December 06, 2022

Early Dragon Ball Video Games (S1E27)

1 hour 3 minutes

Can early-era video games hold the attention of people with more modern sensibilities and demands of their games?

Jelli and Bekinney take a break from Akira Toriyama's worldwide manga and anime phenomenon (because we don't do enough of that, right?) by breaking down some early video games. We're talking about Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō, aka Secret of the Dragon from the Super Casette Vision; Dragon Ball: Shenlong no Nazo aka Dragon Power for the Nintendo Entertainment System; and Dragon Ball: Daimaō Fukkatsu aka Dragon Ball: Great Demon King's Revival, also for the NES.

In this episode:

We perform mop up duty on straggling invaders

We discuss the background of Dragon Ball video games, specifically that of developer Epoch, who created the first game

We talk about what the Cassette Vision console was, and Epoch's big hits Barcode Battler and TV Tennis Electrotennis

Epoch's current state of existence, which is largely making baseball trading cards for the Nippon Pro Baseballe league and little tchotchke toys.

We talk about Dragon Daihikyo and its similarities to overhead shooters like 1942

We begin for the first time ever discussing Bandai and their stranglehold over the Dragon Ball franchise universe in terms of marketing

We discuss TOSE Software, the programming company behind Dragon Power

TOSE's credits, including Bases Loaded, Mappy-Land, Toxic Crusaders, Tetris 2, Yoshi's Cookie, Resident Evil Survivor, Resident Evil Zero, Scarlet Nexus, Dragon Quest, WWE and Metal Gear Solid

The Famicom entertainment system and how it compared to the NES

How Dragon Power's US port differed from the Japanese version and why the changes were made

Dragon Power gameplay and how it walks you through the Pilaf Arc, including the Bear Thief, Master Roshi's desire to see Bulma's panties, Oolong, Yamcha, Ox King, Monster Carrot (Boss Rabbit) and Pilaf's Castle...and how there are still 8 stages to go, including the Tenkaichi Budokai, with combatants being Krillin, Major Metallitron, Yamcha and Buyon, fighting through Muscle Tower, and how the game's wishes to the eternal dragon Shenron work

Then we get into Dragon Ball Daimao Fukkatsu, and how it has never been ported to the US

We discuss early Nintendo RTS (real time strategy) games, and how this game walks one through the Demon King Piccolo story arc and the changes it makes, including returns to Muscle Tower, General Blue, Korin Tower, fighting members of the Crane School of martial arts (when Tien Shinhan studied) and Fortune Teller Baba

and more, including some general pop culture, trivia, and editorializing, as usual

Join us as we continue to uncover the cultural meanings, publication facts, inspirations and more behind the wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise.

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