Dragon Ball Z: Summon the Dragon Pinball by MGA Entertainment Review

Another DBZ MGA product, huh?

Previously (on Dragon Ball Z, lol), I took a look at the obscure Battleship knockoff which has never been documented online that much: Dragon Ball Z: Battle Strategy Game - Frieza Saga Edition. Something about the words "Frieza Saga Edition" suggests they were planning another version (possibly based on the Cell/Androids arc), but never happened. It's a fun game and check out my review on that.

I want to add on in my review of that game: when I first got it at my doorstep and opened the game box, it reeked of a cigarette smell. I can’t stand those types of smells, so, I looked on Google for some help, used some dryer sheets, putting some inside the three boxes: one box holds the game, one box holds the pieces inside, and the other stores the two boxes and the figures which are in plastic - the front of the box displays the figures using a plastic window. 

While that worked for two days, after I took out the sheets, the dryer sheet smell was so strong that I couldn’t handle it and it gave me a bad headache and it felt like my throat was tightening a little. It reminded me of when I got a vintage plush from an eBay seller and they wrapped it in one of those scented trash bags which made me feel unwell (headache, felt like throat was tightening), so I kept the plush away from me until the smell was gone. While I do appreciate that they did it in case the plush smelled like cigarettes, just... please don't wrap a plush in those bags. Some people are sensitive to strong smells like that.

So, I let the boxes air out for about a day or two and the smell was gone and I could no longer smell that awful cigarette smell from before. Also, I used some Lysol wipes to wipe down the outside of the box plus plastic window using a glove and saw some nasty dirt or stains on the wipe. It didn’t 100% get rid of some stains on the box, but it still helped and the box looks a bit clean and germ-free.

Also, seller claimed that the Battle Strategy game was in “New” condition, when really it wasn’t new. The box looked open, but, the pieces (bases for the figures, hit and miss pegs) were still wrapped in their original packaging. And as I said earlier, box smelled like cigarettes. If it was new, the box wouldn’t look all beat up and should be unopened.

One last thing I want to add on to that review is the LCD display. MGA used something called Color FX 2. They've used it in their other products such as a handheld Pac-Man game (before Color FX 2, there was Color FX). No wonder the display looks so dang cool - and not just that display for the game, but for some of their other handheld games.

Anyways, on to the review! 

This is not another knockoff of an existing board game, but it’s a pinball game titled, Dragon Ball Z: Summon the Dragon Pinball, which came out in 1999. Like the Battle Strategy game, the pinball also requires 3 C batteries. Why? I don't know.

This is not an April Fool's joke, but an actual real product! This has been covered enough times online and some people are aware of it. Originally, I wasn't going to make a review here, but changed my mind because I've used this enough times and had so much fun with it. 

I had purchased this from a website called Rogue Toys since this one comes from the Portland, Oregon store and was near my state. I was skeptical at first, thinking the site wasn't legit but the item arrived to me safely with no issues. Previously, I was going to buy one with all of the figures from eBay and without the box. I did recall seeing one for a low price, but the figure condition wasn't great and some of the glass was cracked, so I passed on it. And before the whole eBay thing, I was originally going to not buy this after watching a review on this item when I first discovered it due to the sounds, but the FOMO hit me and I bought it. Also, I felt the nostalgia of me playing with one of those tabletop pinball games at my auntie's house as a kid and missed that nostalgia.

What really drew me in this pinball game is the artwork of Shenron in the background. If you look close enough, you can see Goku (bottom left) and Frieza (on the top right near Shenron's head, however, he is covered up by some graphic where you launch the ball at and some pinball decorations), fighting. The graphics screams 90s.

The whole pinball game lights up when you hit a bumper, and increases the score up 1 every time. You also got two fake zeroes next the LCD score display so you can think you're scoring hundreds to thousands of points (when in reality, you're probably scoring 2 or 10 points every time you hit a bumper, if you ignore those zeroes).

The figures, look decent... maybe a little weird similar to the figures from the Battle Strategy game. Because of this item being old, of course the figures' paint might not last. Some of the paint on Piccolo's forehead has already come off (he's been like that when I got this item), but it doesn't bother me much. I also want to mention the figures can be put on the pinball game itself! 

There are a total of 6 figures: Krillin, Piccolo, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, and Frieza.

One error on the box, if you look closely, has Gohan wearing orange and blue colors, similar to Goku. Probably a prototype figure.

I've never seen Dragon Ball officially have a pinball game, and honestly, this is the closest thing you can get. I did see some more DBZ pinball games such as one based on GT, but sadly, those are only international. Here's a compilation of those international pinball games. Also, including the same Summon the Dragon Pinball game we got in the US but with different figures? The figures screams bootleg. If you look at it far away, the figures look decent... until you zoom in and see Krillin's teeth. The box in the Facebook post however, is the same exact thing (no mentions of Cell or Tien), even the scoreboard is the same.

There was also another DBZ pinball game with (almost) the same colors and artwork as this one, just the scoreboard is different and it comes with 2 figures, although this listing (which is the only one I could find) I found lacks the figures, sadly.

One downside of this game is the "music". My gosh, the music consists of nothing but beeps and boops. And the sound effects? Were you expecting actual Dragon Ball sound effects? 

Well, I found out on Sunday night that those sound effects were also used in the Full Tilt! Pinball game, released in 1995 before this came out - they were used in the Space Cadet table. And I've played an emulated version Space Cadet before I got this item at my doorstep and took me forever to realize that this pinball game uses the same flippin' sounds as that game. Unless they were previously stock sounds before Full Tilt's release. Don't believe me? Watch this video below and compare it to the videos of this pinball game. Or if the video below isn't available, you can go to the Sounds Resource (sounds 3, 7, 9, 24, 29, 35, 39, 50 (?)).

There is also a pinball based on WWF (now called WWE) called Power Slam Electronic Pinball, also released in 1999, which, take a guess.

Uses the same lights, scoreboard, layout, and sounds as this one as seen in a video I found on Facebook.

This isn't the only time MGA has made reskins or reused sounds. They've done it with the Battle for Namek handheld which I own. They've released some WWF games using that same shell design and in some YouTube videos I saw, it used the same sounds and gameplay, just changed up the sprites and background. While the DBZ game comes with a Goku figure, the WWF games don't. That will be in another post talking about some of the DBZ LCD games I own made by this company.

If you like Dragon Ball and love pinball, this is definitely worth it. Just... if you don't like the loud music, you can either duct tape the speaker or play the game turned off. If you want to reset the score, there is a big blue button behind the scoreboard that you can press.

I have another vintage tabletop pinball game I will cover in another future post that's really cool, so stay tuned. No, it's not DBZ related.

And for some of my gameplay of this tabletop pinball game. You might also hear that the sounds act up sometimes such as skipping (I tried to not put the scoreboard all the way in because it's annoying to take it out while disassembling it and put it in the box for storage), and it doesn't bother me as much since this thing is old. Completely new batteries, by the way.

Sorry for the poor quality in these two videos. The first one was captured using my webcam and the second video was captured using my computer. I used my mic to capture the game's audio.

And here's gameplay in the dark (flashing lights warning!). I captured this using my phone.