palceu
For a game i was really looking forward to playing, as my introduction to the series, it ended up pretty underwhelming, feeling like it missed more of a payoff, but still fun.
The brain teasing puzzles are mostly pretty fun, even though some of them are way too similar and some also give me war flashbacks from school. The game attempts to make the puzzles feel rewarding by feeding the player collectibles, such as the painting scraps and gizmos, and also the very flawed scoring system in the form of Picarats. The frustrating part about this is that most of the time the end result for collecting all the stuff and solving the most puzzles possible is very disappointing, even if it makes you feel like it would lead to something. Imagine if in Banjo Kazooie the reward for collecting all Jiggies was 3 extra puzzles and a still image, that's what it feels like.
The plot in particular is this game's biggest disappointment. First, it lacked focus, as it presented many interesting mysteries and characters, only to introduce others on a dim making the narrative a scrambled mess, which wouldn't be an issue if the game was able to untangle the web in a satisfying way, which it didn't even come close. Without spoiling too much, the final stretch is not only anticlimactic it also gives the wildest and most random explanations to the mysteries previously set up in a checklist expository manner, with little to no dramatic punch whatsoever. It honestly made me feel a little betrayed thinking all these plot points would be explained in a cool and clever way like in those classic detective stories, and instead we got...anyway, if you know you know.
Even if the game is just basically a puzzle box with a semi-coherent narrative attached to it, it is carried near solely by the strength of its charm and aesthetics. Narratively, as mentioned before, this game is a lot closer to Zac Power than Agatha Christie, yet the environments, the dialogue, the music and specially the characters evoke a whimsical old British literature feel, with great designs all around and some gorgeous animated cutscenes that are looking crisp in the HD remaster. Walking around town while talking to these weird and funny characters makes the constant barrage of puzzles more palpable and relaxing, while keeping your interest on what's going on in the village.
Overall, it's a decent start to what would become a very big franchise, to which i see a lot of pontential, perhaps these issues are ironed out in the later iterations.
As a sidenote, this is a perfect game for children, teaches basic logic and algebra concepts in a fun and intuitive way, and the plot being this dumb will hardly be a problem for them.
The brain teasing puzzles are mostly pretty fun, even though some of them are way too similar and some also give me war flashbacks from school. The game attempts to make the puzzles feel rewarding by feeding the player collectibles, such as the painting scraps and gizmos, and also the very flawed scoring system in the form of Picarats. The frustrating part about this is that most of the time the end result for collecting all the stuff and solving the most puzzles possible is very disappointing, even if it makes you feel like it would lead to something. Imagine if in Banjo Kazooie the reward for collecting all Jiggies was 3 extra puzzles and a still image, that's what it feels like.
The plot in particular is this game's biggest disappointment. First, it lacked focus, as it presented many interesting mysteries and characters, only to introduce others on a dim making the narrative a scrambled mess, which wouldn't be an issue if the game was able to untangle the web in a satisfying way, which it didn't even come close. Without spoiling too much, the final stretch is not only anticlimactic it also gives the wildest and most random explanations to the mysteries previously set up in a checklist expository manner, with little to no dramatic punch whatsoever. It honestly made me feel a little betrayed thinking all these plot points would be explained in a cool and clever way like in those classic detective stories, and instead we got...anyway, if you know you know.
Even if the game is just basically a puzzle box with a semi-coherent narrative attached to it, it is carried near solely by the strength of its charm and aesthetics. Narratively, as mentioned before, this game is a lot closer to Zac Power than Agatha Christie, yet the environments, the dialogue, the music and specially the characters evoke a whimsical old British literature feel, with great designs all around and some gorgeous animated cutscenes that are looking crisp in the HD remaster. Walking around town while talking to these weird and funny characters makes the constant barrage of puzzles more palpable and relaxing, while keeping your interest on what's going on in the village.
Overall, it's a decent start to what would become a very big franchise, to which i see a lot of pontential, perhaps these issues are ironed out in the later iterations.
As a sidenote, this is a perfect game for children, teaches basic logic and algebra concepts in a fun and intuitive way, and the plot being this dumb will hardly be a problem for them.
i can't wait for the 10 or so years from now when all the insufferable discourse around this game and how it destroyed the medium dies out
A competent enough action platformer, could have been great if not for its natural shortcomings. I've seen some comparisons between this game and the Mega Man X series, but really i don't think Dimps has or will ever be able to do level design to the Capcom standard, and this is no exception. The platforming stages range exactly from boringly simplistic and linear to confusing and maze-like (also they all have the Dimps-trademarked bottomless pits), with no middle ground whatsoever, and that makes the return to those stages for the extras mode not as fun as it was probably intended.
But i'll be damned if the game doesn't throw some cool ideas. The control scheme for the platforming levels is fine, a little clunky yet ultimately solid, but the game really shines on the 1-on-1 fighting; it could be jarring to make the game kind of a platformer/fighting game hybrid but the simplicity of the controls make the transition not as harsh as it could be, and bring the intensity the fights really need. It's commendable how much depth they could squeeze into a sorta-fighting game with only one attack button and a couple support buttons, the stamina system is flawed but it works well in avoiding that the system feels button-mashy, and the parry is very satisfying once you get the hang of it. What doesn't make sense to me is why all boss fights don't use this system, like the Yamcha one specially, since throwing the platforming control scheme into this 1-on-1 fighting format exposes so much of its flaws.
As for the story, well...it was inevitably gonna be a challenge to condense such a long period of the Dragon Ball manga into a short and sweet GBA title, and, for the most part, it's a nice adaptation, specially on the visual side, the character sprites all look round and lively in a great job of "pixelizing" Toriyama's art style, the character portraits are my favorites. The narrative itself is a bit weird, with some puzzling omissions like Goku's Oozaru form, his losses on the world tournament, Yamcha befriending Goku and the gang, the entirety of post-timeskip, and others I can't recall. It kinda felt like the developers were not really interested in doing a faithful retelling of the manga, and instead tried to do their own thing taking the original story as a foundation, and that comes through specially on Goku's personality, who's a lot less playful and naive and more threatening and tough, a bit like the more modern manga heroes of the time. Those changes are a blessing and a curse, since indeed, they do make the game more straightforward but also loses a lot of the personality of the source material, making the final product a little generic (the musical department specially took that 'generic' memo and went with it).
And then there's the post game content, ranked in order of how much i care is minigames, extras mode and "Krillin mode". Minigames are just way too basic pallete clensers of the story mode shoved into their own mode, not fun. Extras mode is a retread mode where you take your time exploring story mode levels for collectibles with a fully powered character; I have no idea why this had to be a separate mode, and it only made the ominous red doors confusing for no reason, but as it stands, backtracking lives or dies in its level design, and as i mentioned, I'm not fond of it in this game. Unlocking Krillin on the story mode with a completely different moveset is not only hilarious, for seeing Krillin do all of Goku's feats in the original Dragon Ball, it is the coolest way this game brings replayability to the table, by far. There's also an exclusive 1-on-1 mode, with multiplayer no less! It makes me wish for a Dragon Ball (no Z) fighting game that will never happen.
I may have sounded overly critical but i would absolutely recommend this game, specially for people who are fond of Dragon Ball, it is short and a lot of fun. It's just I've heard of this game being one of the best DB games ever made for so long (a reputation mostly due to being one of the few OG Dragon Ball games, i assume), i kinda expected more, but it's still a worthwhile experience with a lot of charm.
But i'll be damned if the game doesn't throw some cool ideas. The control scheme for the platforming levels is fine, a little clunky yet ultimately solid, but the game really shines on the 1-on-1 fighting; it could be jarring to make the game kind of a platformer/fighting game hybrid but the simplicity of the controls make the transition not as harsh as it could be, and bring the intensity the fights really need. It's commendable how much depth they could squeeze into a sorta-fighting game with only one attack button and a couple support buttons, the stamina system is flawed but it works well in avoiding that the system feels button-mashy, and the parry is very satisfying once you get the hang of it. What doesn't make sense to me is why all boss fights don't use this system, like the Yamcha one specially, since throwing the platforming control scheme into this 1-on-1 fighting format exposes so much of its flaws.
As for the story, well...it was inevitably gonna be a challenge to condense such a long period of the Dragon Ball manga into a short and sweet GBA title, and, for the most part, it's a nice adaptation, specially on the visual side, the character sprites all look round and lively in a great job of "pixelizing" Toriyama's art style, the character portraits are my favorites. The narrative itself is a bit weird, with some puzzling omissions like Goku's Oozaru form, his losses on the world tournament, Yamcha befriending Goku and the gang, the entirety of post-timeskip, and others I can't recall. It kinda felt like the developers were not really interested in doing a faithful retelling of the manga, and instead tried to do their own thing taking the original story as a foundation, and that comes through specially on Goku's personality, who's a lot less playful and naive and more threatening and tough, a bit like the more modern manga heroes of the time. Those changes are a blessing and a curse, since indeed, they do make the game more straightforward but also loses a lot of the personality of the source material, making the final product a little generic (the musical department specially took that 'generic' memo and went with it).
And then there's the post game content, ranked in order of how much i care is minigames, extras mode and "Krillin mode". Minigames are just way too basic pallete clensers of the story mode shoved into their own mode, not fun. Extras mode is a retread mode where you take your time exploring story mode levels for collectibles with a fully powered character; I have no idea why this had to be a separate mode, and it only made the ominous red doors confusing for no reason, but as it stands, backtracking lives or dies in its level design, and as i mentioned, I'm not fond of it in this game. Unlocking Krillin on the story mode with a completely different moveset is not only hilarious, for seeing Krillin do all of Goku's feats in the original Dragon Ball, it is the coolest way this game brings replayability to the table, by far. There's also an exclusive 1-on-1 mode, with multiplayer no less! It makes me wish for a Dragon Ball (no Z) fighting game that will never happen.
I may have sounded overly critical but i would absolutely recommend this game, specially for people who are fond of Dragon Ball, it is short and a lot of fun. It's just I've heard of this game being one of the best DB games ever made for so long (a reputation mostly due to being one of the few OG Dragon Ball games, i assume), i kinda expected more, but it's still a worthwhile experience with a lot of charm.
1986
this guy single-handedly made me dock this half a star.