There are very few franchises in nerd culture that come close to the action that was produced by Dragon Ball Z. Nothing. The over the top action is what made us all rush home from school to catch the latest episode on Toonami to see what insane new power the main characters can unlock to defeat their latest threat. With the anime focusing so hard on 1v1 combat, it only makes sense that the dozens of video games to spawn from the franchise would of course be arena fighting games. It totally makes sense. Some of my favorite memories were beating Cell with Super Saiyan 2 Gohan in Budokai which and Frieza is the best one-on-one fight in the series. However, I always wondered what it would be like to play a Dragon Ball Z game, not as a fighter, but as a genre that is rarely touched by traditional Shonen animes. Is there such a thing for the legendary franchise that turned so many of us into anime lovers?

Yes… yes there is.

I actually discovered a little gem while searching for my Fall plays this year for my Gameboy Color emulator. I just so happened to be looking in alphabetical order and when I saw a title with Dragon Ball Z in it, I just thought it was just another fighter or beat-em-up. When I googled it, though, I was completely blown away.

Dragon Ball Z – Legendary Super Warriors is a turn based rpg / card battler hybrid that replaces the fast-paced fighting for methodical strategy. Just reading that, I’m sure you’re thinking that there’s no way that could work, but you would be absolutely mistaken. The game brings so many interesting mechanics that utilizes the limitations of the Gameboy with absolute grace. It’s quite an impressive feat that I wish other big anime franchises could replicate.

Turn-based combat is conducted by playing cards with different abilities and moves that represent famous attacks from the anime. The Kamehameha, Galick Gun, Special Beam Cannon, Destructo Disk, and all the various others are all present in the game and can be used by multiple characters. However, I’m not quite sure why Vegeta can use the Destructo Disk, that one was a bit weird. There’s an action point system called Combat Points that works as a pool you can pull from to fund higher-tiered attacks. As the game goes on, you unlock more cards and build a deck of attacks, defense, and support cards that’ll make any trading card game lover feel like they’re in heaven.

One unfortunate thing about the deck building is that it’s one deck that is shared between ALL characters. Normally that’s not a big deal, but there are some cards that some characters can’t use and if you forget to remove them before the battle starts, you can be in trouble. To avoid this, I simply removed all character exclusive cards from the deck and only assigned them as “Limit Cards.” This acts as a set of three cards that can be used whenever your character uses their attack phase to power up, which also grants a small damage boost for a short time. I’m not sure if that’s how the game was designed to be played, but it doesn’t tell you that at all. Like, there are very little things this game tells you.

The game also has this awesome movement system that gives you slight boosts depending where you move your character during a fight. There are four spots to move: Air front, air back, ground front, and ground back. Being in the front boosts your attacks because you’re essentially closer to your opponent, and being in the back increases your guard ability, because, well, you’re farther away from your opponent! Being in the air also boosts your physical defense while being on the ground protects you better from beam attacks. It became almost like a chess match trying to predict what my opponent was going to do, and moving to the appropriate spot to counter it the best that I could. I LOVED this mechanic and I consider it an absolute highlight of the combat system.

The story is the standard working your way through the original anime story, with little to no change. This isn’t a bad thing though. The game isn’t designed to be a new story, but presents the narrative we already love in a new way. I knew exactly who I was going to fight and when just based on my already long standing knowledge of the anime’s official established story, and I liked that. It was almost like you were waiting in anticipation for Goku to turn Super Saiyan for the first time, and getting that satisfaction of squaring up with Frieza on equal terms. It was truly epic, and the game did not drop the ball with that.

The only real downside of the game was the battle mode, which acts like a skirmish mode to just have a quick battle between characters. I was really looking forward to this mode, and even had a guide for unlocking all the characters in the game. Here’s the problem with that: all the characters are absolutely ridiculously hard to unlock. I’m not kidding. There are some characters that require you to lose the first fight in a battle, then win the second time. That whole concept just seems so silly to me.

I understand what the developers were trying to do, and for the era in video game history where this game belongs it’s understandable. The developers were simply trying to extend the life of the game to keep players engaged to unlock all the characters. I get that, and I respect that, but dear God, why did they make you jump through hoops just to unlock somebody? I truly believe there may have been a bug in unlocking characters as well, because I’m certain I fulfilled the necessary requirements to unlock some but they didn’t unlock after I beat the game. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good challenge, but making it to where you have to spin a plate on your head while standing on one leg and juggling molotovs is just ridiculous.

Other than that, Dragon Ball Z Legendary Super Warriors is a great experience on the Gameboy Color. It gives the action and storytelling that we’ve all come to know and love from the franchise perfectly, and is a great addition to any DBZ fan. If you find this guy at your local game store, do yourself a favor and pick it up! If not, there are tons of places to score the Rom.

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