Dragonball Z Goku Densetsu review (DS)

Not being a Dragonball Z fan would probably go some way to explaining that, but thankfully it won’t exclude you from getting something out of this flawed, but ultimately enjoyable card-based DS game.

The intricacies of the plot mean little to someone like myself, who isn’t aware of the characters or their background, and this isn’t helped by the frankly bizarre conversations and seemingly pointless comments that sometimes crop up, but the basics go something like this; aliens are coming to take over the planet, and it’s down to Goku (you) to stop them. If you don’t follow Dragonball Z it’s fair to say a lot of the plot will be lost on you, but it’s still possible to follow the game and working out what’s going on is never particularly hard.

Gridlocked

The game takes place on a grid within different environments that Goku travels to, and movement around this grid, as well as pretty much everything else in the game, is determined by the cards that Goku possesses. The cards have three values, power, guard, and an action symbol. This is where Goku Densetsu’s main gameplay mechanic comes into effect; if the power value is, say, 5, then you’ll move 5 places on the grid. The power value always determines the amount of spaces you’ll move. Sometimes though you’ll encounter enemies on the grid, and this is where the guard value of your card comes into play. If your guard value is higher than the enemy’s, you’ll avoid a battle. If it’s lower though, you’ll be made to fight.

The battles are card-based too, and the third and final element to each card is used here. The action symbol will be one of eight types, ranging from ‘attack’ and ‘use item’ to one that allows you to escape a battle. Whether you get to use this though again comes down to the power value of your card. If it beats your opponent’s, you can do a move and inflict some damage, or use one of the seven other action types. If your opponent has a more powerful card, their attack’s effect will depend on the power level and your guard value.

It might sound complex, but during gameplay it works well and is an interesting take on the turn-based battle system of RPGs and the card-based formula in similar games. As the game progresses you’ll learn new abilities, such as being able to use two cards at once for various combos, and you’ll become quite proficient at working out the strategic benefits and quirks of what you can do with the set of cards you currently have. The battle system is surprisingly deep, and with encounters with enemies being reasonably frequent, it needed to be.

Map reading

In each environment there’s a certain point on the map that you need to get to, aided by being able to switch the map screen to the DS’s bottom screen and look around it with the stylus. It’s not terribly exciting to just have to move from point A to point B level after level, but the battles and movement system make it a lot less tedious than it could have been. There’s little more to the game than that, and yet it somehow remains entertaining. It isn’t the longest game out there though, and certainly not the most difficult, so what you get ends up being a short but sweet affair. There’s a versus mode for either single-card or multi-card games and a collection area that lets you look at cards you’ve unlocked and listen to voice samples from the game. The single player is also playable with three other characters, although little varies with this.

For some reason, despite these voice samples, there isn’t actually any speech in the game, and the irrelevant conversations that seem to go on for longer than they need to can be an annoyance. The characters and environments look good and the battle animations are slick, and it’s all accompanied by some pretty decent music. Aesthetically the game doesn’t perform badly at all.

If you’re a Dragonball Z fan this comes recommended, as knowing the characters and understanding the plot will only add to what’s already a decent game. For the rest of us, it’s a fun card-based game that’s only let down by its lack of difficulty and length. Worth looking at.