When it comes to the flavor of the licence and the card game, I gotta be honest with you: things are all over the place. For instance, Gohan’s Masenko attack never made it in the game (at least by name) but then random crap from practically nameless characters like Megaton Bull Crusher get made into Rares. And then you have some of the cool stuff that appears in Dragon Ball. Things like Goku’s Power Pole and The Sword of Trunks (ie things that had major impact in the show at some point) eventually make an appearance in subsets, yet random shit like some truck driven by thieves in one episode had been introduced several sets before hand. Here are some of the Dragon Ball universes most awesome items that should’ve had their own cards.
10. King Kai’s Car
There are many cars in Dragon Ball: Yajirobe’s car, Bulma’s car, THE Car… But the one that has appeared in the most episodes (yet seen the least amount of use) was good old King Kai’s car. This car was present for epic battles involving Goku versus Cell, the God of Destruction and Bubbles! This car was in more battles than Chiaotzu! The model of car is actually a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, and were coincidentally assembled in Arlington, TX down the street from the old Score HQ, meaning this car could’ve damn well come from the same town as the TCG.
9. Ran Ran
Yeah, in case you didn’t know, Chiaotzu had a sex doll for a wife in one movie. Seriously. I’ve gone off on tangents about this before and it just never ceases to amaze me. I’ve also had the same maturity level for the past 10 years, so that’s why there are at least three sex related entries on this list. Sadly none of the Dragon Ball movies (and very little of Dragon Ball itself) made it into the original Score game, so we never saw anything like this that could be used as some kind of sick Chiaotzu support or at the very least be an inside joke in the community.
8. Panties
Another item that actually played a surprisingly large role in many of the plots and fights in Dragon Ball, but was mostly just a rare instance of fan service in DBZ. In the very first Dragon Ball episodes, Bulma’s panties practically have their own story arc involving Goku, Master Roshi and Oolong. Panties helped saved the world for Emperor Pilaf and were Krillin’s secret weapon at the World Martial Arts Tournament. Panties were a game changer in the show, put em in the TCG! It needs more fan service!
7. The Z Sword
Unlike most of the other objects on this list, the Z Sword does appear in quite a few cards. It even gets called out on Z Sword Plateau. But for whatever reason, the sword itself (in a game where Sword decks are a viable archetype), this weapon never made it into its own card. And really the Z Sword never figured at all in battle, but it did give us the Elder Kai that looks like Hitler and leaves us with some very uncomfortable questions after revealing that he is actually fused with a female witch, so there’s that.
6. Attack Balls
No, this isn’t one of the sex ones. Attack Balls are the name of the little space pods that are essentially the main source of transportation for alien species in DBZ. Attack Balls brought Raditz, Nappa and Vegeta to Earth in the Saiyan Saga, so in my book one of these little space crafts would’ve been a much better choice for a card like Unexpected Allies. Not really seen too much after the Trunks Saga when more of the drama was Earth-based and any off-world action could be reached by either being dead or magically teleporting because I guess the producers of the anime realized too much of the plot kept revolving around waiting for assholes to show up to a fight via rocket ship.
5. Pornography
Yeah, it’s come to this. Pornography actually plays some role in the original Dragon Ball. Some of the villains are caught with stashes of it and Krillin uses it to bribe Master Roshi to train him. It doesn’t appear as much in Z, I guess tentacle monsters like Cell were more acceptable than discovering Babidi had a stack of Majin skin mags or something. I do want to give a shout out to Bandai’s Dragon Ball CCG for having the balls to include sex in their game. While Score was so prudish that Master Roshi was forced to drink inexplicably frothy mugs of water, Bandai straight up made a card called Pafu Pafu which, for those of you unfamiliar with Japanese sexual slang, translates into the sound a woman’s breasts makes when rubbed against one’s face. Evidently, Akira Toriyama invented that word. No, I’m not making that up.
4. Zeni
There are fighters like Goku who are motivated by growth or Vegeta who are motivated by pride. Then there’s a bunch of people purely motivated by money. Zeni is pretty much the currency of Dragon Ball so I’ll just refer to all money as that. Obviously Frieza, another fighter motivated by money given his Planet Trade Organization, obviously wasn’t being paid in Zeni. But money was the reason Raditz (and technically Goku) were sent to Earth (to empty the planet and get it ready for sale to unknown entities). Even the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament Championship was bought and paid for by Hercule. For a force that practically set into motion just as many quests and endeavors as the Dragon Balls, it’s somewhat surprising that getting rich or creating an empire isn’t a win condition, let alone a theme on cards.
3. Weighted Clothing
An iconic novelty in the series. The hero gets jacked around for a bit while keeping things close. Then he reveals he was wearing weighted clothing the entire time, proceeds to go infinite on opponent. The ways this could’ve been implemented in the game are numerous. A temporary hindrance could turn into a long term bonus for your fighter, mirroring the effect on the show. One could make the argument that King Kai Uniform is Weighted Clothing, but that card is utter crap and has nothing to do with any kind of strength training or growth. For all we know, that card could be referring to King Kai’s robes.
2. Capsules
One of the signature scientific devices in the Dragon Ball universe. We have the Capsule Corporation itself as a lackluster location and a forgettable Capsule Corp. Ship, but nothing else really having anything to do with these amazing devices. This is a really missed out archetype that could’ve created a set of gadget themed characters like Bulma, Yamcha, Hercule and Android 20 that could use a variety of capsules to score a victory. The things that could’ve been done with capsules are numerous, and it saddens me that their potential was never even made into one decent card.
1. Dragon Radar
This integral device that moved the plot of all three Dragon Ball series never appeared in the game until Dragon Ball GT. Really the GT card does everything that you could really expect out of a card version of Dragon Radar. It makes more sense than Vegeta smiling at you.
Later, BroZ
Joshman
Follow me on Twitter @ArguablyTrue.
Screen grabs used from the Dragon Ball Wiki.
i can sleep better at night knowing that akira promoted the degradation of society by inventing the word ‘pafu pafu’
I agree on a few points except that physical items seemed to have no other play style in the game than any other non-combat card. Which makes some items seem like they are looking for a purpose. If items were a different card type or played a little differently than most of the “attach to your main personality” cards then I could see a new level of depth to the game instead of just power stages, drills and random events taking up valuable table space.
Aside from that, what about Scouters? Halos? Piccolos cloak? Friezas space ship? Decent saiyan armor?
Cape – http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/GSnewagestarter/31_zps47b91816.png
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/GFstarter/GFother/Fl3_zpsfa7d1e42.png
Halo –
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/GFstarter/CCsubset/cbb57cfb.png
Saiyan Armor sort of –
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/GLbooster/b6e691e7.png
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/SAnewagebooster/FFnewagesubset/ff13_zps01fc47a5.png
Scouters do not fit as they mean nothing in this game since you NEED to see how strong someone is. In essence, everyone is already wearing a scouter.
I like the idea of what you call “attack balls,” which are actually called “Saiyan Space Pods.” I also like the idea of adding the Dragon Radar. But here are some personal thoughts of the other items:
1. Capsules – The idea sounds good, but it would be a real game changer. My initial thought is that because something like that would be storing something, a capsule box could store a set of non-combats and you could use one NC per turn. Since something like that doesn’t appear out of thin air, I see it to be on the same level as a Sensei/Mastery. It could hold different sizes of Non-Combats, or some Non-Combats would be valued at a higher rate, so each Non-Combat would have to be assigned a number value. The Capsule box could also give a very minor benefit as well, like PUR +1 or Attacks do +1 power stage.
2. Weighted Clothing/Saiyan Armor – Because they are wearing them before the fight even happens, it would be, again, on the same level of a Mastery/Sensei. It would be introduced or concealed since the enemy usually has NO idea that they are wearing weighted clothing. But what would activate it to turn from a hindrance to a benefit? Could it take “X amount of damage,” and then kick on for the rest of the game? For a character wearing armor, it can have the exact opposite. It can work until “X amount of successful attacks/life cards,” and then be removed from the game.
3. King Kai’s Car, Money, Pornography, Panties, and Ran-Ran – I honestly don’t see any use here. None of these items progressed the story (with the exception of Panties) or played a major role at all in the show (again… except panties). My inclusion of panties is not unwarranted, though. Panties can’t be a big game changer. They were in Dragonball, but not Dragonball Z. There are other things that should be introduced in this game (King Piccolo, Frieza Lv. 5 and other cards that have seen injustice) than a pair of panties.
4. Objects such as weapons: Sword of Trunks, Goku’s Power Pole, Taipon’s Ocarina, are all great examples of what we currently have. Can there be more weapons? Absolutely.
#’s 1 and 2 would completely change the game. I don’t see them any other way because if they were just standard Non-Combats that are attached/used mid-game, they would be pointless. Sticking to how the show plays out in the card game can make things very interesting. It would introduce a new aspect to the game, and keep this game evolving. We don’t want a stagnant playing field.
Gohan’s Masenko –
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/SAnewagebooster/S1_zps0680195e.png
Panties? –
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/SAbooster/cd0c4f60.png
Space pods-
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/GFstarter/8d8c0728.png
Money –
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/SAnewagebooster/127_zpsf3fccce0.png
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/GLbooster/c861e7cc.png
Armor/Weighted Clothes – An unused idea
Get Light!
discard x attached cards to your mp. until combat ends attacks by mp do +x damage/ x= number of cards attached
(goku/.piccolo taking off weighted clothes)
Capsules –
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/GFstarter/1407f2ab.png
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/GFstarter/ff6746c6.png
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/GFstarter/85bcbf57.png
And while we are at it, Trunks’ Time Machine –
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/vaerman/SAnewagebooster/FFnewagesubset/Sidewaysff31_zps08a12201.png
Anything I didn’t touch on is a missed oppurtunity for a joke card. Some stuff I did not feel I could make work. Especially King Kai’s car, I wanted to put it in but it had nothing going for it except as some odd “Bee” like card to affect King Kai.
Let me know when you guys need someone to fill in a hole.
You guys should make a card like HAT except for defense instead of offense, using some of the ideas in this article. Kind of like this:
“Use this card when your opponent performs an attack. You may search your sensei deck for a card that stops an attack and use it in this defender defends phase instead. Remove from the game after use.”
Yeah…SCore should have released a Dragon Ball game, even after GT it would be cool.
And Vegeta is smiling at you ’cause he’s stealling one of your DB’s behind ur back… =p