Overview
Dragon Ball: Shenron no Nazo (loosely translated to "Dragon Ball: Mystery of the Dragon God") is an overhead action-adventure game developed by TOSE and published by Bandai for the Famicom in Japan on November 27, 1986. It is better known outside of Japan for its heavy North American localization (known as Dragon Power).
Based on the Dragon Ball manga and anime, the game follows young monkey-tailed boy Goku as he embarks on a quest (along with teenage companion Bulma and shapeshifting anthropomorphic pig Oolong) to find all seven Dragon Balls, believing that collecting them grants them any wish they desire. While the first half of the game follows the early parts of the original series (culminating in the "Emperor Pilaf Saga"), the second half of the game follows an original storyline (first involving a martial arts tournament, then involving Goku's search for his grandfather's keepsake Dragon Ball).
While general exploration and combat is done in an overhead perspective, the game switches to a side-scrolling perspective for key battles.
The game was later released in North America in March 1988 as Dragon Power, removing numerous references to the Dragon Ball series while changing the names and appearances of most characters. The game was also released in France in 1990 as Dragon Ball (also known in-game as Dragon Ball: Le Secret du Dragon) with all references intact.
The original game was later included as a hidden unlockable bonus for the Japanese version of the 2010 Nintendo DS game Dragon Ball Origins 2. It was also included in the 2013 Nintendo 3DS compilation J Legend Retsuden (along with other Famicom games in the series).
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