Dragonball: Advance Adventure (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Dragon Ball titles have been appearing on the Nintendo platform for quite some time. This is the sixth outing on the GBA alone. It hasn't been an entirely blissful relationship though, with most fans of the series being less than impressed with the output. Much of this was down to a variety of developers wish to play around with the license rather than deliver what the fans really wanted. Advance Adventure seems to have it just right as it?s not only based around the original TV series but also allows players to experience key moments from the original stories. Hopefully this will appease fans but as we've seen before, even the finest ingredients can produce a less than perfect outcome.

Gameplay

Like most good brawlers, Advance Adventure allows you to tackle the action from more than one angle but if you require a quick mindless fix then head for the Story Mode. Now this is actually the largest of all three modes but it's also the most satisfying as you trawl through seemingly hundreds of henchmen with only your fists and a handy magic stick for protection. There's also a fair bit of exploration required and checking hard to reach areas or inside secret rooms is generally rewarded with extra health or magical abilities. It's not all earth bound either; some levels have you battling it out while balancing on a cloud and as strange as this sounds it's actually incredible fun. Honest! Complete a section here (or location, as it's all map based) and you'll generally have to defeat an ever more powerful boss which brings us nicely onto another of the modes: One-to-One. This is pretty self-explanatory really but here you must defeat a handful of bosses using every move and block you've acquired during the rest of the game. Incidentally this can also be played as a two-player game but you will require an extra copy of the game to enjoy it however given the number of DragonBall fans and how enjoyable this game is, that may not be too difficult to find.

Controls

While the control system here is pretty standard it's a little strange that you're not taught the more advanced moves until the second or third level. To be fair though you've probably worked out most of this already, especially if you've encountered this type of game before. The collision detection?s pretty good too so you never feel that your various attacks aren't connecting with their desired target, which can be incredibly frustrating especially when there's only a pixel between you.

Graphics

Visually the game is a delight, which you?ll realise as soon as it starts up. It's been some time since I've seen such well designed and rendered cut screens. The rest of the game follows suit with some wonderfully detailed backgrounds and a whole host of animated characters who do justice to their TV counterparts. Excellent stuff.

Sound

I have to say it's been some time since I've encountered a game soundtrack which so perfectly fits the on-screen action and the soundtrack here is so well-suited you could be watching the cartoon. The sound effects too are pretty good and while there are no full speech samples it's still better than nothing.

Final comments

Obviously every producer wants to sell as many copies of a game as possible and while there's nothing particularly original about this latest DragonBall title, it is a well-constructed game. Fans of the DragonBall series are in for a bit of a treat though and there's no GBA game quite like Advance Adventure, which places you so successfully in the middle of Goku's universe. It does have its problems though and the Story Mode can become a little repetitive after a while but as there's a fair few other modes of play and heaps of extra characters and power-ups to discover this isn't a huge problem. Without anything unique to offer the masses it's unlikely to appeal to anyone who's not a fan of the series which is a shame really because it is a fun little game.

Pro: Looks Wonderful
Con: Can Be A Little Repetitive
Final score: 8.1

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