Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure
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| ♥ | This article is dedicated to Akira Toriyama (April 5, 1955-March 1, 2024 due to acute subdural hematoma), the creator of this amazing franchise alongside Dr.Slump. |
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This game was sure really advanced in comparison to most Dragon Ball games on the GBA.
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Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure (ドラゴンボール アドバンスアドベンチャー Doragon Bōru Adobansu Adobenchā) is a Game Boy Advance video game released as early as November 18, 2004.
Why It Rocks
- Making a platformer based on Dragon Ball was a great idea, and this game proved that it's possible to make a really good platform game that's still as fun as it was back then. In fact, this game ended up being one of the best Dragon Ball games of all time for the following reasons:.
- The graphics are very good and possibly one of the best-looking games of the Game Boy Advance or even the best-looking Dragon Ball game on the GBA, as it's full of details and it's had amazing graphics work.
- The color palette is also extremely great, as it is very colorful and lively, which makes the graphics and the sprites even better than they already are.
- The sprite work, as said before, is amazing and one of the best you would ever see in a Dragon Ball game, as they are incredibly detailed for a 2004 Game Boy Advance game. This is especially true with the Goku sprite.
- The game is very faithful to both the manga and especially the animated series, with many battles that track the story of the manga, and some of the boss battles are even more faithful than they are in both the manga and the animated series.
- The soundtrack is awesome, even for a Dragon Ball game, as it has many bangers and songs that will make you want to dance or even refuse to forget the soundtrack of the game. It's also barely repetitive for most parts, thanks to how well composed the soundtrack of this game really is.
- Extremely tight and responsive controls, with Goku and the other characters never ever being unresponsive, and the controls are some of the best in any of the Dragon Ball games, and even today, the controls are still solid.
- Extremely fun gameplay that, while repetitive, is really fun for most parts and you will never ever be bored to play. The combos are also extremely fun to do, which is one of the main reasons why this game is so fun in the first place.
- Even if it's mostly a platformer, it's even had 3 types of levels, and all of them are really awesome and extremely fun. This includes:
- The main platforming levels, of course, are the best levels of the game and are extremely fun, with most of the levels being beginner-friendly for the most part.
- The Nimbus levels, while weaker than the other types, are still decent and can be fun; they also make the game more faithful to the manga.
- And the last one is the one-on-one combat levels that are very fun, and the combat system is so much better than the awful combat of Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu, despite not being a proper fighting game.
- Both box art for the game is really great and full of details, especially the NA cover, which looks awesome, and the PAL cover, which is also great despite not having as many details.
- The game does a great job for the levels, being faithful to the manga and series with the objectives of the levels, such as the training with Goku and Krillin having to get the stone first, but Krillin stole it from Goku, and he needs to get it back with a fight.
- Amazing boss fights that are extremely fun at times and are the most challenging parts of the game, with their paths being fun to learn. The one-on-one boss fights are also awesome and even better than the ones on the main platformer stages, thanks to how well made the combats are in this game.
- There are also a lot of characters from the series that appear, and their fights are awesome, with Yamcha, King Piccolo, and Krillin being the most notable.
- The story follows the manga and especially the animated series extremely well, with some changes sometimes.
- The difficulty is decently balanced; it's neither too hard nor too easy, and the game is also beginner-friendly compared to most Dragon Ball games at the time. Due to that, you can beat the game the first time you play it.
- While it is very short or not as impressive as the opening from The Legacy of Goku, the opening of this game is quite good and one of the best for a Dragon Ball game on the GBA.
- There are even more game modes than the regular story mode, with a one-on-one game mode or even an extra mode where you can play as enemies if you find them. This makes this game have a high number of replay values.
- Amazing level design for all the levels, even for the one-on-one combat levels.
- Great voice acting.
Bad Qualities
- The game is still quite short; you can beat it in only 2 or 3 hours, although it's not really a problem because, as said before, this game had a high number of replay values, comparable to Spider-Man on PS1.
- The first fight with Tao is extremely frustrating, the absolute worst fight of the game, and even the hardest part of the entire game, as he deals tons of damage, blocks most of your attacks, and has a lot of health to kill, although his second fight is much more fair in the same level.
- Some of the boss fights are also frustrating and can cause you to lose a lot of times, such as the Piccolo fight at the very end of the game, where he can kill you really easily with him taking a lot of health from you, and he had a ton of health, although he was still better and/or more fair than Tao.
- While the gameplay of this game is extremely fun, it can also be repetitive on some occasions, although it's not even a problem due to how good and fun this game is.
Reception
Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure received mixed to positive reviews by critics but very positive reviews by players and fans alike, with them praising the gameplay, the combats, the huge amout of game modes but criticized the short lenght of the game.
The game had a score of 75/100 on Metacritic.
Trivia
- The Pterodactyl enemy can be played with cheat devices such as action replay, however, it is extremely glitchy and unfinished, possessing no real attack.
- Using cheat devices, it is possible to play as the other characters in Nimbus mode and the Rock Crushing minigame.
- Strangely, Krillin will only fight Goku's opponents in the World Tournaments instead of his own. For instance, if Krillin is selected in Story Mode, his first Tournament opponent will be Giran, when he logically should have fought Bacterian (who is omitted altogether from the entire game), as he did in the series.
- So far, the only exception to this is Chiaotzu, an opponent Krillin indeed fights in canon.
- This is the only game in which Takkō Ishimori voices Master Roshi (but only in his Jackie Chun disguise; he does not speak anywhere else in this game).
- The USA cover art features adult Goku, despite the game only covering characters of the kid Goku sagas (with the exception of Cyborg Tao). It seems it was done that way, because the majority of Dragon Ball was skipped and moved to Dragon Ball Z in US when it first aired (not counting the Harmony Gold dub of Mystical Adventure).
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