Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure

Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure
Developer(s)	Dimps
Publisher(s)	Banpresto, Atari
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Release date(s)	JP November 18, 2004 (2004-11-18) EU June 17, 2005 (2005-06-17) NA June 6, 2006 (2006-06-06)
Genre(s)	Beat-'em-up
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	CERO: A (All Ages) PEGI: 3+ ESRB: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

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 based on the Dragon Ball manga and anime series. The game contains 30 playable characters (counting all modes in the game altogether), which is unusually large for a game of this caliber. It contains five modes of play, and follows the story of Goku's first meeting with Bulma, to the grand finale against King Piccolo. It pre dates the Legacy of Goku series in official canon.

This game received an ESRB rating of Everyone 10+ because of some of the violence and language.

Game Modes

Story Mode

Goku as he goes on the adventure of his lifetime. Most of the Dragon Ball story arcs are here; the only one noticeably missing is the "Piccolo Junior" storyline from the end of the series.There are many items to collect in the game, most of which are hidden. Items can include those that increase the player's health and/or ki, to the Dragon Balls, to objects such as Master Roshi's sunglasses and Mercenary Tao's cyborg headgear. You are only able to play as Goku at first. By clearing Goku's Story Mode once, you are also able to play Story Mode with Krillin. However with Krillin, you will not get any cutscenes and story, just the levels. You cannot play Story Mode with any other character.

There are 3 main different levels:

• Platform- Goku/Krillin goes around an area and beats the usual enemies.
• Nimbus- Goku/Krillin fights the enemy in the air on the Nimbus Cloud.
• One-On-One- Where one character fights another character individually, like in the tournaments.

One-On-One Mode

A one-on-one fight between the player and the opponent, much like several of the boss battles in the game. This is a free battle where you can decide which area and how long the fight will be. You start off with Goku and Krillin, but whenever you defeat a one-on-one character in Story Mode, you gain a personal item of theirs which unlocks them. You can also play as Jackie Chun, Mercenary Tao, Grandpa Gohan, Tien Shinhan, King Piccolo and Cyborg Tao once you unlock them.

Apart from single battles, a Survival Mode can be unlocked by completing both Goku and Krillin's Story Mode. In this mode you are placed in a tournament, and can select any of the characters that have been unlocked.

Versus Mode

The multiplayer mode of the game, where 2 players can compete against each other with most of the options available in One-on-One Mode.

Extra Mode

After you have completed Goku's Story Mode, you unlock Extra Mode. In Extra Mode, you revisit all the levels in Story Mode (without the cutscenes) and you replay them. You have all of the levels available to you at the start, rather than having to go through them in order. There are two primary objectives to complete:

• Number One: All of the red doors seen throughout the levels can now be opened, and a greater amount of items are placed in the stages. Minigames can be unlocked by finding all 54 items.
• Number Two: The Extra Mode Character List shows 28 characters that the player can use in Extra Mode, aside from Goku and Krillin. Each of them has a corresponding portrait hidden in one of the levels, that must be found to unlock the character for use. Both the third and fourth mini game must also be accessed before every single character can be unlocked. After that, it is highly recommended you play through Extra Mode as each character and learn all their moves.

Reception

The game received mixed reviews, some positive some negative. Critics say that all the modes made it a much better game than if there was just 1 or 2 modes. The One-On-One mode was criticized for being too straightforward, but was also praised for the whole concept in the first place. The minigames were described as cute, but all in all, it was the number of locations from the show, number of playable characters, and number of items from the show that really surprised people. The Story Mode was a little bit criticized for telling the actual story, but the gameplay (and the new Extra Mode) was praised a lot in its place.

External links

• Official site
• Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure at GameSpot