The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Knew

Discussion of all things related to Dragon Ball video games (console and portable games, arcade versions, etc.) from the entire franchise's history.

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Super Sayian Prime
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The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Knew

Post by Super Sayian Prime » Thu Jul 10, 2014 8:54 pm

Last last year, Nightstar1994 made a thread about pre-smartphone Dragon Ball games on mobile devices. I did a bit of digging and discovered other titles, but as the thread died I never got to share them. With Mario Kart 8 fresh in my mind, I was reminded about one of the more interesting Dragon Ball Mobile games:

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Yep, that is 2009's Dragon Ball Racing for FOMA 903i phones. The screenshots are from Gpara.

There's plenty of other mobile curiosities from pinball, reversi, multiple fighters, RPGs, and some game called Dragon Ball Ultimate Blast (not that one). Here's some assorted images, with the links attached if you click them:

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It looks like the Japanese Wikipedia article for Dragon Ball has a pretty large list of these mobile games, but I have no clue if that's everything. Searching some of the names gives you 0 results.
"I like the money it brings in, but Dragon Ball Heroes is the worst. That's actually the real reason I decided to start working on new material. I was afraid Bandai would make something irredeemably stupid like Super Saiyan 4 Broly." - Akira Toriyama, made up interview, 2013.

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DNA
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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by DNA » Fri Jul 11, 2014 3:38 am

Damn! :| And they're endorsed by Bandai too! How come this was never seen before?

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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by dbboxkaifan » Fri Jul 11, 2014 6:53 am

Mario Kart: Arcade GP had Namco characters (Pac-Man plus others) thrown in although no DB-related ones, but why has this been kept as somewhat of a secret? Fans would love to play the heck out of it, I know I would!
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Sin
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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by Sin » Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:58 am

Really interesting, here are some more screenshots I found for an RPG mobile game:

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Some of these actually look really good, wish we had some videos of them in motion.

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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by VegettoEX » Sat Jul 12, 2014 9:42 am

Yeah, if you dig a few years back in V-Jump, there are CONSTANT pre-smartphone games being advertised. It seems everyone, us included, just kinda ignored them as they were announced because there was no real way to play them.

Definitely something to be said for today's homogenization of smartphones, in some respects...
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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by NECPS » Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:33 am

This is actually very good. This RPG in particular. Is it impossible to find any more clues?

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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by TheGameTagerZ » Sun Jul 13, 2014 12:38 pm


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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by sangofe » Sun Jul 13, 2014 1:16 pm

Such a shame they're not released for PC or something. Could've emulated them, no? So many (possibly) fun little games.

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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by Sin » Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:00 pm

More digging looks like most, if not all, of these games were made for i-mode and would probably be near impossible to emulate as i-mode shut down a few years back.

I will post another game I found on my search:

Dragonball Sugoroku

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And a couple more shots of the RPG game, one showing a 'shadow Goku'. Pretty neat.

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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by Super Sayian Prime » Sun Jul 13, 2014 9:17 pm

As far as I can tell, NTT Docomo still runs i-mode service in Japan. There were unsuccessful attempts to bring the service to Europe, Asia, and the US in different forms, but it looks like it's still going on in a smaller capacity in Japan. Of course, i-mode service doesn't necessarily mean Dragon Ball Mobile is still running. I also wouldn't have a clue as to how you'd take files from that to share.
"I like the money it brings in, but Dragon Ball Heroes is the worst. That's actually the real reason I decided to start working on new material. I was afraid Bandai would make something irredeemably stupid like Super Saiyan 4 Broly." - Akira Toriyama, made up interview, 2013.

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Re: The Dragon Ball Kart Racer We've Always Had But Never Kn

Post by ionutbigiu1 » Mon Jul 14, 2014 2:54 pm

It is a shame that the games nowaday on mobile devices like iOS and Android are not even near as awsome as these . I think the creators put some work in it and how knows how much fun is lost due to the fact that these games cannot be yet ported .

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