GC 2008: Dragon Ball: Origins First Look

Last month, Atari announced that it would be publishing Dragon Ball: Origins in Europe, and today we had our first opportunity to see the game in action at the Games Convention in Leipzig. Unfortunately, the version of the game being shown was in Japanese, but we were still able to glean some information about it from the Namco Bandai representatives running the demo.

Set before the events of the Dragon Ball anime, Origins will tell the story of Goku and his sidekick Bulma. The two characters will have very different skill sets, and though Goku appears to be the most useful of the pair in combat, they'll have to work together to solve puzzles. In addition to being skilled with his power-pole weapon, Goku is the only one who can jump and who is strong enough to push large blocks around. On the other hand, Bulma has the ability to craft machines and weapons and, based on what we saw today, will need to be rescued from enemies by Goku on more than one occasion. For example, at one point we saw Bulma in the clutches of a giant pteradon that filled both screens, and it was Goku who saved the day.

We didn't get to play Dragon Ball: Origins ourselves on this occasion, but it's clear that the entire game can be played using only the stylus. It's also clear that Origins boasts some impressive 3D character models, although some portions of the game appeared to be playable only from an isometric viewpoint.

Before our all-too brief demo came to an end, we were left with something of a teaser when we were told that it'll be possible to unlock another playable character. Given that Dragon Ball: Origins is scheduled for release before the end of the year, we hope to bring you more information on that subject in the not-too-distant future.