An excellent game no Dragon Ball fan should be without.
Alright what we've got here is your standard side-scrolling beat the crap out of everything that's not you game with some minor platforming thrown in for kicks.
The game moves you through the story of Dragon Ball at a rather brisk pace only to stop before the last story arc. That would have to be the game's only flaw for me. I mean what the hell? All of Dragon Ball is represented except for it's kick ass conclusion? *shrugs* Oh well, them's the breaks I suppose.
At any rate the graphics are beautiful and fluidly animated 2D sprites, the music is nothing memorable but all the tunes are rather catchy, the gameplay itself is rather simple but at the same time highly addictive and fun.
B attacks, A jumps, L preforms a special attack, R charges Ki (once you get it) and then you release R to fire a ki blast. That's the gist of it. There are more complicated attacks that you can preform with various combinations of the directional pad and B however.
Son Goku will move from one area on the map to the next and the story will be displayed in text-based cutscenes. There are three types of levels Platforming, Sky Battle, and One on One.
Platforming is what you'll be doing the most of. Running around killing waves of enemies, collecting items to power up Goku's life and Ki and earning points towards extra lives.
Sky Battles feature Goku flying around in the Nimbus Cloud but the controls remain largely the same as you fend off aerial assaults by various flying enemies.
One on One duels are more like your standard fighting game and the controls differ slightly. You'll still be using B, A, and R in the same ways but your L attack is gone. You'll attack your opponent and try to do damage to their fatigue gauge that is under their life bar, once it's down they can't block attacks and you're free to pummel them down or knock them into the air and continue your combo.
That's about all there is to the game. As far as extra's go this game is loaded with them. Once you beat the main game you can play through the story mode as another character, but he doesn't get any of his own cutscenes.
Also there's a mode for strict One on One duels against the computer or a friend who has the game as well. Progress through the game unlocks more characters for one on one duels.
There's an Extra mode that let's you continue the game after you've beaten it and find items that weren't available before. You can also unlock the ability to play as ANYTHING in the game in this mode. Nearly every single character, boss, and random enemy can be played as.
There's also a separate mode where you can play any of the games mini-games.
So in conclusion Dragon Ball: Advance Adventure is a simple little game that is overloaded with extra features and contains highly addictive gameplay. A definite boon to the collection of any Dragon Ball fan.