Dragon Ball: Sparkling! ZERO Review

Initial release date: October 7, 2024

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows

Developer: Spike Chunsoft

License: proprietary license

Genres: Fighting game, Action game, Adventure game

Publishers: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Namco Bandai Games America Inc.

Series: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi

As someone who grew up enjoying Dragon Ball Z, I was eager to play any and all games featuring my favorite Super Saiyans and their pals. This entailed playing a wide range of bizarre and beautiful titles, from GBA brawlers to poorly translated turn-based RPGs. The one that stole my heart the most was Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2. This absurdly called title was a strange over-the-shoulder fighting game with all the punching and enormous energy assaults you could want, and I played it endlessly. Other Dragon Ball games have come and gone, but I’ll never forget the hundreds of hours I spent fighting my best friend as The Ginyu Force in Tenkaichi 2. Well, a new Dragon Ball game has arrived, following in the footsteps of my favorite, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO is sure to thrill anime aficionados.

After starting Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO will greet you with a lesson that you will need to pay great attention to. There is a lot to learn before you can even begin to understand (much alone master) this difficult and unconventional fighting game. Even moving requires approximately five separate inputs, including the control stick, shoulder buttons for ascending and descending in flight, and ways to boost and teleport if you have enough energy. It will take a long time for you to be ready to unleash all of your abilities on an enemy in an actual fight, so prepare to study your ass off.

Moving is one thing; beating up a real enemy is another. Like any fighting game, you can utilize a number of combos on your opponent, combining punches, kicks, and blasts to reduce their health bar and possibly knock them out. With so many ways to block, counter, and dodge, you’ll have to be cautious about your advances being thwarted. Even against lesser difficulty AI, button mashing will only get you so far; however, once you’ve mastered a few special moves, you’ll be able to munch through adversaries quickly.

As one would expect from a Dragon Ball game, Sparking! ZERO contains a plethora of ridiculously over-the-top special moves that you will recognize from the series. When you have enough energy, you can launch one of these by holding down the shoulder and face buttons together, which will charge a big Kamehameha or rush in for a cutscene combo. Super assaults require you to charge your energy to the highest level, and they almost always take off multiple health bars while triggering around thirty seconds of insane flashing lights and one-liners.

All of these attacks are quite satisfying to use, but you will need to charge your energy. This entails standing motionless and shouting while a powerful and familiar aura surrounds you, which, as you may guess, is difficult in a fast-paced fighting game. As both players desire to utilize them, there will be standoff times where they are simply charging their energy and staring at one other, which is always unsettling.

There are numerous ways to play Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO is a story mode that covers almost every aspect of the show, from its genesis to the present day, including online battles. However, starting with the campaign is certainly the most practical option, and it gives a delightful nostalgia trip, as Dragon Ball games typically do. You can play a number of campaigns involving different characters, beginning with Goku and on to Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, and even villains like as Frieza, to name a few. What’s especially fascinating about this mode is that you can unlock other plot pathways by meeting certain prerequisites, which lead to some really interesting twists and provide a fun challenge.

When you’re ready to take on some other gamers online (you poor fool), there are numerous options to choose from. You can choose between basic rapid battles and ranking battles, as well as join or create numerous tournaments. Tournaments can have a variety of amusing criteria, such as prohibiting flying or only accepting characters from a specific anime arc, and it’s always entertaining to see which eccentric side character triumphs over the galaxy’s strongest being. You can even play these tournaments with bots, which I did with great enthusiasm as a Dragon Ball nerd.

There are so many things to do that I didn’t even include in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Things include spending money at the shop to customize characters with various upgrades and clothing, or collecting the Dragon Balls and making a wish to Shenron for more characters or money. It can be a little intimidating at first, but before you know it, you’ll have access to all 182 characters.

There is a lot to like about Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, but one component of the game that deserves special attention is its looks. The series’ vivid anime flair is nicely captured here, making all of the huge, showy attacks even more impressive. Along with this, there are also fantastic tiny details, such as characters having their clothing destroyed in battle and altering their appearance as you fight, which is insanely cool. The audio is just as fantastic as the pictures, and you can choose between Japanese or English voice acting based on your preferences.

Dragon Ball: Sparkling! ZERO is an excellent fighting game, however it has some flaws. The largest of these is the massive learning curve, which the game does not help you navigate. The introductory tutorial is completely inadequate, and you will not be ready to play the game until you have progressed to the training mode and completed hours of courses. I played around half of these at first since I was eager to get into the game, and there were so many basic abilities like tagging teammates and transforming that I had no idea how to use. A deliberate attempt to create a lengthy and compelling tutorial would have made this game far more entertaining, and it’s unfortunate that you now have to study on your own for hours.

Another difficulty with Sparking! ZERO that will frustrate some is how long some of the more significant changes take to accomplish. If your opponent is good, they will frequently employ these, thus you will spend more time watching cutscenes than fighting.

Review Overview

Gameplay: 83%

Controls: 80%

Aesthetics: 85%

Content: 78%

Accessibility: 82%

Value: 81%

Overall: 82%

VERY GOOD

Summary: “Dragon Ball: Sparkling! ZERO” provides fans with an action-packed fighting experience including spectacular visuals and fast-paced gameplay. Players will appreciate how faithfully the Dragon Ball universe is represented, from character designs to iconic attacks. While the game is visually stunning and entertaining, fans of the franchise may find the gameplay too similar. The controls are responsive, although mastering advanced skills takes practice. With a strong array of characters and multiplayer options, it’s an excellent title for enthusiasts, but it lacks the creativity to stand out as a must-have for novices. Overall, it’s an excellent addition to the Dragon Ball franchise.