Play Dragon Power Online

Dragon Power came out on the NES in 1986 from Bandai, a time when the console was still new and developers were trying all sorts of things. It's a loose adaptation of the early Dragon Ball story, though the localization is so heavily altered that the connection is almost completely hidden; Goku is just a kid named Zero on a quest.

You control this young martial artist, moving screen by screen through an overhead world, punching and kicking enemies, breaking blocks, and searching for the seven crystal balls. The exploration feels a bit like The Legend of Zelda, but the perspective frequently shifts to side-scrolling sections for platforming and boss fights. The pacing is uneven, and some of the enemy patterns feel cheap, leading to a lot of trial and error. It feels like a strange, ambitious mess that never quite decides what kind of game it wants to be.