Hands on with Dragon Ball: Origins

The fires keep burning for the Dragon Ball Z franchise and Atari doesn't look like it's going to stop stoking the flames. Dragon Ball: Origins intends to breathe new life to the story of Goku and friends, and our hands on definitely highlights potential. While tuning is needed to fix problems with the controls, we're pleased to see this newest take on the anime heading in the right direction.

When a young Goku learns of the legend of the dragonballs from his childhood gal pal Bulma, his sights immediately set to seizing them for himself. Dragon Ball: Origins puts you in control of Goku as he journeys to find each of the hidden balls in order to summon Shenron, the Eternal Dragon. Of course, we're talking about a couple of kids traveling the world in search of mystical power. Problems pop up at every turn and it's up to you to deal with them action role-playing-style.

The game is divided into episodes, each ranked according to your completion time and number of treasure chests you've opened. Most clock in around 15-20 minutes, although we can't state definitely that remains consistent as the game wears on. We hope so, since they're perfectly proportioned bits of gameplay ideal for DS.

Navigating the top-down stages requires tapping movement orders to Goku with the stylus. Additionally, you can issue attack commands and jump via the touchscreen. A quick tap over an enemy triggers a basic attack, whereas holding down the stylus charges up an attack. Bulma follows closely behind, helping you in combat by acting on her own accord; although, she can be instructed to perform special attacks when tapped.

Goku possesses two distinct attack styles that you can switch between at will. Combat grants access to his basic set of attacks, whereas power pole equips Goku with a lengthy staff for ranged blows. Power pole also comes in handy when solving simple platform challenges. Trekking through a dank cave was made easier by smashing boulders blocking the way. Later on, breaking rocks with the power pole allowed a gush of water to cover a floor dotted with spikes, which was then navigable by the duo.

Problems exist with targeting and the responsiveness of combat, unfortunately. Tapping a boulder with the stylus when toggled to the power pole often didn't register with the game. Instead, Goku ended up walking forward rather than taking the tap as an order to attack. When faced with live enemies, we discovered the same issue. There seems to be a fine line between movement and attack commands that needs to be cleared up.

Despite this crucial issue, we're quite optimistic about Dragon Ball: Origins. This is exactly the sort of game that works well on DS. Clearly more work needs to be done to tune up the controls and polish up the experience as a whole. Should that work succeed, this could be a surprise come autumn.