Xbox Honors Akira Toriyama With a Free Blue Dragon Dynamic Background

In remembrance of the late Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama, Xbox is celebrating the mangaka's legacy with a free, dynamic dashboard background of his character designs for Xbox 360's fantasy RPG Blue Dragon.

The legendary Akira Toriyama, who was also the creator behind beloved manga like Dr. Slump and artwork for games like Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger, passed away on March 1 due to an acute subdural hematoma.

Since his passing, the anime community and manga creators behind series like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece celebrated Toriyama's undeniable impact on pop culture. Now, Microsoft is joining in celebrating Toriyama's legacy with a free dashboard background for one of his most slept-on hits, Blue Dragon.

"Honoring a true legend," Xbox wrote on its official X/Twitter account. "We’ve added a new dynamic dashboard background featuring Xbox 360's Blue Dragon, with art and character designs by Akira Toriyama."

The dashboard background features protagonist Shu posing on the peak of a mountain alongside his dragon companion, just like they did on Blue Dragon's Xbox 360 box art cover. Along with displaying the Blue Dragon background, Xbox also encouraged players to give Blue Dragon a whirl this weekend in honor of Toriyama.

Blue Dragon was a Microsoft-exclusive 2006 role-playing game that ostensibly served as Xbox's answer to the popular ongoing Final Fantasy series. This would've proven an impossible task for any other game had it not been for the fact that Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and its acclaimed composer Nobuo Uematsu were involved with the game's development.

The RPG follows a group of adventurers with the power to summon shadow dragons as they embark on a globe-trotting adventure. The series was a hit in Japan and would later be adapted into an anime series by Naruto and Bleach studio Pierrot.

In our review, we wrote "Blue Dragon is not the most original RPG as far as design goes. Nor is it the first "must have" RPG on a Microsoft console. The pacing through the first half of the game is far too slow to stay engaging for all but the hardcore JRPG fan and the story is not nearly as epic as the multiple disc, 50+ hour game implies. But for those needing a solid traditional role-playing experience on Xbox 360, Blue Dragon will fit the bill."

Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.