3.5/5 ★ – KHFanXIII's review of Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure.

Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure is the second game I've played that covers the original Dragon Ball. I was excited because (as I mentioned in my last DB game review) there really aren't a lot of games that cover the original Dragon Ball story, so any tie I get to play one, I get giddy. So, how does this one hold up? Is it better than the last one? Yes? But I'm not sure if I enjoyed it more? So unlike the last game which was an RPG-lite, this game is a beat-em-up, and a pretty standard one too. You have a basic combo, with a few directional variants, a jump, and (when unlocked) the Kamehameha wave. Levels usually consist of you going from the left of the screen making your way towards the right of the screen as you battle large amounts of (fairly) easily defeatable enemies, and the occasional multi-health bar boss. Along the way, you will be able to find permanent power-ups throughout the game which will increase your health, Ki bar, or the length of your power pole (that last one not being super useful). You will also be able to find collectibles which will add to your score. This is pretty standard beat-em-up fare, however there is actually a bit more to the game than just this style of gameplay. The second style of gameplay present in this game is the one-on-one battle mode. In this, you will fight your opponent (usually someone from the story like Yamcha, Krillin, King Piccolo, etc.) in a psuedo-fighting game style. This is pretty neat and a great way to incorporate the tournament arcs of the series. However, there are a few issues. The combat in the one-on-one style works like this: both you and your opponent have a health bar and what I'll call a stamina bar. Your health bar is pretty self-explanatory, but whoever's health is depleted first, loses. The wrinkle here is that neither of you can do damage to each other until you deplete the other ones stamina bar. You do this by attacking them. Once their stamina bar has been depleted, you can launch the opponent up into the air to do an air combo. Then you rinse and repeat. This makes every fight feel pretty repetitive as you are doing the same thing over and over. You can also use your Kamehameha wave in this mode (and I do recommend charging it on the way down from your air combo, so you can hit the opponent right as they get up), but it doesn't really make the system feel any fresher. This is okay though, as even having a system like this in a beat-em-up is pretty neat in first place. Apparently you can even play this mode in multiplayer, but I wasn't able to test that out myself. Other than these two, there are a few minigame type things within the story which are pretty neat. First, the Flying Nimbus sections. These basically function as an auto-scroller level and really aren't that different from a normal stage. It's a neat little addition though, and they have some really good music. One of the later stages is also pretty cool as it has you jumping on and off of planes while fighting. The other two minigames are more like what you'd expect when you hear that word. There's a rock smashing minigame that you do while training with Master Roshi, and a catching Korin minigame you do while training with Korin. Both very, very simple but it's these quirky little things that help a game stand out and, in a Dragon Ball game, are appreciated as having little moments like these help the game feel closer to the source material (they remind me a lot of those minigames from Budokai 1 like holding Raditz still while Piccolo charges the Special Beam Canon). The sprite art in this game is very nice though. I appreciate all the cool little animations that exist for all of these characters and I was a big fan of them. Story this time is presented very visual novel-y with static portraits and text (similar to Super Gokuden Totsugeki-hen), however at least with this game you aren't spending the majority of your time reading lol. The story itself is nice, it's just a very abridged version of the story and part of me wishes it was a bit more of an in-depth telling of the story (like Super Gokuden was, although with more gameplay than that game). Speaking of, there is an odd omission here in the game's story: there is 0 Piccolo Jr. content. While this was true of last game, that game at least got a sequel which did cover that + the Saiyan and Frieza stuff, so it's forgivable. I understand why they left it out (having to draw a new Goku sprite + new animations would be a lot of work), it's just sad as this is an *almost* complete telling of the Dragon Ball story, so it feels a bit odd having the last arc be left out. Overall, while this game can feel a bit repetitive (maybe it'd be better if it was co-op?), I did enjoy my time with it and am excited for whenever I get to delve back into the story of Dragon Ball again.