Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure

Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure
Also known as: Dragon Ball: Advance Adventure (JP) Developer: Dimps Publishers: Banpresto (JP), Bandai (EU), Atari, SA (US) Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: November 18, 2004 Released in US: June 6, 2006 Released in EU: June 17, 2005 Released in KR: 2005 This game has unused playable characters. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has regional differences.

Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure, based on the Dragon Ball manga and anime series, revolves around Goku's early adventures when he was a kid.

To do: Two prototypes (One of the Japanese version and one of the European localization). Sort through all of the Map IDs and look for unused maps. Story Mode and Extra mode tend to use different IDs, so it may take some effort. See if a Double K.O. within One on One Mode is actually possible ingame without hacking. If not, rip the graphics and upload.

Unplayable Extra Mode Characters

One unique feature of this game is the ability to replay most of the Story Mode stages as a wide variety of enemy characters in Extra Mode. Not every enemy is playable, but many are. However, even more may have been considered at some point.

Pterodactyl

It's just your everyday, bomb-throwing flying dinosaur.

By opening the Player Select screen and setting RAM address 300412F to 1D, one can see the purple Pterodactyl enemy loaded in. Actually selecting it will result in playing as normal Goku with a glitched life bar, however.

Unplayable One-on-One Characters

After certain conditions are met, the player unlocks One-on-One Battle Mode in which they can play as six characters, one boss, and one special character. However, there are three (technically four) more characters that show up in Story Mode's One-on-One battles which cannot normally be used. Using the codes 02029971:XX for Player 1, 02029A41:XX for Player 2, the characters can be used with minimal issues.

It should be noted, all characters can use the Afterimage Technique after getting knocked down or blocking, but Giran, Nam, and Chiaotzu lack a Counter-Block (Up + B) move.

Giran

Giran can be found at character value 08, right after Cyborg Tao.

He's easily the most uninteresting of all the characters as he has no special moves at all, no Counter-Guard, no launcher, and only has a few regular punches and tail swipes. Down + B makes him use a tail swipe instead of a launcher, and he has no Up + B move at all. His "Time Over" animation doesn't exist -- his sprite scoots to an odd position before he continues looping his standing animation. How boring!

Nam

Nam can be found at character value 09, and boy-oh-boy, is he broken.

For starters, Nam is completely invincible while walking forward. Absolutely nothing, be it physical attacks or projectiles, can hurt him. The trade-off, of course, is that he can't attack while walking straight forward, either, so it's "balanced". What isn't balanced is his custom technique: the Cross Arm Dive.

Nam's Cross Arm Dive treats all hit boxes as hurtboxes. This means that whether he hits the opponent or their projectiles, it will register as the opponent taking a hit. It can be hard to land a hit using this attack, but if it does, that's a guaranteed 128 damage. That's half an entire Lifebar! Additionally, Nam can use his Cross Arm Dive without spending any Ki, which could potentially lead to a player using it over and over to play "keep away" with an opponent. Small wonder he wasn't made playable.

Nam's Up + B is a low kick and his Down + B is a heel kick which can launch the opponent. His Cross Arm Dive can be accessed via L + R while on the ground. He has no special abilities otherwise. His "Time Over" animation is the same as his victory animation: a humble bow.

Chiaotzu

Chiaotzu can be found at character value 0A. Unlike Giran or Nam, though, he seems more or less balanced and complete.

Up + B makes Chiaotzu throw a glowing punch while Down + B uses throws a heel kick launcher. He can use Flight by tapping the A button in mid-air, and his Ki Blast, the Dodon Ray, automatically aims downward while he's in the air. The Dodon Ray is otherwise exactly the same as Tien Shinhan's and Mercenary Tao's. His "Time Over" animation sees him come to rest on the ground and stand still.

King Piccolo (Old)

Unlike the previous three, old King Piccolo isn't his own character but rather a skin swap. Aside from having an "old" portrait, he functions exactly the same as the normally playable King Piccolo. This variant can be accessed with the codes 02029974:02 for Player 1 or 02029A44:02 for Player 2 while selecting King Piccolo.

If the game is forced to skin swap King Piccolo for both players into King Piccolo (Old) (Palette 02), Player 2 uses the character's Player 1 palette with his "old" portrait. This simply isn't possible in the normal game.

(Source: Oersted and Maz via YouTube, Original TCRF research)

Versions and Build Dates

All versions of the game include some build info near the end of the ROM. The Japanese and Korean versions, while separate ROMs, share the same version and date. Given that the versions seem to count inversely to the games' release order, it's possible they were each versioned separately.

Japan/Korea DB1258/DCDD28	Europe EB84DC	USA D701D0
1.04Sun Sep 26 16:36:02 2004	0.61Fri Feb 25 19:39:46 2005	0.50Mon Dec 19 17:01:56 2005

Unused Graphics

Bulma

An unused animation featuring the costume Bulma first appears in can be found along with her other in-game sprites.

Unused One-on-One Palettes

Most of the One-on-One characters -- including the unplayable ones (see above) -- have entries for a third palette which can be activated by locking the palette values at 03. (02029974:XX for Player 1, 02029A44:XX for Player 2.)

However, there doesn't appear to be a proper palette set up for any of these characters, so they end up using whatever colors were loaded prior to combat. (Two palettes from the 1-on-1 select screen, in this case.)

For whatever reason, Krillin, Tien, and King Piccolo aren't coded to have a Palette 03 and crash the game upon trying to load the battle field with this palette selected. Notably, not even the prototypes use the value 03.

(Source: Oersted via YouTube, Original TCRF research)

Unused Music

Located in the music data at value 27 is a piece of music that goes unused in any version of the game. Its purpose is unknown, but it carries an unsettling feel, so it may have been intended for a villain cutscene.

(Source: Maz via YouTube)

Regional Differences

Intro Sequence

Europe	US

Copyright screens were introduced in the European and US versions. Because Funimation owns the rights to Dragon Ball in the US, more copyright disclaimers had to be added. Additionally, because Bandai and Atari are the respective publishers of the European and the US version, screen sequences were added showing their logos.

Title Screen

Japan	Europe	US

The Japanese and European versions base their logo design on the one used in the anime's opening credits sequence.

The European version stays largely faithful to the Japanese version's title screen. The blue portion of the logo has been brightened slightly, and the seven Dragon Balls featuring the Japanese translation of the series name have been removed. The decorations surrounding the subtitle have been redrawn to make use of the extra space - the white pattern is smaller and tiled in groups of four, the seven Dragon Balls are floating around the subtitle, and the dragon Shenron's head, claws and tail have been added in addition to its body. The subtitle text has been translated, though it's been altered slightly from the original Advance Adventure to the more grammatically-correct Advanced Adventure to reflect the localised title. The copyright text at the bottom of the screen has also been translated, with a couple of minor changes - 1989 (the year the anime completed its original run) has been added to the top line, and the 2004 in the bottom line has been amended to 2005 to reflect the European version's release date.

The US version keeps the same localised title as the European release, but uses a completely different logo graphic based on the logo used on packaging for releases of Funimation's English dub of the anime, and featuring an ® symbol next to the Dragon Ball brand name. All the on-screen copyright text present in the other versions has been removed entirely.

Additionally, the Japanese version plays an instrumental version of the anime's opening theme "Makafushigi Adventure!", which has been replaced with an original composition in both the European and US versions.

Japan	US and Europe

Vs Jackie Chun & Tien

Japan	International (regular Tournament theme)

During the Jackie Chun and Tenshinhan/Tien boss fights, the Japanese version plays an arrangement of "Mezase Tenkaichi", a recurring insert song from the original anime. This was removed completely in overseas versions, which simply play the normal Tournament theme instead.

Credits

Japan	International

During the credits sequence, the Japanese version plays an arrangement of the anime's ending theme, "Romantic Ageru Yo". Like the opening theme, this was replaced with an original composition in both overseas releases.

Name Changes

Japan	International
Gokou	Goku
Klilyn	Krillin
Juckie Chun	Jackie Chun
Taopaipai	Mercenary Tao General Tao
Son Gohan	Gohan
Chaoz	Chiaotzu
Tenshinhan	Tien

While the European English release used most of the FUNimation dub names, Spike the Devil Man is an exception; he is instead referred to by his original Japanese name of "Akuman".

Voice Acting

The Japanese and European versions share the same voice acting, featuring the Japanese voice cast reprising their roles from the original anime. The US version changes this, instead using newly-recorded voices from the cast of Funimation's English dub of the anime. These new clips include some localized names to match said English dub - for example, Goku's cry of "Kinto-un!" instead becomes "Flying Nimbus!".

Miscellaneous

Japan	Europe	US

The A-button icon has been redrawn between all three versions. Additionally, the + was slimmed down for the US version.

Dialogue

Europe	USA
Yoo-hoo! Yikes! Heh heh heh! You can't get away from me!	Goku: Yoo-hoo! Oolong: Yikes! Goku: Heh heh heh! You can't get away from me!
This dialogue takes place right before Goku fights Oolong in the air. Even though the speech bubbles point at the respective characters, their names were added to the US version's dialogue.
Oolong: Give me some girl's panties!	Oolong: Give me the world's most comfortable pair of underwear!
Oolong's wish upon the Dragon Balls was altered for the American market, matching the change made in the corresponding episode of Funimation's English-language dub of the anime. This change also affects the item collection screen, where the item Girl's Panties is renamed Comfy Underwear.
Korin: After catching me, your power... ...has increased several times over!	Korin: By catching me,your power... ...has incresed several times over.
The American localization manages to introduce two typos here: the lack of a space after the comma and the more egregious misspelling of "increased".
Black: For now, we should get out of here! We will rebuild our forces!	Black: For now, we should get out of here! We will rebuild or forces!
Another Funimation-approved typo ("or forces").