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Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure - TV Tropes

  • ️Tue Apr 07 2020

Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure (Video Game)

Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure, is a Dragon Ball video game developed by Dimps and released in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance. Advanced Adventure is a Beat 'em Up-Platformer which retells the story of the original Dragon Ball, starting from Goku and his first meeting with Bulma to the Final Battle against King Piccolo.

Besides the normal fighting and platforming, some levels have Goku riding on the Flying Nimbus while others have a simple but effective Fighting Game format. There's plenty of Unlockable Content as well, including pretty much every single enemy in the game as Secret Characters.

One year later, Dimps made a One Piece game for the GBA which serves as a Spiritual Successor to this one.

Tropes:

  • 1-Up: Shaped like Goku and/or Krillin's head.
  • Adaptational Badass: Most of the bosses are opponents Goku defeated in one or a few hits. Standout examples are Oolong, who was basically a total Paper Tiger and non-combatant in the original, has actual combat abilities in the game including the ability to shoot fire in his rocket form, and Staff Officer Black's Battle Jacket, which was defeated in one hit originally while he's one of the most difficult and durable bosses in this game.
  • Adaptation Deviation:
    • Goku wins the 21st and 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament instead of Jackie Chun and Tien respectively. In the latter tournament, he also faces Chiaotzu (who fought Krillin) instead of Pamput.
    • Darkness, the anime-only shapeshifting demon inside the Cave of Darkness, takes the forms of Yamcha and Krillin in this game. In the anime, he took the form of Master Roshi.
  • Adapted Out:
    • Despite the fact that this game covers nearly all of the original Dragon Ball story, it ignores the final 23rd Martial Arts Tournament arc, likely due to the fact that Goku physically grew into a teenager when the tournament began and that would require a change in sprites. Consequently, this means King Piccolo doesn’t create Piccolo Jr. when he is killed.
    • A few key characters that don't appear in the game are Chi-Chi, Android 8, Captain Yellow, Colonel Silver and Violet, the first 3 Fortuneteller Baba fighters (Fangs the Vampire, See-Through the Invisible Man, and Bandages the Mummy), Master Shen, Cymbal, Piano, and Monster Carrot. Some of them are important characters to the plot (like King Piccolo's dragon) or could have been additional boss battles (like the Baba fighters or Cymbal).
    • Goku's Great Ape transformation is entirely omitted from the game, aside from a brief appearance in the final cutscene when Goku finishes King Piccolo with the Penetrate ability.
  • Attack Deflector: In addition to being able to destroy or deflect bullets, Goku and Krillin can also deflect missiles and other explosives back at the enemy by hitting them with their midair upward kick. Only Goku can use his Up+B to deflect bullets, while only Krillin can use his grounded Up B to also deflect missiles.
  • Auto-Pilot Tutorial: When the One-On-One is introduced during the story, the game overtakes the player character to demonstrate the new moves key to defeat the boss.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Goku is portrayed as a perfect beat 'em up character. His mobility, power and range are all top-notch. You can play as Krillin and many other characters in Extra mode, but the advantages they might offer over Goku come with glaring skillset limitations and a cumbersome way of just moving around. Yamcha, for example, has the powerful Wolf Fang Fist but can only move by making repeated short dashes. Drum can warp, but only about one foot, and that can screw you over when near bottomless pits. Justified, as many of these characters are designed to be bosses who fight one enemy in an arena and not really made to be played in a platforming beat 'em up.
    • Akuman's Devilmite Beam is an instant kill on any enemy except Goku but takes awfully long to charge and the ki gauge is completely lost if the move is interrupted.
    • The fully-charged Kamehameha and other similar beam moves are powerful and cannot by interrupted by damage while active. However, enemies can hit you from behind for a very high amount of stacked damage if you're not careful.
  • Balloon Belly: In One-On-One mode, Krillin can inflate himself to glide for an instant.
  • The Battle Didn't Count: Combined with Heads I Win, Tails You Lose and Hopeless Boss Fight in two cases. When Goku fights Tao Pai Pai and King Piccolo for the first time, he's severely weakened and is supposed to lose. If you win, you lose control as the enemy stands up and knocks out a massively cutscene-incompetent Goku. At least you won't get a "You Lose" message. Against Jackie Chun and Tien, however, you're required to win, even though Goku lost those fights in the original story.
  • Black Screen of Death: When Goku punches General White into the horizon, the scene fades out at the time of impact.
  • Bonus Feature Failure: That most of the enemy cast is playable is a good, novel idea. But most of their movesets are very limited and not much fun to play.
  • Boss-Arena Idiocy: True to the original story, Buyon is invincible until you break the wall of his room to let the cold wind freeze him.
  • Boss-Only Level: Oolong's Village (Oolong), Wilderness (Yamcha), Land of Korin (Tao), Baba's Palace (Akuman and Grandpa Gohan), City Street (combined Pilaf Mech), Above City (Tambourine), and the World Martial Arts Tournaments may count, since it's three one-on-one battles in a row, if you consider the first two warm up battles to be bosses.
  • Boss Rush: Bosses on Parade Mode is an unlockable gauntlet against every boss in the game, excluding the One-On-One fighters. The final enemy is a gray palette swap of Goku.
  • Bottomless Pits: Watch your step so you don't fall into those, though it is possible to recover from some pits by wall-jumping between walls.
  • Bowdlerize: Like the Funimation dub but unlike the European version, the American version changes Oolong's wish for "some girl's panties!" to "the world's most comfortable pair of underwear!"
  • Break Meter: In One-On-One Mode, the fighters' Rush Gauge are depleted if they're unable to block or parry attacks. While it isn't empty, the characters have Super Armor and don't take damage, but once it is, the attacker is able to perform a full combo on the defenseless opponent.
  • Broken Armor Boss Battle: Buyon is immune to all damage because of his Kevlard. In order to damage him, the player has to destroy the wall and allow in the freezing air, which will disable him and remove his damage immunity for a short time. To make up for this, Buyon has very little actual health.
  • Brutal Bonus Level: The hidden hard mode of Small Fry Fight is the ultimate test of Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure that remained unknown for two decades since the game was released. Enemies come from all sides in combinations devilishly designed to slaughter the player for any mistake and to blindside them if they think they can just turtle away firing Kamehamehas! Several enemies in this ten minute-long gauntlet noticeably attack at a much faster rate, move in unique patterns or have several times more HP than usual, making even otherwise harmless things like the Red Ribbon aircrafts very menacing all of a sudden if they land a combo on the player. There's even a unique miniboss fight in Giran to cap things off, with him showing up backed up by minions shooting bullets all over the place.
  • Charged Attack: Doable with Ki attacks by holding R. Power depends on how much the special gauge is filled and performing those attacks has no cost to it (In One-On-One Mode it does). While charging, characters become slower, but they can still attack normally to chain the Ki attack.
  • Collection Sidequest: Many items are hidden around the levels, although most of them have no real purpose.
  • Collision Damage: Subverted in a very fair way as running or walking into enemies does not hurt you, only their attacks and projectiles. Stage hazards also damage enemies, which can make for some amusing Disaster Dominoes in certain levels. The turtle shell powerup can allow you to damage enemies you walk into, allowing the player to harness the trope as a weapon.
  • Combos: You better learn how to chain your attacks for when you fight the harder bosses. On the enemy side, many of their attacks have this effect, as Goku only gains invincibility frames when knocked down.
  • Compressed Adaptation: Not as much as the One Piece game made after it, but not every scene from the manga is covered. Android 8 doesn't appear in the Muscle Tower level, for example.
  • Coup de Grâce Cutscene: Goku's last attack on King Piccolo is depicted on a cutscene.
  • Covers Always Lie: The North American box art has adult Goku in the background, despite not appearing in the game.
  • Cutscene Boss: General White is the villain of Muscle Tower but is defeated in a cutscene after Buyon. Justified by him not having any sort of superhuman attributes.
  • Degraded Boss:
    • Right after you beat Major Metallitron at Muscle Tower and then on several different occasions, you can find more of him as a normal enemy although thankfully without his Last Ditch Move Rocket Punch.
    • Tambourine returns as a normal enemy, although now without the wings.
    • Bats have the same model as Oolong's first form, just blue instead of red. They are decidingly not boss-like however.
  • Demoted to Extra: Following the boss fight, Yamcha and Puar disappear from the story, whereas in the original series they stuck around in various arcs. The Yamcha boss fight does return as a Mini-Boss in the penultimate level, the Cave of Darkness.
  • Double Jump: Krillin and a few other characters can double jump, while Goku actually can't.
  • Double Unlock: You can see the secret characters' cards in Extra Mode but you can't unlock them if you don't have all the Dragon Balls. In the Japanese version, you needed to input a button-press code in the title screen to be able to use them as well.
  • Dual Boss: Pilaf Machine and Shu Machine on Pilaf's Castle. Shu's Machine has twice as much health as Pilaf's and is likely to be defeated second. Pilaf's Machine is more dangerous and has harder attacks to dodge so it's easier to take it down first.
  • Easter Egg: If you start the Small Fry Fight minigame while holding L+R on the character select screen, it enables an alternate version of it that is a massive combat sequence with enemies that display behavior found nowhere else in the game. The game gives no clue that this exists, and the damn thing was first documented online in 2022 when it was found in a prototype, under the mistaken assumption that it was cut content.
  • Extended Gameplay: Extra mode allows you to replay the levels and enter the red doors that were locked before, so you can find the rest of the collectibles. Also, extra characters are playable in it.
  • Every 10,000 Points: You get the first extra life at 20,000 points, then at 50,000, then 100,000, and every 100,000 afterwards.
  • Fighting Game: One-On-One Mode plays like a standard fighting game with simple mechanics.
  • Flash Step: Doable in One-On-One Mode by pressing L after getting knocked down at the cost of some energy.
  • Flunky Boss: Many sections in the hard mode of Small Fry Fight have respawning enemies assisting a Boss in Mook Clothing. Bomb-dropping dinosaurs and aircrafts are particularly dangerous because they are designed to fly in from the sides and punish you for going on the defensive and shooting Kamehamehas at the wrong time. This is something not seen in the main game aside from how Yamcha has Puar as an invincible helper who will drop bombs on Goku every so often.
  • Fragile Speedster: Flying opponents are mostly this, as they have little health and tend to be fast. The flying camera robots are the most extreme example as they always die in one hit and move very quickly and erratically.
  • Guide Dang It!:
    • To figure out some of Goku's more advanced skills the player has to try out button combinations on their own or Read the Freaking Manual, as only the One-On-One mode has a tutorial.
    • Extra mode has a player select menu with only Goku and Krillin available by default. Icons of almost every enemy and boss are scattered around the mode, but initially appear to do nothing. What the game doesn't tell you is that you need to find the Dragon Balls in extra mode and beat Krillin's story mode to be able to actually use them.
      • The icons for Jackie Chun and Piccolo only appear in the Rock Crushing and Small Fry Fight minigames respectively, with a random probability of dropping.
    • In the Japanese version, a secret code had to be used on the title screen to actually enable the secret characters after collecting all Dragon Balls, similarly to Mega Man Battle Network 2 and the first Zatch Bell: Electric Arena.
    • The alternate version of Small Fry Fight can be enabled by simply holding L+R while selecting a character. However, there is no in-game clue that it exists and the code was seemingly never documented online even in Japanese sites until 2024, two years after this mode was first found in a prototype of the game. This is despite the game, like other GBA games of its time, having had a secret codes section on its Japanese website and a detailed guidebook exclusive to Japan.
  • Heart Container: The Super Life Water items (with the Ultra Divine Water maxing it out). There are other variations for upgrading the Kamehameha and Goku's attack power (and by proxy the Power Pole's range and his Up+B's duration).
  • Humongous Mecha: The boss robots used by Pilaf and the Red Ribbon Army.
  • Immune to Flinching: Some attacks have this property.
  • Indy Escape: Giant boulders make an appearance in Pilaf's Castle and Yajirobe's Prairie (mainly the Cave that holds the Super Kami Water).
  • Invincibility Powerup: A turtle shell which makes Goku invincible and able to deal some Collision Damage to enemies.
  • Kaizo Trap: Once you defeat Yamcha, Puar releases the bomb if he's holding one, and, since Goku does not become invincible after beating a boss, you can potentially take a hit from that bomb, and chances are, if your health is low enough, and you die, forcing you to use a life and restart.
  • Kamehame Hadouken: It starts off weak and short ranged, but Goku can later charge it into its blue screen-filling form. It's useful for damaging enemies from a safe distance, but some can run at Goku to prevent him from turtling too much.
  • Launcher Move: Goku can launch grounded enemies high into the air with a kick activated by pressing Up+A+B, at which point he can jump in pursuit and pummel them before they hit the ground. Most characters in Extra Mode (but mainly Krillin) can also perform this with just an upward B command. In VS mode, using your forward B combo after depleting their Rush Gauge does this automatically.
  • Last Ditch Move: After his first defeat, Major Metallitron shoots his hand at you while you're leaving the room.
  • Ledge Bats: Bats and other enemy types sometimes serve this purpose.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Most of the bosses that are human sized are this trope. They often move, teleport, and jump around a lot. Some of these bosses are Krillin, General Blue, Spike the Devilman, and Tambourine.
  • Limit Break: By pressing L, your character executes a strong attack that uses up some of the special gauge (main Goku and Krillin, as most of the extra characters use L to block). Goku can power his up by holding R to charge up their Ki first, allowing them to automatically follow up their attack with a Ki blast, the strength of which depends on its charge level before they used the Limit Break. In 1-on-1 fights, Goku, Jackie, Tien and Piccolo have a highly damaging super move that can be performed by pressing L and R at the same time, they need a full Ki gauge and using it drains the bar completely.
  • Marathon Boss: The Final Boss version of King Piccolo is the only One-on-One opponent with five bars of health (more than that four that's limited in the multiplayer version). He still doesn't take a very long time to beat, but still about twice as long as all the one-on-one boss fights before.
  • Marathon Level: Every single stage is rather long and filled with mandatory enemy encounters.
    • The Red Ribbon Army stage has a flying section and a beat-em-up section, the second of which is very long and packed with enemies.
    • After the 22nd Martial Arts Tournament; the game does a big Wham Episode and unleashes the player into a series of levels; a flying section boss Tambourine, then a Hopeless Boss Fight against the Old King Piccolo, and then a tough beat-em-up section in the Cave of Darkness which has a Mini-Boss halfway through. It's not until the Cave of Darkness is completed that they go back to the main story menu.
  • Mercy Invincibility: You get some if you're knocked down.
  • Mighty Glacier: A lot of the bosses are slow, often big, with strong hitting moves. Some examples are the Bear Thief, Yamcha, Major Metallitron, Battle Jacket, and the Combined Pilaf Mech.
    • Among One-on-One characters, King Piccolo is this trope. He moves and attacks the slowest of the playable characters, but he has long reach on his attacks and his combos pack a punch.
  • Mini-Boss: There are a few bosses that are fought in the middle of levels, with a visible health bar. But they aren't the boss of the stage.
    • Muscle Tower has a bunch with Major Metallitron, Ninja Murasaki, and his five brothers.
    • Underwater Cave has the Pirate Robot.
    • The Cave of Darkness (accessed from Yajirobe's Praire) has a battle against a Grey Yamcha about halfway through.
    • Chow Castle has Drum, who is fought at the start of the level before the beat-em-up platforming section.
  • Mythology Gag: Because Krillin can't ride the Flying Nimbus due to not being pure of heart, he instead rides the Dark Nimbus (here translated as the "Black Nimbus") Korin gave Mercenary Tao in anime filler.
  • Non-Player Character:
    • Several enemies from the game's fighting game one-on-one mode appear as enemies in the story but not in the multiplayer mode itself. The characters are Giran, Nam, and Chiaotzu. It can be justified because the first two don't have any super meters and are very underpowered as a result, though Chaiotzu has no explanation. They can be played in Extra Mode however.
    • The elderly version of King Piccolo is a non-playable story-exclusive character, even though he's just a Palette Swap of the youthful King Piccolo.
  • Palette Swap: The color palette of enemies lets you know what kind of attacks they have. This is especially important for the red multi-legged robots, which explode for large amounts of damage when they die.
  • Puzzle Boss: You can't hurt Buyon normally during his boss fight. You need to bust a hole open in the wall to let the freezing air outside blow in the room and freeze Buyon, where he is made vulnerable.
  • One-Hit Kill: Akuman can kill almost any enemy in a single hit with his Devilmite Beam, including bosses, but it takes an entire maxed out Ki bar to perform, takes an eternity to charge and is easily interrupted. Just like in the original manga, only Goku as both a boss and playable character is completely immune to it.
  • One-Winged Angel: Oolong has two health bars. His normal form is a red bat, but when he reaches his last health bar, he changes into a rocket and gains new attacks.
  • Optional Boss:
    • Bosses on Parade Mode has a Grey colored Goku as the final boss. The main story has Grey versions of Yamcha and Krillin as bosses but not Goku.
    • Cyborg Tao is the final boss of One-On-One's Survival Mode. Unlike most fighting game bosses, he has no SNK Boss tendencies and plays very similarly to the fully organic Tao, with only minor differences (Cyborg Tao has slightly worse close combat but a stronger Dodon Ray).
  • Overly Generous Time Limit: Downplayed, but the Island of Training has one of 300 seconds per section. It should take between 150-225 to get to the end, so the time limit would only run out if the player was trying to fight as many enemies as possible.
  • Shoot the Bullet: Punch the bullets to destroy them. You're even required to punch the Battle Jacket's big missile to avoid its full screen damage range.
  • Secret A.I. Moves: When fought as a boss, a few playable characters such as Goku and Krillin can dash like they do in Vs Mode. However, not much of their attacks are that much of a secret, but with several playable characters they're performed slightly different.
  • Secret Character: Almost everyone you fight against in the game can be unlocked in Extra Mode. You can swap between characters anytime at the pause menu once they're available.
  • Spikes of Doom: They are often part of level designs of indoor locations. Though instead of instant death, they deal high damage — even to enemies.
  • Spin to Deflect Stuff: Up+B has Goku spinning the Power Pole to deflect bullets.
  • Stationary Boss: Buyon is the only boss that never moves during its boss fight. It just starts spamming electricity from a distance and will perform a close ranged grab attack if Goku tries to attack him up close without freezing him.
  • Super Armor: Bosses turn unflinchable and gain high defense when you hit them too recklessly and often become invincible on top of that. Goku also has armor while firing the Kamehameha, but no extra defense. If certain enemies get you from behind at this point, expect to take over double of the damage you'd usually take from their attacks.
  • Super Title 64 Advance: Interestingly enough, the English version is called "Advanced", which is a common mistake people make when talking about the GBA.
  • Tennis Boss: Enemies who shoot missiles can have them kicked back. Downplayed with the bosses, since the tennis element is not a necessary means to win the boss battle but can make it faster.
    • The Shu Mech can shoot a missile, which can be reflected.
    • Battle Jacket has two missile attacks, one that is a direct barrage and one from above that can be reflected back to him. With the second of these attacks, it's the only way to stop it, since its otherwise a powerful full screen attack.
    • The combined Pilaf Mech can have its upper and lower missiles kicked back to it, which can destroy its health bar quickly.
  • Timed Mission:
    • The Island of Training level runs on a time limit as you search for a rock and play the Level in Reverse to chase after Krillin when he steals it.
    • The normal Small Fry Fight mode gives you 150 seconds to defeat as many enemies as possible. The game ends when either the timer runs out or when it runs out of enemies to spawn. The hard mode has no time limit, and instead counts how many seconds you took to beat all enemies.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Giran. He is a Non-Player Character and Warm-Up Boss for One-on-One mode who is also weak in Extra Mode, having slow attacks, no super charge moves (he is an Adaptational Wimp, since he doesn't have his Merry-Go-Round Gum), and only has flight going for him. Since the discovery of Small Fry Fight's Hard Mode, he is effectively the Final Boss of the hardest challenge in the game. Though he isn't a true boss in the mode, and the mode doesn't end when he's defeated, he is still a formidable opponent compared to how he is in the story mode and he is the face of the challenge's endgame.
  • Unintentionally Unwinnable: Downplayed in the first minute of the game. The first Pterosaur you meet spawns after beating the third bandit on the level's first encounter. However, its altitude is relative to Goku's position, so you can use launching kicks on the bandit to spawn the dino so high into the sky that it becomes only barely hittable by a jumping staff strike when it uses a diving attack.
  • Video Game Tutorial: There is an Auto-Pilot Tutorial when the One-On-One is introduced during the story.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: Yamcha. Yes, Yamcha. If you didn't get yet that you can't just spam the attack button to defeat bosses in this game, fighting Yamcha will do the trick. His Wolf Fang Fist is fairly predictable but deals a TON of damage if it connects. Puar will also regularly bring bombs to drop at the most inopportune times.
  • Wall Jump: Done just like in the Metroid games (jump into a wall, face the opposite direction and jump).
  • Warm-Up Boss:
    • The Bandit King is a very slow-moving enemy with just two easily avoidable attacks.
    • Giran is the first enemy in the Martial Arts Tournament stages and first non-tutorial enemy of the One-on-One mode. He has a very limited moveset. Ironically, it is him who appears at the end of the secret hard mode of Small Fry Fight, making him the True Final Boss of sorts even though he's not much tougher when fought in the beat 'em up mode. The challenge there is that he's a Flunky Boss of a hard-as-nails ten minute-long level.
  • A Winner Is You: Bosses on Parade and both versions of Small Fry Fight end with a simple congratulations screen and your final time and score.
  • Wolfpack Boss: The five Murasaki Brothers on Muscle Tower. They have low health for a boss and they aren't terribly strong individually, but the struggle of the battle is their sheer numbers, especially as they fill up the screen with projectiles.
  • You Have Researched Breathing: High jumping with the Power Pole is limited to specific spots to keep it from breaking the level design. On Extra Mode, however, you can quickly find a Power Pole item that quietly removes that limitation.