Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo Review

Howdy:   * Voice acting from the show gives it proper Dragon Ball feel.
                * Fighting is simple and you won't get lost on levels.
                * Cel shaded style looks good.

See Ya':  * Fighting is very simple.
                * Levels are very straight.
                * Gets very repetitive, very quickly.

Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo takes the series back to before they added the Z. Gone are the extremely complex mechanics of the previous fighting games and in their place is a simple straightforward action platformer. Fans of the show will instantly recognize many of the characters and locations, yet previous knowledge of what's going on isn't necessary to enjoy the game.

The story follows Son Goku as he is looking for the four star dragon ball that belonged to his grandfather. During his travels he runs into members of the Red Ribbon Army as they are going around looking for the dragon balls themselves. The game is set up as a side scrolling action platformer where the fighting is done with one or two buttons at most. There are a few combos that you will learn very on in the first few levels, but after that you have every move at your disposal that you will have. They are mainly a number of presses of the "A" button, but there are a couple that use the analog stick in combination with the A Button. There is also a move that you can perform after you stun enemies that will zoom in close as Goku does a more powerful combo, but it's not necessarily needed in order to succeed. All you need to know is mashing the A button very quickly will usually win you a fight.

The platform sections of the game are set up very nicely. The levels, while very linear have a lot of height to them. There are a few secret doors that will take you into another room, but you will most of the time leave that room and head back to the main path to continue your quest for the Dragon Balls. Large areas of flat plains are broken up with high mountains or waterfalls that you must cross. The military area has the appropriate military items scattered throughout it and feels very lifeless as there is nothing to see inside them aside from large areas of grey walls. All of the enemies are some form of bear, tiger or robot with bosses at the end of each of the game's worlds. These are either more powerful robots or members of the Red Ribbon Army until you show off against Piccolo himself.

Each of the characters in the game has a large section of voice work done by the actors from the show. The visual style of the game uses a nice cel shaded effect. The animated sections of the game themselves are done quite well and look like you're watching a cartoon. They do fall apart a little if the characters are talking because their mouth either doesn't move or just opens and closes and you are very quickly reminded you're not watching the anime and you're playing a video game. The story sections go back and forth between fully animated to quick still pictures of the characters talking. It's a bit jarring and would have been nice if they had picked one style and kept it through the entire game.

Each level has a large amount of zeni, the currency of Dragon Ball, that is scattered throughout the level. You'll be able to use this in the shop to buy extra health and unlockable art and sounds. After each level you're graded on how well you did, how much life you had left and how long it took to finish the level. you're given a letter grade and extra zeni to use. The problem is that the store is not in the game menus and you have to back out to the main menu to enter the store. It's a bit of a chore to get to the store so chances are you won't go very often.

There is also a tournament mode that is similar to the previous games in the series, but uses the fighting mechanic from this game so it's much more simple and amounts to who can block their opponent most and counter attack. There are a large cast characters from the game that you can choose from and all of them have a similar fighting style. There is not much other than their look to distinguish them. It's a neat diversion for a few minutes from the main game, but if you have other Dragon Ball games or Super Smash Bros. you won't come back to this very often.

Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo has a good art style and fairly simple game play, but that can also be a bit of a downer because there is not much thought you have to put into playing the game. It's mainly run to the right and attack the bad guys you see. The boss battles provide a nice difference in the fighting, but they don't happen often enough to keep things interesting. It's a great diversion or a game you'll come back to on a night you want to relax and younger kids will find the game to be good fun for a while. Unless you're one of the younger audience or a huge fan of Dragon Ball there's not a lot here to recommend.

Final Score: 2/5

Review copy of the game provided by Namco Bandai.