’s, you can knock them up in the air, deliver a second ass-kicking up there and then knock them back down to the ground, usually to finish them off with a Kamehameha Wave that you powered-up on your way back down. Of course, there are a few moments when the game does toss in a bit of variety, such as a boss that requires a little more (and I mean very little) strategy to defeat, such as the monster in the bowels of the Red Ribbon Army HQ, a couple of aerial missions that take place on your Flying Nimbus and a maze-like level. Unfortunately, with the aforementioned Kamehameha Wave, nothing is really all that challenging, as you can decimate entire swathes of enemies with one well-timed, well-charged blast. In fact, I played on the hardest setting and, apart from some minor mishaps with that maze I mentioned, the only difficulty I had was locating all the items scattered throughout the game.
Posted: 2006-08-01 18:48:46 PST