October is a celebration for fans of Dragon Ball. Not only is the new series launching, but a new game in the popular Budokai Tenkaichi series is also being released. MyMMO editor Nikolas Hernes was able to play Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero and can recommend it (almost) to every Dragon Ball fan.
What kind of game is Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero? When Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero was announced, many fans were filled with joy. Finally, there was a continuation of the beloved Budokai Tenkaichi series. In this game, you fight with a wide range of characters in 3D arenas, using fists and energy attacks.
- Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero will be released on October 11, 2024 (Early Access for more expensive editions on October 8, 2024)
- The game will be available on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S
- The Standard Edition costs €69.99 on Steam and €79.99 on consoles
- The Deluxe Edition with a season pass and early access costs €99.99 on Steam and €109.99 on consoles
- The Ultimate Edition with even more extras costs €109.99 on Steam and €119.99 on consoles
Sparking! Zero is a faithful continuation with slicker visuals and a lot of new characters, which have unfortunately replaced some old fan favorites. Thus, Sparking! Zero promises to be the perfect game for fans, as long as one is interested in multiplayer.
You can find a trailer for the game here:
Many characters, lots of fan service, and a fun combat system
Fans of all series will be happy. The most important aspect of the game is the large selection of characters. Without DLCs, there are 182 fighters to choose from. All series are represented: Dragon Ball Classic, Z, Super, and GT. There are also villains from the movies available to play. Most of the characters come from Z and Super.
Unlike fighting games like Tekken or Street Fighter, it’s not about balancing. Basically, Beerus and Jiren should be significantly stronger than Videl or Muten Roshi. I think that’s good too; if you want a balanced brawler, you go for Dragon Ball FighterZ. Part of the experience is also conveying the lore in the battles. That’s the intended fan service.
This is also evident in the fights themselves, as characters are divided into points in the ranking mode, from which you can form a team of 15 points. The strong characters with better stats cost up to 10 points, while the very weak ones cost only 1 to 3. This at least ensures a simple form of balancing.
The fighting itself is enjoyable, although beginners will first have to deal with the overloaded controls. Once you’ve learned them, you’re pretty much prepared for any fighter.
There aren’t various strategies with different characters like in Street Fighter. This is pleasant for players who don’t want to spend thousands of hours in training just to learn a single character.
Singleplayer fans may be disappointed
Sparking! Zero doesn’t offer much in singleplayer. Besides the online modes, there is the episodic mode for singleplayer. In this mode, you play through the stories of several characters. The selection is pretty cool, as even villains get their spotlights. Unfortunately, the mode itself is disappointing.
You play through several battles from the series. Apart from still images and simple cutscenes, it is not well staged. There are also several what-if scenarios that open up cool premises, but these are mostly more concepts than real stories. At least an alternate story will amaze many fans.
Even one of the predecessors, Budokai Tenkaichi 2, got a lot more out of the story, with an open world, side quests, and a rudimentary RPG system. The RPG system is also here but is in a different menu than the episodes and is not needed to complete the game.
The world tournament mode also returns, but it is quickly finished and, in my opinion, too easy even on the hardest difficulty. Once you have figured out a good combo and combined it with the ultimate attacks, you can easily and quickly end any fight against bots.
A silver lining, however, are the bonus fights, which can also be created by players. You can even build dialogues and little cutscenes from pre-made patterns. Over time, you will certainly be able to play cool and interesting fights from the community that increase the difficulty.
To be honest: The singleplayer is secondary
As unfortunate as the wasted opportunity for a better singleplayer is, it’s also quite irrelevant. Sparking! Zero is great when it comes to the fights. The effects and colorful graphics gave me goosebumps as well. When the heroes unleash a Kamehameha
with their Japanese original voices, a Dragon Ball fan simply feels happy.
Trying out the various characters in multiplayer and playing your own what-if battles
with friends is the greatest joy you can have with the game. And finally, it goes online, with a leaderboard system.
The fan service with little dialogues before the battles and Easter eggs like Goten, who says KameKAmeha
instead of Kamehameha
because he is just a kid, puts a smile on my face. Also impressive are the many animations that represent each character individually despite the similar gameplay strategy.
As a player for the high full price, one must know if the focus on multiplayer and fan service is worth €70 (Steam) or €80 (PS5, Xbox). If you are not a huge fan and only want to occasionally spar with friends, you might as well wait for a sale.
If you want to play a well-crafted story, then you should grab Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. One of the best anime games on PS4 and PS5.
Dragon Ball has been with me since I was 6 years old. I love the universe, the characters, and even the new series, despite many weaknesses, I really enjoy watching them. And Sparking! Zero also has weaknesses. Yet I enjoyed every second of it.
As much as I love complex, strategic fighting games, the 6-year-old in me still wants to fight virtually with friends to find out whether Gogeta or Vegito is stronger. And no game does that as well as Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero.
Anime games have a rather mediocre reputation, mainly because most of them are quite bad. But I still love them and play almost every release of series that I know. Why anime games, despite their weaknesses, are so good, you can find out here: I love anime games on the PS5, even though most of them are quite bad
