KAME HAME HA! (Dragon Ball Advance Adventure (GBA))

Member Name: randomreviews

Product:	Dragon Ball Advance Adventure (GBA)
Date:	16/09/09 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: everything

Disadvantages: nothing

For a 2D sidescroller, Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure is extremely fun, addictive and impressive. Most of the time, games about this series tend to follow the DBZ storyline so its refreshing to get to play in a different time period.

[Story]
Keeping with the major events of the story from the anime series, you play as young Goku and embark on a quest to collect the Dragon Balls with Bulma but encounter various evil entities along the way such as Emperor Pilaf, The Red Ribbon Army, Mercenary Tao and King Piccolo and must stop them with your superhuman strength and abilities. Along the way you're also training with Master Roshi & entering World Martial Arts Tournaments.

[Controls]
Its a fighting game at heart, offering a 2 player versus mode even if you've got 2 cartridges, 2 GBAs and a link cable. For a handheld game, this definitely provides you with a diverse amount of combos and techniques despite the Gameboy Advanced system having so few controls. Its very easy to learn the controls and you've got tons of fighting techniques at your disposal - from the Power Pole, Kame Hame Ha, fading and so on just like in the anime series.

[Unlockables]
Although you originally can only play as Goku, you're able to unlock a slew of new characters and features. After your first playthrough of the game which takes a few hours, you unlock a mode where you play through the game as Krillin as well as a couple of mini-games. As you play through the game and battle certain characters, you unlock them for free play - characters like Tien, King Piccolo, Grandpa Gohan Tao, Jakie Chun, Nam and Chiaotzu. Doesn't end there. Further playthroughs and collecting the 54 hidden items in the game enables you to unlock a mode where you can choose to play as various bosses in the game!

Overall this is a very satisfying game and I implore any Dragon Ball fan with a GBA or DS to play it! Atari should really consider having Banpresto help them out a lot more often with these games because this one came out pretty good! With 3 game save files you can try your hand at a more difficult setting or allow siblings to also play off the same cartridge. Its the type of game that'll have you come back and replay it from time to time because its really fun.

Summary: Definitely a must-have GBA title!