Japan has a lot more rainy days than I first believed so I’ve had to find a way to fill them all. Luckily for me, ever since I was the ripe young age of 10, my favourite TV show at the time was when Cheez TV starting showing Dragonball Z, which I instantly fell in love with. On my first trip to Japan way back in 2011, I walked straight into my destiny and found a Dragonball game in an arcade. However with no clue how to read even ひらがな I felt a little like Krillen and unable to beat even Saibamen. However things have somewhat changed since – I’ll explain roughly how to play the game.
Firstly the game is called Super Dragon Ball Heroes (スーパードラゴンボール ヒーローズ). You can find them usually in Yodabashi Camera (top floor), Taito Stations, and online here. They look like this:
So you can see there are 2 screens, top and bottom. The top screen is where all the action happens. The bottom screen is where you put your cards which are detected and you make your moves / tactics / special attacks. I don’t think you can play without one of these cards, so go to your local Yodobashi Camera before you head out into the deep countryside of Japan and pick one up for around ¥550 ($5 to $6) if I remember correctly.
Once you have the card you’re ready to play, but you may say: “But I don’t have any Character cards yet”, but the great thing about this game is each time you play you get a ‘free’ card. It’s not really free because each time you play it costs ¥100 (roughly $1). So load up your first game and get your first card, hopefully it’s a good one. You can also buy single cards from speciality card shops and second hand stores. There are loads around Akihabara and most of the cards are only ¥100-¥500 but they are known to go over ¥10,000 in some rare cases. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to pull one of these from the machine or the promo cards above like this.
Most of the screens are pretty intuitive and you can usually just keep hitting the red button until it asks you to select your opponent. Put your cards (you can put down up to 7) on the play mat. The various regions on the mat are levels for how fiercely you want to attack and similarly how much power it will consume. The blue zone is like the recharge zone, but you always must have at least 1 person fighting. Each card has it’s own abilities and powers. You can see this photo which shows the back and front. Basically, these are the numbers: Green is Health Power, Red is Power and Yellow is Guard. Further details are on the back, in the case of SSJ4 Goku, it says when he attacks in round 3 you can charge and change him from SSJ3 to SSJ4 which gives additional powers to him.
It is a turned based fighting game where whoever gets the highest highlighted bar wins. I did make a YouTube video, however it’s pretty poorly filmed (mostly because I lose against the super boss…).
General Play Tips:
- Don’t go all out on stage one. Charge most of your cards and attack in round 2 or 3. They will be able to perform their special attack when a little gold coin appears next to their name whilst setting the cards up. This usually only happens when energy is very high i.e all people have been charged and placed in most forward attack position.
- Get a pattern for hitting the button, i.e every 3 times it fills.
- There are little ‘power-ups’ and capsules. I would usually pick defensive ones that can potentially block big special moves.
- Go buy some awesome cards from the specialty card stores. They will help a lot.
- Attack with your fusion cards the round before they fuse as they usually receive a full power up after fusion.
- Get an ‘Old Mate’ (as I named him when I pulled him). Top right of the photo below. He is from Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans (サイヤ人絶滅計画) and his real name is Hacchihyakku (ハッチヒャック). He has saved me from certain defeat more times than Goku has saved earth. I even had a little kid playing next to me try to steal mine, that’s how good he is.
Anyway, catch you next time on Dragonball Heroes.
P.s after like 12 attempts I finally beat the Demon Saiyan level.
Cycling Around Japan 
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