Those that collect the seven Dragonballs can summon a dragon who will fulfill the wish of the summoner. Bulma already has one and to find the others she's invented a radar. Goku also has a Dragonball but since he doesn't know its true power he considers it more as an important memory of his grandfather. Bulma and Goku accidentally meet and although that meeting doesn't go spotless they decide to work together so they can summon the dragin who will grant them a wish.

Fun for those that next to Dragonball Z also wants to get to know the first series and the younger versions of certain characters. Players who have no idea what Dragonball is shouldn't despair though, the storyline is also clear enough for newcomers and can even be used as a first introduction.

Bulmas Dragonball radar points into the right direction but the way to the Dragonballs isn't without danger. You'll have to fight enemies (f.i. wild animals) and solve some environment puzzles. The controls however, aren't that handy. All to often Goku will do something else than you would want as the movements of the stylus all look alike. Especially in combat this brings forth a lot of problems and the fun of playing easily dies this way.

There's a large variation in enemies qua appearance and strenght, only their fighting style is almost exactly the same which after a while makes combat repetitive. Luckily you can also avoid hostiles which in some cases is necessary as some of them are too strong to attack head on while hoping everything will end well with some button smashing.

At first Goku fights with bare fists and a stick. Thanks to his superhuman strength this is enough in the beginning but along the way he'll learn new techniques. Bulma has a shooting weapon at her disposal so she too can defend herself which is necessary as it's game over when she dies. She often takes the lead and doesn't always wait for Goku so it can happen that while the latter is trying to reach a treasure, Bulma encounters some hostiles. One might think this would often result in sudden death but luckily she's more than capable to defend herself so that you have some time to reach her.

Now and then you'll encounter an endboss and these are again very classic: stay alive for long enough to exploit their weakness and after having repeated the same process for about three times they're done with. Each time you finish an episode this also becomes available in the main menu so that you can replay it later on if you want. This allows to retrieve more hidden treasures in a faster time or get a higher score.

The save system is a bit strange. Progress only gets definitively saved at the end of an episode and the save points in between are only used for the current game. If f.i. you return to the main menu you'll have lost all progress in the episode you're currently playing. There's also a "retire" save but you'll need to turn off the DS after choosing this option and once you restart this savegame gets deleted.

A shop is also present and as usual you can get items and weapons there. Paying is done with "zeni" which get dropped by defeated enemies. For some unexplainable reason the shop is only accessible through the main menu and due to the save system it's only possible to go to in between different episodes.

The DS is excellent at showing cartoony stuff and Dragonball Origins only confirms this. The only "special thing" is 3D view (in contrast to the 2D series). As a present you get the original Japanese music added to the game and the intro sing doesn't sound too bad.