Dragon Ball Heroes is a Japanese trading cardarcade game based on the Dragon Ball franchise. It debuted on November 11, 2010 in Japan. In 2016, an update launched that improved the user experience in the form of enhanced graphics and easier accessibility of characters. This update was named Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Several other games based on the series have been released for the Nintendo 3DS platform, with another planned for the Nintendo Switch in 2019. Numerous manga adaptations have been published by Shueisha and a promotional anime adaptation by Toei Animation began being shown at public events in July 2018 before being uploaded online.
Gameplay
Players can choose a "hero avatar" from 8 races, each with 3 distinct battle types: Hero, Elite, or Berserker.
Players can collect various types of Dragon Balls other than the common variety, such as Ultimate Dragon Balls, Namekian Dragon Balls, Dark Dragon Balls, and the almighty Super Dragon Balls.
Players use 7 cards and an IC card called hero license.
Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama supervised the game's designs and setting. He also designed the three Freeza clan characters.
Reception
Dragon Ball Heroes is the number one digital card game. By May 2016, the game had sold 400million cards and grossed over . By October 2016, the game sold 500million cards and grossed .
Other releases
A port on Nintendo 3DS, named Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission, was released on February 28, 2013 in Japan. A sequel, Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission 2, was released on August 7, 2014. Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission X was released on April 27, 2017. In October 2018, a Nintendo Switch game titled Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission was announced for release on April 4, 2019. It will include cards and characters from the first eight Super Dragon Ball Heroesarcade games and the first two versions of Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission.
Adaptations
Manga
Dragon Ball Heroes was adapted into several manga series. Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission, written and illustrated by Toyotarou, was serialized in Shueisha's V Jump magazine since November 2012. With 28 chapters, it is on hiatus as Toyotarou is drawing Dragon Ball Super. A chapter 29 was included in the Bandai Official 5th Anniversary Fanbook: Dragon Ball Heroes 5th Anniversary Mission book published on November 19, 2015 and all previous chapters were uploaded to the game's website for free. Dragon Ball Heroes: Super Charisma Mission!, written and illustrated by Yoshitaka Nagayama, was serialized in Saikyō Jump from December 2013. It was put on hiatus, when Nagayama began his other series in the same magazine, until March 2017, when it was relaunched as Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Charisma Mission!!. Nagayama also drew Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ankoku Makai Mission!. Serialized in Saikyō Jump since August 5, 2016, its first collected volume was published on May 2, 2017 and its second on May 2, 2018. The series was relaunched as Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission!! on April 6, 2018 and is serialized alongside Ultimate Charisma Mission!!.
Anime
In May 2018, V Jump announced a promotional anime for Super Dragon Ball Heroes that will adapt the game's Prison Planet arc. A teaser trailer for the first episode was released on June 21, 2018 and shows the new characters Fu and Kanbā, an evil Saiyan. The first episode was shown at Aeon Lake Town, a shopping mall in Koshigaya, Saitama, on July 1, 2018 and was uploaded to the game's official website that same day. Likewise, the second episode was shown at Jump Victory Carnival Tokyo Kaijō on July 16 before being uploaded to the website.
