NES Games No One Played: DRAGON POWER (Nintendo Entertainment System Review)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- PATREON ► / bigolewords
STREAMS ► Every Thursday 9pm EST here on UA-cam
DRAGON POWER ►The story of a young monkey boy and an old hermit who constantly confuses food with sex, it's "Dragon Power" for the NES! (Also known as "Dragon Ball: Shenron no Nazo" on the Nintendo Famicom.)
#retrogaming #nintendo #nes
DRAGON POWER | 1988
Similar Games: Legend of Zelda mixed with Kung Fu
► If you're looking to get into retro reviewing or streaming, here's some of the equipment I used for both or either. My current setup is what I love now, but honestly I'd say start out with the cheap stuff and get a feel for everything before throwing down a ton of cash on gear you may or may not need.
► MY EQUIPMENT (CURRENT):
NICE LIGHTS: amzn.to/3j7NDEU
DURABLE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE: amzn.to/3RgopAE
FOOTAGE CAMERA: amzn.to/3HaPL6s
WEBCAM CAMERA: amzn.to/3XMWVVP
VIDEO CAPTURE CARD: amzn.to/3jm6tId
BETTER MIC: amzn.to/3jiOMcD
HEADPHONES: amzn.to/3JpjNWZ
RCA TO HDMI CONVERTER: www.retrotink....
► MY EQUIPMENT (STARTING OUT):
CHEAP FLOOD LIGHTS: amzn.to/3kQwbVJ
CHEAP POP FILTER: amzn.to/3YbsRmB
CHEAP MIC: amzn.to/3wKUret
CHEAP TRIPOD: amzn.to/406ua89
CHEAP RING LIGHT: amzn.to/40asqL4
NON-DURABLE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE: amzn.to/3WLWVnM
CHEAP VIDEO CAPTURE CARD: amzn.to/3DpKLKk
CHEAP RCA TO HDMI CONVERTER: amzn.to/3JxNQf0
After years of focusing on the best games for the NES, I decided to change gears and focus on lesser known cartridges that have, for one reason or another, generally escaped the public discussion and general nostalgia. This series highlights many of the relatively unknown, obscure, and unloved titles in the Nintendo Entertainment System's library. Some of these games are at best mediocre. Many are painfully bad, some of the worst NES games around. Most are hilarious for all the wrong reasons! Occasionally, OCCASIONALLY, a handful of them are actually good, borderline hidden gems.
While you won't find any of these on the NES Classic, some of these titles have managed to make their way onto the Nintendo Switch, so if you don't have an original Nintendo console or ROMs escape you ethically or technologically, there are several ways to play them.
Want more? Me too! Until then, lots of other articles where the pictures don't move and words have to be read can be found on my website: top100nesgames.com
/ awinnerisyou
/ bigolewords
top100nesgames.com
nes, nintendo, retro gaming, retro games, gaming, video games,
nes games, 8-bit, old school, nintendo entertainment system, famicom, family computer, 8-bit games, nintendo games, Nintendo gamer, 8-bit gaming, 8 bit, 8-bit gamer, 8-bit music, chiptune, chiptunes, retro gamer, 80s, 90s, 80s video games, 90s video games, game collecting, game collection, retro game collecting, retro game collection, game room tour, gaming tour, NES Hidden Gems, Bad NES Games, Funny NES Games, Nintendo Hidden gems
Does playing this game make anyone else hungry?
I prefer sniffing my sandwiches
@@fakeshemp9599 Heyo!
Dragon Ball was hugely popular in France in the 80s, so we had the original game, with the real characters, and the game was even translated in french (which was not very common at the time 😅).
Whoa that’s pretty awesome!
I somehow knew exactly what the sandwiches thing was as soon as it came up. The whole bit about Roshi copping a feel of Bulma/Oolong came straight from the show. So is Bulma being turned into a carrot by Monster Carrot.
I had this from way back as a kid. I made it all the way to the second fight with Boss Rabbit. I didn't know it was Dragonball until much later.
Impressed you made it that far, this game is tough!
I played this many years ago and to this day the thing that stands out to me is where Oolong disguised as Bulma and Roshi meet. Just before Oolong/Bulma offers her “burgers”. The lines are like
Bulma/Oolong: “Hi!”
Roshi: “Hi! You irritate me”.
My friend and I just laughed hard at that because it was so out of the blue.
Hahaha whoever they hired to write the translation didn’t get paid quite enough!
@@BigOleWords disgruntled translator
The sound of him jumping when he beats the level bosses took me back in time. I loved this game, Batman, Double Dragon, and the Mickey Mouse one.
That is a very distinct sound for sure!
The "Give me your lunch" thing is hilarious since there actually is a female DB character named "Lunch" (Launch in the English dub)
Too bad she never showed up again, I liked her.
Haha random
I had this game as a kid and had no idea it was Dragon Ball till I got it home. I found it open cart at a used game shop for cheap. For $5, it was great!
That’s a steal of a deal!
There were actually a couple of failed attempts to localize Dragonball in America back in the 80s. Harmony Gold (who also localized Macross and two other shows into Robotech) dubbed a few episodes into English and I think only aired on a very few stations in a test market and never went beyond that. (This dub was only recently rediscovered a few years ago after previously being lost media.) These dubs are where the name "Master Roshi" (for Muten Roshi / Kame Sen'nin) comes from. "Roshi" means "old master", so it wasn't a very good localization choice. (Essentially, "Master Master".) Goku was also renamed to "Zero" for some reason in this version. I think that name stuck around in some other countries' localizations.
My neighbor had this game. I played most of the games in this "games no one has played" list.
As a kid? You must’ve loved the deep cuts!
@@BigOleWords they were just games to rent back then..i had plenty of video stores in my small town and everyone had a NES in the 80s and 90s
Ah, so *you're* the "no one" who played these games 😉
The “sandwich “ sprite is literally just the panties flipped upside down.
Haha I never noticed that!
I had this when it came out and it was decades before I knew it was a Dragon Ball reskin. I have never beat it. It is so frustrating but I played it a lot. This was back when I got like two or three new games a year so I had to savor the games I had. That low health warning chime is still etched in my mind. Right up there with the Sonic drowning and torch going out from Shadowgate.
All I read was “ball skin” ;)
@@BigOleWords That's fair.
This video made me play this game. I remember renting it back around 1990, and only making it through a few stages, and then never renting it again because it didn’t seem very good. Now that I’m older and have patience, I decided to give it the ol’ college try.
My reflection: the way the game operates takes getting used to, in the sense of keeping your energy up and fighting mechanics. The second half of the game is brutal, as you said. There really is no way to continue and win after passing the halfway mark, since you need to take the extra energy at that point and don’t get it back if you continue. The game essentially wants you to, with the help of rng luck, have that one perfect run where you don’t take much damage, and actually find a cake somewhere in the tower. It felt like the 10th time I was working on the tower when I finally got a cake to carry me the rest of the way. So, in that sense, it was really rewarding when I finally beat it. Thanks for getting me back into this game after more than 30 years!!
p.s. - I’m currently working on Mighty Bomb Jack. A definite hidden gem that I hope you cover, if you haven’t already.
Glad you enjoyed it enough to give Dragon Power another shot!
I had this game as a kid. I had no idea wtf to do
Yeah that just about sums it up!
I think I spent the better part of my day trying to remember the name of this game. Thanks to Reddit I finally found it.
Hey I think I read that post!
I rented this. I put it on pause to talk to my grandmother on the phone, and when I came back, I unpaused it, and the game reset. I have never experienced that with any other game. That pissed me off.
Hahaha that would’ve killed me as a kid!
I skipped watching Dragon Ball when I was younger, and my wife introduced me to it only last year, so I think I'm now primed to give this game a shot.
You should but lower your expectations!
@@BigOleWords Yeah it's a pretty janky game, I don't think I would ever have enjoyed it for the gameplay but as a fan of the show I had a good dose of "Ooh, I remember this part, and I know who that character sprite represents!" 😂
I did own this a kid and we loved it. It wasn't until Dragon Ball started playing on late night tv when I was an early teen that I realized it was just a modified Dragon Ball game lol
I actually have this one! I found my mom's old NES at one point and it had this baby in the tray already, but I never found food to keep my health high enough to get through the second level. I knew I was missing something but I wasn't sure what it was and I haven't really messed with it since. Maybe it's worth another go!
It’s a tough one. You gotta play it over an over to find all the food, move super quickly, and also somehow avoid damage. That timer is cruel!
I have watched all of Dragonball uncensored. Master Roshi does ask to see Bulma's panties, BUT she forgot she took them off the night before, so when she pulled up her night shirt, he saw her vag instead. What's worse is she's only 15 at this point in the show.
Yeah I’ve seen some of those pervy clips like Goku slapping Burma’s lady parts. So weird.
I rented this game once as a kid. When I saw Dragon Ball years later it all seemed familiar, and it was because of this game.
Nice!
This video randomly came up in my feed and i forgot about this game until now. I had it as a kid and while i beat the rabbit boss i never really got further than that no matter how much i played of it. I never put 2 and 2 together that this was a DB game though. Seeing as thats my favorite anime as a teen its no wonder i had some weird fondness for this game long before i knew what DB was.
I’m impressed you made it that far!
I didn't know this existed!
Love the content!
Thanks! Dragon Power is an odd one for sure!
As soon as I saw the “roshi wants bulma’s sandwich” I knew what that *really* was from the original anime 😂… it’s pretty disturbing.
I should've know it was something pervy!
For some reason I loved this game when I was really young and always wanted to rent it from the video store, I didn’t realize how bizarre it is. I can’t believe how perverted the Japanese version is! Great video as always, the That 70’s Show clip at the end really cracked me up!
-Cast
Hey thanks, glad you like it :)
The panties gag is in the show, and it actually has a buildup over a couple eps. Goku, as a child, would always sleep with his head in his grandpa Gohan's lap. One evening, Goku tries to fall asleep in Bulma's lap (who sleeps through all of this), and notices...something feels wrong. So he pulls off her panties to see whats there (or not), because he didnt know much of anything about females at this point. Anyway, a bit later when they meet Roshi and ask him for his Dragonball, he agrees, but only if she shows him her panties. She reluctantly agrees and then hikes her nightgown over her shoulders....unaware that her panties are still missing. Roshi and the turtle both get massive nosebleeds and Roshi gives up his dragonball, and only later Bulma realizes her panties are gone and that she just bared it all for the perverted master. Its a great laugh and the scene has been reanimated in a number of different specials.
Still don't understand why that made their noses bleed!
@@BigOleWords The nosebleed thing is just something that happens in manga/anime, its a physical representation of extreme romantic feelings (used for comedic effect). I guess because they cant show blood rushing to their dong, they go with the nose instead lol.....
oh, i played it in 1987 after my uncle rented it mistaking it for 'double dragon'.
Ooof that’s a rough mixup!
Son Goku with a headband is look like Jimmy Snuka.
Yeah he does!
I rented this one a couple of times as a kid, then got it as a collector. I have nostalgia for it, but it is really difficult. I’ve never even made it to the rabbit level!
That rabbit level will make you regret you toughed it out that far!
I owned this as a kid when it was new. I could barely squeak past "Lancer". It wasn't until a few years later watching the Spanish version of DragonBall (which is uncensored) did I know they were same thing.
I just got this game in a lot I purchased. It’s the stand out game, and I’m happy to have it now.
weird, the PAL version is simply called "Dragonball" and has the main characters on the label of the game as well....
makes me wonder if the "sandwich" dialogue is also in the PAL version or if we actually got the panties one.....
Report back, I'm curious! For...research reasons of course ;)
We didn't get Dragonball in America until after the original manga had ended its run in Japan. I think almost every other country got it before we did, so that is probably why that PAL version wasn't changed like the American one was. Nobody in America knew what the hell "Dragonball" was, so they probably changed to save some money and not pay for the license.
I remember as a kid my cousin had this one. At the time I thought it looked like dragon ball. Then I was sure it was…. Long before I looked it up and yup, dragonball. I remember thinking it wasn’t a great game but I had fun with it
That sums it up perfectly, not great but fun enough!
Played this game recently and I really like it! Solid, old-school arcade title. I'd take either version, though I'd miss the cutscene music from the original version (they replaced an 8bit Makafushigi adventure).
Goku looks closer to the Monkey King, which is cool!
When i first played this i had no idea it was Dragonball....and it was definitely before I discovered Dragonball....
I mean back then, how could you know?!
@@BigOleWords ikr?
The pig & cat things. 😁
0:58 good enemy design here
I think I rented it once back in the day but don't remember understanding it or progressing very far. Which is more surprising when you consider I got through Xexyz without much issue.
Haha they are kind of similar in terms of exploring to progress, but Dragon Power is way more of a grind. You pretty much have to know exactly where you're going at all times in order to beat the clock/lifebar.
Yo..love your videos. I'm binging em right now. Just curious. I'm a construction guy myself. I noticed that your hand was pretty cut up at the beginning. What caused it?
What kinda work do you do?
Love your videos bro. Please keep em coming!
Similar, renovation. I have no idea what cut up my hands at the time but I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t happen plenty!
@@BigOleWords I hear that, thanks for replying man. And thanks again for the awesome videos!
Voltron? Thats it? What about Starblazers? That is the 1st anime I ever saw on television. Voltrin was Sloppy Seconds.
I've never heard of Starblazers! Looks rad!
@@BigOleWords Earth is attacked by aliens dropping Meteors/asteroids on us.. Humans refabricate a WW2 Battleship to fly through space with a Deathstar cannon on the bow of the ship. We destroy the aliens.
Revenge is sweet and we humans got it covered.
This is the only game my mom played lol I would play it, but i needed the game genie, No one knew it was a dragonball z game back then..
I never grew up liking that kind of thing tho.
That’s awesome your mom played, that’s the toughest feat to pull off!
Wonder how many people get the Mr. Show reference in your intro. Wonder if David Cross would be flattered or what.
I saw him once at a bar here in Atlanta maybe 15 years ago. I went up and said “David Cross you’re my hero” and he kinda just looked at me and just turned back around. It was kind of a crusher, but hey still a huge fan!
@@BigOleWords That’s awesome. Kinda not surprised. Love him too. But he definitely seems like a prickly pear.
I remember watching OG dragonball on YTV back in the day, my wife has the same memory- Bulma seemed like such an irrational bitch, freaking out at absolutely everyone around her for no reason. I think there's a point where Master Roshi just wants to go for a walk around his island with Bulma and our child selves were like "why is she freaking out so much, just do it!" but in the JP version he wants to stick his face between her boobs and bounce them off his head with his hands sooooo yeah. Bearing in mind that Bulma is like 16, her reaction is more than justified.
One of the first 10 rentals.
Nice!
This Dragon Ball for NES was my 1st game in French, the translations were just too bad, but at least it was Dragon Ball and not some weird and lame 'muricanization, also on the French game we could cheat with 2nd controller, 1 button added health (but you die if you go over 255) and other button just skips the current stage. Now I have this game in Japanese on Famicom.
Didn’t know there was a 2nd player cheat!
@@BigOleWords It works on the french version for sure, and doesn't work on my famicom version, so you probably have to try on the US dragon power version to see if it works.
I had this game as a kid, but it was in chinese. not japanese. I had a bunch of weird games my friend sold to me he got from visiting family in hong kong in the 80s.
Did it have sandwiches or parties?!
@@BigOleWords definitely parties. It was a very confusing game to experience withno translation. I loved it because I had seen the cartoon on tv a few times.
Would it kill anyone to include a kamehameha! Come on. It's fucking dragonball! Kamehameha!
Sadly three programmers died trying to add the Kamehameha to the code 😔
@@BigOleWords roshi always said it was a dangerous skill to learn
They called it the wind wave, if I remember correctly in this game.
Every movie except:
Prayer of the Rollerboys
Feat Corey Haim
I played this game on an emulator with every cheat activated. One of the longest and hardest games. I can’t even fathom passing it without them!😂
Yeah I definitely cheated my way through this, no idea how it’s possible otherwise
Believe it or not, my brother beat it without cheats, we never had a game genie, so it was always the hard way
I got this game recently
It has its charms!
So downloading a rom of this.
Everything you said was exactly right. especially that Goku needs to keep eating. the Japanese version of this looks so much cooler! I actually would buy it! and I actually owned the American version.🎉
You are correct. I have not played this one. I had no idea it exists/existed.... And now I want a sandwich?
Haha seriously I had it for years and never realized it was a Dragon Ball game!
Owned this as a kid, HATED it-this is a fantastic game. The power ticking down, limited resources to refill it, etc, if you look beyond the cheesy dialogue, it's really a solidly programmed game.
Lol. Sandwich...
:D
weirdly, sandwiches is worse for me as my sisters called their feminine pads “sandwiches” so it hit hard 😳🤣
Hahaha why?!?
@@BigOleWords because they were immature and my brother and i younger so didn’t get the gist until we were old enough to understand 😳
Voltron was great thou
And how!
Looks like zelda 1 and 2 and a bit of amagon
Even the Dragonball rpg for the NES is trash but probably worth covering if you haven't already
I'm not familiar with any of the other Dragon Ball Famicom titles! I see there's four more besides Dragon Power, any idea which one it is?
@@BigOleWords I mean it could be my lack of understanding of the Japanese language but from playing it, it would seem to me you have to choose which cards you use very carefully and at the right moment. You also don't want to waste cards trying to grind levels because the system will screw you over quick lol.
There are so many ways to lose and very few ways to win in that game, that much I know. 🙄
Dragon Ball Z: Kyōshū! Saiyan
@@Dogeathotdog1 Woof that sounds rough!
@@Dogeathotdog1 Thanks! I'd say I'm looking forward to checking out, but....
This is a good video? How you got less than 500 subs😮
I cannot fast forward past your intro fast enough...
The internet - millions of people screaming in the void that they exist and their opinion matters.
Just like you.
GenericBall
Heyo!
I know I don't need to tell you this but Japanese anime/hentai and video game culture is really fucking weird sometimes. Though not as creepy as the Germans 😮
It really can be!
anime was a mistake