 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: |   |
For the most part, the controls in Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure are relatively simple...actually, they’re very simple. As you might expect, the D-pad controls your characters direction, and double tapping in the direction you are headed will set them off in a run, though you probably won’t get too far before you run into trouble and have to fight your way out. The main portion of combat consist of fighting off enemies with your lesser attacks – that is to say, your B button. Just pounding away on it will start a combo with your fist and eventually your Power Pole, holding down on B and up on the D-pad will create a Power Pole shield, and pressing B and down on the D-pad after jumping will cause your character to go into a straight-leg dive at the ground or enemy. After a while, your energy meter will fill up and at that point you can either tap the left shoulder button to perform a spin attack with the Power Pole or, much more likely if you are a fan of the series, hold down the right shoulder button to charge up your all-powerful Kamehameha Wave. You’ll also use the A button quite a bit, as it causes your character to jump up and sometimes (depending on what mode you are playing when you do it) launch yourself right into the sky. While that might not seem all that special at first, I feel I should mention it because the flying in these situations feels just wonderful, with the ability to make your characters glide so gracefully they look like they came right out of the anime...of course, I can’t give the controls all the credit for that.
When it comes to being visually appealing, the graphics of Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure really surprised me. I mean, when I first heard about it, it seemed to me that this game had two things going against it: it was a 2-D side-scroller and it was on the Game Boy Advanced. However, the game overcomes both the obstacles with aplomb, not to mention blowing my misconceptions right out of the water. Whether because Akira Toriyama’s work is so simple (that is to say, lacking the incredible amount of superfluous detail you’d find in a lot of comics), the developers just loved the source material, or a little bit of both, I can’t say, but this game’s graphics certainly do justice to the original Dragon Ball series. The backgrounds, though somewhat repetitive and often laid-over with somewhat generic and just as repetitive landmasses and building, do capture the look of the manga and anime, with the towering palm trees and the rounded cities and the characters manage to take it a step further. Apart from looking exactly like you’d expect the series’ miniature, pixilated counterparts to look like, the animations really bring them to life. Whether it is as simple the belly-first, awkward pose as Goku runs through the levels or the spectacular, character-specific poses as they unleash their special attacks, you can always tell that this game is Dragon Ball!
Though light and adventurous, which is perfect for the series and the game, the music really takes a backseat in Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure. And you know what, that’s just fine by me, because the sound effects are riding shotgun (to the action, that is)! The music only steps up when the action is slow – or maybe it is just more noticeable then – but that doesn’t happen too often, so most of the time you won’t even realize there is any. Instead, with the gameplay such as it is, your ears will probably be solely focused on all the grunts and groans of all the enemies flying around, though there isn’t really much of audio cue for anything else in the game, at least not anything that isn’t accompanied by a much more noticeable visual cue, as well. But surprisingly, there are even a few (even more surprisingly intelligible) snippets of voice acting. Sadly there isn’t anything much to really celebrate, as the cutscenes are all written dialogue, but when you hear your favorite character scream out his catch phrase just before they blow something up, you’ll be quite pleased. Personally I was quite surprised to see the kind of little things like that that went into this game, especially since it is just on the Game Boy Advanced, so I think the developers certainly deserve some kudos for stepping up and making an effort, something that is echoed throughout the entire game.
On paper, Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure has a lot of replay value, though sadly not all of it comes through in the actual gameplay. I mean, apart from the main Story Mode with Goku, once you beat it, you can play through again with Krillin. Also, once you beat the game for the first time, you unlock Extra Mode, which lets you visit most any area on the map at any time and enter doors that are locked in Story Mode. The game also has a variety of mini-games (also unlocked, and including two of the four, once you beat the game once), a one-on-one sort of tournament match-up against a CPU and even multiplayer! Unfortunately, as I’ve said, the main game is too short, and it becomes even shorter when you play through with Krillin, do mostly to the fact that all the cutscenes, training and predetermined missions (such as those two can’t-win-no-matter-what-you-do battles I mentioned earlier) have been cut out completely and you start Krillin’s game with the same stats (such as health and all that) as you finished Goku’s with. Extra Mode puts you in a similar predicament, as there is nothing really new except for said once-locked doors and a bunch of items to collect. Playing through again will unlock some new things though, so it is certainly worth the small amount of time and effort it takes to play though again and track down everything. The mini-games and tournaments are quite enjoyable, but they don’t extend the game that much more, due mostly to the fact that the four mini-games are all snagged from similar in-game missions, the tournament roster requires you to play through the game several times to unlock the really hardy list of characters and the multiplayer requires two copies of a game that you really wouldn’t mind just giving to your friends once you are done.
Bottom Line:
To be honest, there isn’t too much I can say about Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure that hasn’t already been said in my review above. I mean, the game has an excellent story, fun gameplay, and graphics that stay true to the source. It has plenty of extra, but there is some work to be done to achieve them all, and the main game suffers from being terribly short and even a bit repetitive. This game goes above and beyond the call of duty for a GBA game, in my opinion, and, as I’ve already mentioned, it is the most fun I’ve had in a while. However, if you still aren’t convinced, let me just say this: if you are a Dragon Ball fan, go buy this game, and if you aren’t a Dragon Ball fan, seek professional help!
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 9.0 |
Posted: 2006-08-01 18:48:46 PST