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Dragon Power
PUBLISHER: Bandai
DEVELOPER: TOSE
RELEASE DATE: Nov. 27th, 1986 (JP), Mar. 1988 (US), 1990 (EU)
Don’t let the gi-wearing goofball on the cover fool you. Dragon Power is actually a “Dragon Ball” game, and it comes bearing a series of “firsts”: the first “Dragon Ball” game on the NES, the first ever “Dragon Ball” game to be released in America, and the first “Dragon Ball” game published by Bandai, later known as Bandai Namco.1
Today, Dragon Ball Z games are multimillion sellers across multiple console generations. Many decades ago, however, developers weren’t entirely sure how to adapt this incredibly popular property. This sounds absurd – how hard is it to make an over-the-top fighting game that feels amazing to play? For decades, though, gamers who loved “Dragon Ball” and “Dragon Ball Z” were forced to sit through many terrible titles based on these beloved franchises. Thankfully, the bulk of these early DB/DBZ games never released outside of Japan. Those that did, like Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 for PlayStation and Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu for Game Boy Advance were universally panned. Even slightly better games, like the first two Budokai entries and The Legacy of Goku received mediocre reviews.
When Dragon Power was released in March 1988, it didn’t arrive with any weight of expectations. It was, for all intents and purposes, the first of its kind, an action/adventure game quietly based on a juggernaut Japanese manga that few in the US had heard of. Prior to the onslaught of Dragon Ball titles circa early 2000s in the West, Dragon Power existed in its own weird bubble – that one random “Dragon Ball” game on the NES - and that’s how I’m looking at it for this post.
You control Goku, a boy looking for seven crystal balls with his friend Nora (a.k.a. Bulma). Once they get the seven balls, they’ll receive one wish from the Dragon Emperor. On the journey, they’ll encounter wacky shenanigans and travel through various locations, like the desert, caves, other planets, etc.
Why do they need seven crystal balls for this wish? Who is the Dragon Emperor? For that matter, who are Goku, Pudgy, Nora, the Turtle Hermit, and any of the other game’s characters? The instruction manual doesn’t say. The game itself doesn’t really say. Dragon Power does have “Comic Book Style Talking Scenes” (described as such by the manual) that provide interactions between characters, mainly Goku and Nora. But unless you have read “Dragon Ball” or seen the anime (I have not), the story, its characters and their motivations won’t make much sense.
But who cares about story in a video game in 1988, right? What matters is that Dragon Power is an entertaining romp above all else.
Gameplay-wise, Dragon Power initially seems proper decent. Goku fights off weird-looking enemies with his fists or a power pole, either on a pseudo-overworld map or in a one-screen room. He collects items, like food for extra health, turtle shells for special moves, and question marks for extra points (also “sandwiches” make him run faster, but those aren’t sandwiches in the original Japanese version, those are panties). If you’re not sure where to go or what to do, interactions with other characters usually provide the necessary information. And the colorful characters and bizarre dialogue exchange, while confusing, are still amusing. On the surface, Dragon Power has all the makings of an early action/adventure classic.
Unfortunately, the game revolves around a mechanic so vile that only a handful of NES games used it: the slowly dwindling life meter.
Goku starts with 100 life, but as he moves around, his life drains. That’s right. All Goku has to do is walk from point A to point B, and a few points of his life will disappear. When he gets hit by an enemy, that causes even more life to vanish. Once his life is at 0, it’s game over. No extra lives. If you die, you can continue at the beginning of the level you died on, but only up to stage 7.
You can also find drumsticks and cake which replenish Goku’s health by hitting enemies. Problem is, these food items appear at random. Sometimes enemies drop them upon their death, sometimes they don’t. The game has no mercy, either. Just because your life is 12 and progressing lower doesn’t mean enemies are more likely to drop health.
The slowly draining life-bar mechanic is the only reason why Dragon Power is challenging. The enemies require very little strategy, outside of button-mashing and running to avoid their attacks. The limited puzzles are more abstract than brain-busting.
As the game progresses and gets more difficult, however, cheap shots from both enemies and projectiles become more common, as do enemies like bees that can never die. Goku’s life-bar never stands a chance.
If you can tolerate the life-bar and you’re familiar with “Dragon Ball”’s story, Dragon Power is worth experiencing once, if only to see where the franchise began in its earliest video game form. For the rest of us, the ones who have failed to experience “Dragon Ball” in our lifetime, Dragon Power is a confusing disappointment, a game with real promise sabotaged by a misguided mechanic.
ALSO AVAILABLE ON: Dragon Power remains on the NES only for now. If you’re anti-emulation, it can be had on the NES for around $10.
Dragon Power is not the first “Dragon Ball” game ever, though. That honor, such as it is, goes to Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyo for the Super Cassette Vision.
I had no idea this game existed or that it was actually a Dragon Ball game. The cover art doesn't help and the in game Goku looks nothing like Goku. I don't know why games were ported to the US and given such terrible cover art.
A friend had this game. I never knew it was based on Dragon Ball!
We definitely didn't think it was very good, though much better than the worst games on NES. He also had Kung Fu, so I guess the kid just bought every game where the protagonist was in a gi, but we had a lot more fun with Kung Fu. Yet I'll admit I have a soft spot for the weirdness of this early Bandai box art, with a barely-visible and not especially appealing screenshot on the front that exists to prove -- what, exactly?