When some of us were little, we would turn on the TV at (insert time here) to watch a show. That show was called Dragon Ball (Z/GT). I’m completely sure a lot of people remember Goku and him growing up in the original Dragon Ball series. I’m pretty sure everyone watched the episode where Goku got shot by Piccolo’s special beam cannon, and I’m pretty sure a lot of people were shaking when Goku came back from the dead to kick Vegeta’s ass. Anyways, I don’t think I need to write much about the Dragon Ball series as a whole, so let’s talk about Dragon Power. Dragon Power is a game made in 1986 for the NES. It was the first Dragon Ball game to be localized (game had to be edited due to lack of license), and it is pretty bad.. Anyways..

DRAGON POWER

“The adventure begins!”

“The quest is for the dragon’s 7 crystal balls; the prize, your greatest wish. Together with Goku and Nora you must face obstacles that lead to each of the balls. Each obstacle seems greater than the last, but with your skill and the help of Swift Cloud and Magic Pole, anything is possible. It’s Dragon Power!”

_STORY//

“Okay, okay. Let’s go on a trip.”

The story is pretty much the same as Dragon Ball’s storyline. You search for the Dragon Balls (crystal balls in this game). There are seven of them, and you start off with three. As mentioned earlier, the game was heavily edited. The graphics were edited, and the character names were edited (Goku stayed as Goku, but some characters like Master Roshi become Hermit), and some things were even censored. Remember this scene?  Instead of Roshi asking to see Bulma’s panties, Hermit asks for Nora’s sandwich. However, the old Dragon Ball story is still recognizable in this hilarious mess (though in some cases, it doesn’t even resemble Dragon Ball). Still worth a check for the laughs, though.

_GRAPHICS//

“Come on! Swift Cloud!! Jump on well.”

The graphics are pretty bad. Like I said earlier, the character sprites were edited. Nora (Bulma) has purple hair, Hermit (Master Roshi) now looks like Gandalf, and Goku (Goku) looks like a monkey faggot that flips you off every time you fight a boss battle. The level tiles are pretty generic, but then again, you won’t really see much different in any NES game. The sprites are comparable to the original Legend of Zelda sprites, but the visuals seem kind of… colour lacking, compared to games like the original Super Mario Bros. The environments aren’t varied enough, so it looks pretty boring at times.

_SOUND//

“I want it too.”
“OK. Give me your sandwich.”

The game doesn’t have much sound variety apart from the four songs you hear constantly throughout the game. Not much to say about this, except that the songs really suck.

_GAMEPLAY//

“Yeow! Help!”
“Oh no. Did she get caught?”

This game consists of 10 stages. The stages have some variety; some parts have platformer style gameplay (kind of like the GBC Legend of Zeldas, except for the notorious boss fights, which I will talk about later). The regular stages are pretty simple. They’re like a Legend of Zelda style game, but more beat-em-up. You don’t get any puzzles, you just blow past enemies and punch them. Sounds solid, but there are some pretty huge flaws. For one thing, the enemy design is stupid. Some enemies attack horizontally only. Although they can move vertically, you can easily kill them by going above them and slapping them with Goku’s Magic Stick. You can jump, but it’s utterly useless, as you can’t jump on most platforms in the plane. The biggest flaw in this game is probably the problem where when you stand still, you constantly lose HP. Hard to believe that a character that is stronger than any person on Earth has trouble standing on his own two legs. There is also the horribly designed Stage 2, where you have to repeatedly go to treasure chests and look for “Pudgy” (Oolong). When you find him, you punch him to make him drop a key. Rather stupid and unnecessary, and they never explain what you’re actually supposed to do.

As Goku progresses in his adventure, he will fight bosses. Most of the bosses are pretty stupid to fight. They have swords, and Goku has hands, feet, and a stick (that, like I said, looks like he’s flicking you off when he uses it). When the bosses touch you, you get hit. Fair enough, but their swords already give them more range than they give you. If you kick in mid-air, you automatically drop like a rock. You can also use a “Wind Wave” projectile (the manual explains how you do it incorrectly), but they are limited in quantity. The bosses are fairly inconsistant (the last boss involves you punching a giant mech that shoots missiles at you, you can literally stand right beside the boss because he doesn’t hurt when you touch him). Either way, while the bosses occasionally have variety, they are horribly boring to fight. They don’t restore your health after you beat them either, so if you die, you have to fight them again. Although you get HP item drops, they are completely random, and your HP will probably run out from you walking around before you get them anyway.

_CONCLUSION//

“It’s only that it’s a waste of time.”

The quote says it all. This game is a waste of your time. Crappy music, average visuals, and horribly flawed gameplay. If you’re a fan of Dragon Ball, and you absolutely MUST play the first localized Dragon Ball game…. don’t bother with this. It’s not worth it… Seriously!

BLEGH!

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Eehhhhhhh, this could have been way longer, but I still haven’t finished my homework… ’till next time, I guess! Bye!