Dragon Ball: Mystery of Shenron (English Patched) NES ROM

Translation Credits:

Mystery of Shenron -

Released by: BlackPaladin
Language: English
Status: Fully Translated
Patch Version: v1.0
Date: 28 May 2026

Source and details: https://romhackplaza.org/translations/dragon-ball-shenron-no-nazo-english-translation-nes/

Dragon's Mystery -

Released by: pacnsacdave
Language: English
Status: Fully Translated
Patch Version: v1.0
Date: 30 August 2020

Source and details: https://romhack.ing/database/content/entry/NNNu5JQBNs8FWu0CsHNJ/

The game stars Goku and initially roughly follows the first two volumes of the Dragon Ball manga where he encounters many enemies and allies while collecting the Dragon Balls, culminating in the first wish from Shenron in the Emperor Pilaf Saga (levels 1 to 6). The game then moves on to an entirely original story line: Goku enters a Kung-Fu Tournament for levels 7 to 10 and faces off against various strong opponents. A year later (levels 11 to 14) Goku borrows the Dragon Radar from Bulma and heads out in search of his Grandpa Gohan's keepsake, the Four-Star Dragon Ball.

The game was stripped of its Dragon Ball licensing and released in the US in 1988 as "Dragon Power" with a poor translation and altered graphics and sprites for the characters during cutscenes. A more faithful localization that retained the Dragon Ball license was released in France in 1990.

It's often mistakenly thought of as the first ever Dragon Ball themed video game, but actually that distinction belongs to Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyou (Dragon Ball: The Great Unexplored Dragon Region) which was released a few months earlier for the Epoch Super Cassette Vision console. Although this game is the first Dragon Ball game produced by Bandai.

To help with the difficulty of the game there's a little bit of cheating you can do using a 2nd controller if connected: on the P2 controller hold down on the d-pad to refill your energy and B to skip a level entirely. (only works on the PAL rom and not the NA or JP roms)