Sometimes, a series has been going on for such a long time that most of the people involved can remember a time before it started. Such is my, and many others’, relationship with Dragon Ball, a monolithic franchise with roots in ancient Chinese literature and a bigger nerd pedigree than almost any other anime still running. Now, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is hoping to rekindle the flame that was sprouted back in 2005 when Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi hit PS2.
If you enjoy this review, you can check out another of our latest reviews, this time for point-and-click adventure Phoenix Springs. If you enjoy your games a bit more straightforward, you can instead look at our review of EA Sports FC 25.
What Is Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero?
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is, strangely, the latest release in the Budokai Tenkaichi series, developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco. This game hopes to bring the entire plotline from the start of Dragon Ball Z to wherever the hell Dragon Ball Super has gotten to by this point. Not only that, but it seeks to do it from the many varied perspectives of the main cast.
In case you’re wondering, yes, that does mean there are an insane number of characters to play as. The full roster sits at a tidy 181 different characters to play, though obviously, that number includes a number of variations of the same character. Either way, there has never been a Dragon Ball game that managed to squeeze this much content into a single title. Even the Xenoverse series falls short with the multiversal mayhem it offers.
Time to Get Fightin’
While there are N-million modes to choose from, the bulk of the gameplay should be familiar to anyone who has played a Budokai Tenkaichi game before. Hell, it’ll be relatively familiar to anyone who has played a 3D Dragon Ball fighting game before. You fly around 3D arenas charging up ki (energy) to shoot lasers at each other while stringing together insane rush attacks, counters, blocks, and n-number of other techniques that your friend with too much time on their hands will use to torture you when you play against them.
Jokes aside, this is both pretty standard gameplay for the series and yet some of the most refined. That probably isn’t a shock as the last game in the series came out in 2007 for the PS2/Wii. It being over a decade and a half since then, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is our first opportunity to experience that fighting system in its fully-realized state. Controls are smooth, counters are plentiful, and the animations have more particle effects than is reasonable. It’s every Dragon Ball fan’s greatest dream.
So Many Episodes
So, if the general moment-to-moment gameplay stands up, what about the main campaign? Well, there’s technically a handful of different episodic campaigns for you to choose from, starting out with Goku (because of course it does.) Each campaign runs you through a break-neck version of the main plot of the anime series, condensing the over 400 episodes of the show into about 8-12 hours, depending on how full-on you want to complete the game.
These condensed versions are occasionally faithful to the original plot, but much like previous entries in the series, there are a slew of ‘What If?’ scenarios available depending on your choices throughout the campaigns. You get transformations showing up early, characters dying when you don’t expect them to or not dying when you expect them to, and even characters showing up in fights they weren’t involved in at all.
Z Warriors on Parade
If you get bored with the story mode, or once you’ve obsessively completed everything that it has to offer, you have a handful of side options to mess around with. Obviously, you can start exhibition matches with whatever custom rules you like, as well as play online, but you also have access to a huge wardrobe of custom outfits and accessories to buff and change the look of your favourite characters. It feels like the sort of thing that will see players tinkering with their favourite characters until they look and play exactly the way they like. Also, I haven’t unlocked it yet, but if Goku and Piccolo’s ‘Driving Test’ outfits aren’t available, then it’s a travesty.
Sparking! Zero also features the ability to summon all 3 of the main iterations of The Eternal Dragon (Shenron, Porunga, and Super Shenron), who will grant you various wishes from unlocking new characters to filling your pockets with so much zeni that your trousers will fall down. Of course, you have to have collected the various Dragon Balls themselves, but you get a pretty decent return on your investment for doing it. Outside of this, there’s not much else on the menu. Prat around with the story mode, check out online battles, and you’re pretty much done, frankly.
Like Krillin on Crack
Another weird quirk you’re likely to come across on PC is related to the framerate. Due to circumstances outside of my control, I ended up having the graphical settings all the way down, despite my PC being more than capable of handling the game. With an uncapped framerate, this meant my fps leapt upwards and caused my entire game to become temporarily unplayable.
As with various other PC ports, the game speed is tied to the frame count, which means if your settings are too low and your rate is uncapped, your game turns into The Benny Hill Show but with more lasers. While it’s a bit strange, you can use it to make the game go in super slow-mo too, so if you’re struggling, maybe just up your settings and you’ll probably find landing your counters and deflects much easier.
Give Me Big Anime Eyes!
Visually, the game looks great. Over the years, the rendition of anime characters in video games has gotten better and better, and by now, these characters really feel like they’ve been taken directly from the shows and transplanted into a 3D game universe. Everything from the expressions to the animations are spot-on, though there are a few moments where the characters look a little goofy, but honestly, that’s sort of guaranteed with some of these moves.
There’s also the soundtrack, which is another close replication of the music and effects from the show, and it helps tie everything together and give you that true immersive experience. If you want to experience almost any moment in the series for yourself, you can now do it on all current-gen systems.
Summary
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a fantastic entry in the series and an awesome return from over a decade and a half in the void. The gameplay is the best it’s ever been, and there’s enough content here to keep a Dragon Ball fan playing until the cows come home, even if the huge number of touted characters is mostly filled with infinite variations. Sure, the game speed is tied to the frame rate, but it just adds to some of the goofy fun of watching various colourful characters beat seven shades out of each other.
Developer: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: 7th October 2024
