For many Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is the gold standard for anime fighting games. It might not have the depth of Dragon Ball FighterZ, but it makes up for it by including close to every character that appeared in the franchise’s massive history. It genuinely allowed players to have their dream matchup, regardless of whether it’s Goku vs Vegeta, or Zarbon and Bojack. Despite the popularity, the franchise was shelved for years until the unexpected reveal of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. With the addition of Dragon Ball Super, new movies, and more content to pull from in the future, does it retain the spark, or did it peak years ago?
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero makes some interesting choices in regard to narrative. Players unsurprisingly start from the beginning of the Z saga, meaning the first story fight is against Raditz. From here the iconic saga is summed up to its most basic components.
From Zero to Super Saiyan in an Hour
Long standing fans might be disappointed with what ultimately gets cut, but the upside is everything past Majin Buu is far more fleshed out. This allows players to experience content that wasn’t previously adapted in much of its original glory.
In addition to following Goku’s adventure, players can experience the story from a wide variety of other perspectives. These range from obvious choices, such as Gohan, to exciting additions like Goku Black. Along with giving players the chance to experience the narrative from the other side, said stories have alternate win conditions that unlock additional content. Quality varies, though several are more fleshed out than Goku just wins and everyone is happy.
Despite the positives, one of the biggest negative to campaign is how it approaches difficulty. Instead of focusing on linear progression, where players are slowly pushed to reach their peak, difficulty is centered on how that scene is supposed to feel. It’s a fantastic choice in regard to impact, it just isn’t the most fun when players are given a 2 minute tutorial before having to fight a great ape that is significantly harder than the next six or so encounters.
Many will also not do well in this trial by fire format, forcing them to either rely on cheap tricks, or opt for a lower difficulty. For those who want to rise to the occasion, I do think it offers an interesting look into the intended combat loop of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.
Instead of just alternating between punches/kicks, followed by a couple teleports where the person gets smacked around the location, the idea is power up for a decisive combo. This is explained by the AI completely dominating players until they adopt said tactic. The only other way to find success is to have a better defense, though that style of play is far more common on the online side of things.
Similar to previous entries in the series, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is all about quantity over quality. It isn’t uncommon for characters to have three, or even five different options to pick from. Outside of small design changes, such as hair color, the main difference is techniques. Even something like Cell Perfect Form is different from Perfect Cell.
Even if certain characters struggle to stand out, I’d say Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero captures what fans loved about the original series. It isn’t about making 19 different version of Goku, all of which are distinct from one another, it’s being able to have essentially every version of a character do battle in climatic showdowns. Even something like my joke about Cell is something people in the community recognize, and will even note when that specific version appears in the narrative.
The same holds true for combat. Controls might be simple, though for better or worse they capture the manic nature of Dragon Ball fights. Characters teleport around the arena, are blasted across the map, all with climatic special moves. In fact, much to Spike Chunsoft’s credit I might not know the difference between several variants, but I can immediately recognize what makes a Super Kamehameha different from a Limit Breaker God Kamehameha.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Review Verdict
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero: At its core, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is an exciting love letter to one of the most beloved franchises of all time. Not only are the vast majority of characters present, each are approached with a strong attention to detail, and references long standing fans will appreciate, and love. While it still has some rough patches, not to mention a few glaring character omissions, it's a strong foundation that fans of the series will undoubtedly enjoy. – Mark
Editor’s Note: Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was reviewed on PlayStation 5, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.
