It is another year and another release for the king of the anime tie-in, Dragon Ball. Fans around the world are offering their energy to Bandai Namco as they take on the test of producing the next contender in Dragon Ball’s Budokai Tenkaichi series. Put down your Xenoverse 2 and your FighterZ; it’s time for the next challenger to arrive with Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO.
Return to Zero!
Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO is a typical Dragon Ball anime tie-in title when it comes to the story on offer. You have the Episode Mode that covers the events of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super from the perspective of many iconic characters of the Dragon Ball storylines, namely Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, Gohan, Future Trunks, Jiren, Frieza, and Goku Black. After picking your character, you go through the story events of the anime up until the end of the Universe Survival/Tournament of Power Saga of Super (sorry to the fans of the manga and the films that followed).
While the stories are somewhat condensed versions of events focusing on a chosen character’s role in the story, it does a good enough job of recapping the Dragon Ball timeline both for existing fans wanting a refresher and for those who have not watched Super to be able to catch up. To keep things interesting, there are also additional “what-if” routes for every character that are unlocked by changing the outcome of certain events. An example would be at the start of Goku’s story, you can choose not to take Piccolo with you to fight Raditz as in canon. If you beat Raditz within a certain time, you start a different path where Goku isn’t killed during that fight and it culminates in him reaching Super Saiyan during the Vegeta fight, long before he even touches the grass of Namek where that is supposed to happen.
Imagine if?!
While I love a good what-if story, especially when it comes to the world of Dragon Ball, not all of these have been created equal in Sparking! ZERO. The aforementioned Goku example was quite good, and Future Trunks also has a few different interesting outcomes, but sadly characters like Goku Black’s tend to lean into the simpler territory of “well the bad guys won” rather than going to the lengths previous Tenkaichi titles did. These are still fun diversions at least.
Another slightly disappointing aspect of the game is the lack of story content beyond Dragon Ball Z and Super. I would have loved story mode sections covering parts of GT or the movies, and while characters from these are available in Sparking! ZERO, you can only play as them through the “Custom Battle” (more on that later). Overall it’s a minor letdown. When it comes to the story mode, it’s a perfectly serviceable retelling of the age of tale of Saiyan vs the Universe, and will still provide those goosebumps via the world of Goku and Vegeta.
Back to Goku Black
Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO is technically the fourth in the Budokai Tenkaichi series, but is designed to be more of a restart to the series rather than a direct continuation, hence the name change. If, like me, you have spent far too many hours with the Tenkaichi series this does genuinely feel like the sequel you have been longing for all these years.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a 3D fighting game, similar to the arena fighters that anime licensed games dominate such as Jump Force, Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles, and other Bandai Namco anime fighters. You have full 360-degree movement, and there are plenty of flashy moves and combos which are a lot easier to pull off than in more complex anime fighters like Arc System Works’s Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax. That isn’t to say that this game is easy as there is a mountain of mechanics to make this one of the more competitive Dragon Ball titles, but it certainly does offer an easier time for newcomers to casually jump in and out with friends.
Turtle School of Combat
In terms of combat, you have a basic light attack that combos easily, a heavy attack that can be held down to knock your enemies away, obviously the power of flight, ki blasts that shoot energy at your foes, and all the lovely signature specials like the Kamehameha and Spirit Bomb. There are several defensive options ranging from blocking to dodging, and new to the series there is a parry system. Special moves are tied to your ki meter which you have to build by holding down a button and watching your character power up (excluding any of the Androids who naturally build ki overtime).
It wouldn’t be a Dragon Ball game without transformations, and fortunately Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has plenty of them. Raise that power level high enough and if your character has a transform path. You can go Super Saiyan or the equivalent at the press of a button. It’s all very intuitive and also very faithful to the source material. There is also a team mechanic where you can press a button to switch between chosen team members, with the added bonus that benched members recover health when not on the field, promoting clever use of character switching.
Brand New Technique
New to Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO is the titular Sparking! Mode. This is a powered-up state for your character reachable by going even further beyond your fully built up ki meter to reach this “sparking” state. In Sparking! mode, you hit a lot harder and faster, and have access to your “ultimate” technique, which for most characters are usually big hitters that either end matches outright or at least turn the tables on your opponent.
There is an awful lot to learn to play Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero efficiently, especially against human opponents. Fortunately, the computer opponents can be cheesed if you struggle with the more intense episode battles. There is a very handy tutorial on offer, which I suggest you take the time to play through at least a few times to learn how you can get the most out of all the defensive and offensive options.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO has plenty of modes on offer to keep you engrossed in this world of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s. Along with the episodes of the story mode, there’s a standard versus mode where you can fight against the computer or another local player. There are online options here where you can try to become the #1 Dragon Baller of the world in ranked, or just play casually between online friends trying to prove that beloved joke character Hercule is the hero we deserve.
More than Evolution
A big addition to the game over previous Dragon Ball games is Custom Battle. Here you can create your own story scene, choose what characters you want to be involved and even design your own title screen and in-battle dialogue. You can either recreate iconic scenes or just go wild with it thanks to a simple-to-use editing tool. The best part is you can upload your own scenes and download other people’s to keep the experience feeling fresh. There are a bunch created by the developers with unlocks tied to them, and with the constantly updating online content, the world of Dragon Ball has something new to offer you every time you play.
Customization is a big factor in Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO. Not only can you unlock many costumes for the absolutely massive roster of 182 characters, but you can also edit parameters if you feel that character is too weak or needs a little more health. While you can’t take these edits into ranked, it has the potential to create some wild events in the casual ladder, like allowing an almost invincible Yamcha as a form of revenge for him being the series whipping boy.
As a brief touch on the roster, it would be an impossible task to fully balance 182 different characters, but this is part of the charm. It’s fun to play as Hercule and the fact he slows his movement when he reaches his opponent is comedy gold, but for the more competitive nature of people out there, the ranked mode online is only going to be dominated by the more powerful characters. Personally, I don’t mind this choice and have little desire to play the game at a high level online, but I know this will be a point of contention for some.
In terms of extras, there is a huge shop where you can spend money accumulated after battles. Here you can buy costumes and customizable items for your characters, custom stuff for your player cards, and background music. There is also a huge encyclopedia of everything Dragon Ball and it features some quite funny commentary from characters Chi-Chi and Bulma. You can even find Dragon Balls by just playing the game and summon the dragon Shenron to grant you a wish, whether it be for new costumes, characters, or just more money (Zeni as it’s called).
From a gameplay point of view, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO is untouchable in the realm of Dragon Ball. It’s such fun to play both competitively and casually, it has an amazing amount of offline content, and you have plenty of customization on offer to tailor your experience. If you just cannot get enough of Dragon Ball and the iconic battles throughout the franchise’s history, you’ll find that after the rough couple of early hours trying to remember the controls, you’ll have never had a more authentic and fun time within the Dragon Ball sphere.
He Looks Like Goku!
On the presentation side of things I cannot say enough good things about Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. From the interactive menus that have Goku flying between his friends and interacting with them, to the cutscenes that perfectly encapsulate what happened in the anime with almost blinding detail, Bandai Namco went that extra length as they always do with this franchise. If you thought Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot or FighterZ looked good, Sparking! Zero blows them out of the water with how vibrant and detailed it is.
There are many iconic stages in this game such as West City, Namek on the brink of destruction, and even the Tournament of Power, all recreated in beautiful detail. Looking at the aforementioned Namek stage in motion was enough to bring a tear to this old fan’s eye. Characters will get battle-worn throughout a fight with clothing getting destroyed to an extent and cuts and bruises aplenty, and Saiyan transformations feature that iconic electric spark. All the little things come together to create such an authentic product visually.
Voice acting is fantastic as you would expect, with both English and Japanese voiceovers to suit your preference. The soundtrack absolutely bangs, with iconic tracks like Cha-La Head-Cha-La for your listening pleasure, and there are plenty of purchasable tracks in the in-game shop or through DLC should that not be enough (although I am saddened by the lack of Rock the Dragon).
The game runs at a smooth 60FPS at all times. I can’t remember one instance of the game even considering dropping frames. With the anime-infused art style, it has the genuine feeling of actually playing the anime, which perfectly fits a licensed anime title.
Verdict
I cannot say enough positive things about Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO. In my opinion, there hasn’t been a better representative for the product in the whole history of the franchise. It has more depth than a traditional arena fighter, and that goes such a long way to staving off the repetitive nature of the genre.
While your mileage may vary somewhat depending on how much you like the source material, I feel it would still be very fun even if you didn’t know what was going on, and if you love Dragon Ball you’ll be hard-pushed to find a better celebration of this much-loved franchise than in Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO.
DRAGON BALL: SPARKING! ZERO IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
If you would like to see more fighting games, you may be interested in our review of Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising or our coverage of this Street Fighter documentary.
Many thanks go to Bandai Namco for a PlayStation 5 review code for this title.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
