Introduction

I feel like I’m now commonly saying the same line in most of my reviews. The phrase “It has been x amount of years since x came out…” is becoming a mantra, at this point. That’s probably because game developers are starting to see that gamers don’t just want new IPs or, yet, another sequel from a long-running franchise.

Many of us gamers want the series we adored back when we were kids and teens to remerge but with modern gaming elements and enhancements. Enter, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, which is more or less a love letter to the great Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi titles that many of us Dragon Ball fans loved.

A large roster of characters, fun 3D combat, and tons of gaming modes made the long-running Budokai series memorable and Sparking! Zero seems to want to match that by having the great developer Dimps at the helm.

However, is Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero the new game we wanted or should our memories stay just that…memories. Let me tell you now in my review of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero for the PS5!

Watch the Official Trailer

Gameplay

If you didn’t have a PS2 or Nintendo Wii (which many of the Dragon Ball Budokai games were released on), let me explain what you can expect when you boot up Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.

Unlike the incredible 2D Dragon Ball FigtherZ, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a 3D fighter where the arenas are large, full of destructible environmental pieces and energy blasts fill the screen. You take your fighter of choice (which there are 200+ to choose from) and duke it out with either the PC or a friend/online opponent.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is heavy on the counters and dramatics as you’ll be charging your ki and then unleashing a multitude of special moves/attacks hoping your opponent doesn’t counter or dodge.

I can imagine fans of FighterZ being a little pushed away from this idea but that’s where Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is aimed more at, those who are looking for a more chaotic and fun brawler versus a truly competitive experience.

Sure, there are combos to master and perfect anime dodges to learn but Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero isn’t trying to be competitive. It’s trying to be fun and it accomplishes that, perfectly.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero contains numerous, and I mean numerous, game modes, too. You have the typical story-like mode called Episode Battle, where you go through the entire Dragon Ball Z and Super storylines but with added themes. Players can alter paths based on their performance and/or choice in battle.

For example, one of the earliest path changes is, instead of Goku dying by Piccolo’s Special Beam Cannon holding Raditz (spoilers: but I’m sure no one cares about a story from the 90s being spoiled in 2024) which, in turn, allows other characters to appear in the following episode where Goku fights against Vegeta and Nappa.

These little patches give the incentive to try and beat battles in ways that you wished you would have seen in the anime. I won’t go further and spoil it but there are some pretty fan-heavy moments altered by doing these various paths and some are really cool.

Episode mode also lets you play as numerous characters and see their particular stories from their eyes like Goku Black, Gohan, and so forth. The only element I groaned at was how the episodes played out visually. While they often will use in-game animations, often a story will shift to a still image and have a non-narrated text box pop up.

It feels…lazy to say the least and I was annoyed when some of the best Dragon Ball moments became just simple screensaver images. Yet, I also realize if you want a more narrative-heavy experience you can always play Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.

Custom Battle is also a neat gameplay mode where players can create different scenarios for their fighters and some lead to cutscenes during battle which is epic. I had fun messing with this mode and seeing what pairings led to what!

There’s also the traditional Tournament mode that lets players create their tournaments or engage in story-themed ones like the Cell Saga or the Tournament of Power. There’s even an encyclopedia where people can see Videl, Chi-Chi, and Bulma narrate different descriptions of characters. Some of these are hilarious and a few made me shed some tears, especially the Future Gohan one…

You might be wondering, ”he’s been talking about modes and simple gameplay mechanics but hasn’t gone in-depth about the actual control.” There’s a reason for that folks.

See, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is going to be very hard to not anger some readers when I say the gameplay is kind of…simple. I can already feel those out there powering up their fingers and waiting to comment but hear me out, simple isn’t bad.

Here’s the issue with all of the Budokai games, including Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, they aren’t balanced and they’re far from fighting games that will be on an E-Sports lineup. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has characters that can almost constantly dodge (Whis) and others that can take an entire health bar in one hit (Jiren).

Having 200+ characters (and more on the way) means that some characters aren’t going to be necessarily balanced. Mr. Satan, for example, does almost no damage, and while a few of his combos can be used to do some hurt, he’s going to be mainly used as a joke character.

That’s why I feel it is very important to understand to those who buy Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.

You will need to realize this isn’t a fighting game like Tekken or Street Fighter VI. This is meant to be a fun title that has a few competitive elements (you’ll see plenty of online rages quit) but is meant to be for fans to unleash their favorite heroes and villains in a gigantic 3D arena and see what happens.

Graphics

Visually, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is stunning and memorizing at times. From the various cutscenes to the way a clash occurs after two gigantic energy attacks hits, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is just eye fanfare and I never stopped loving it.

I played on a 4k monitor and was blown away by how some of the special attacks looked. Dimps did a phenomenal job of making this 3D fighter one of their best creations.

Again, the still scenes that pop up are…abysmal but these are only present in a few modes and are a minor gripe when I can see UI Goku unleashing his signature dodges in animation that almost matches the anime.

Sound

Whether you’re listening to Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero in English Dub or Japanese Sub, you’re going to smile. The voice acting is incredible as expected from the Dragon Ball franchise. Likewise, the music is great with plenty of throwbacks from Super and OG Dragon Ball making their appearances here and there.

Attacks sound great too, Goku unleashing his Kamehameha wave will make you smile.

Story

I talked about it more or less in the gameplay section but Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero does a superb job with the story. The world of Dragon Ball has a narrative as vast as Star Wars at this point (think about all the OVAs and movies, and you’ll agree with my comparison). Containing that in one game is no small feat.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero equally has a wide assortment of what-if scenarios that give fans what they want in terms of unlikely pair-ups and even battles they didn’t think of. Again, I could run down a list of spoiler-heavy moments but I won’t.

Half the fun of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is seeing these episodes play out for yourself and wondering what else you can do.

Overall Impression

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero isn’t a perfect fighting game, there are a multitude of things I could go on and on about when it comes to dodge mechanics, balancing, and how stamina stuns work. Part of me wanted to do so in this review and I’d be warranted to, honestly.

However, as a long-time Dragon Ball fan, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is what I’ve wanted from Bandai Namco for years and while I could harp on the small issues, at the end of the day, I walk away playing Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero and having a good time.

Conclusion

Friends of mine are loving the challenging episode mode (it’s hard but not the goofy levels I’ve seen exaggerated online so it’s why I didn’t even mention it here) and going online to raise their ranks and/or just earn a means to unlock the huge roster of characters and their customization options.

There will be, no doubt, people who want to take Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero competitively and it can be done…albeit, shouldn’t be given the balancing system. Nonetheless, fans I feel will love Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero and that is what matters.

Now, please for the love of God, add Super Saiyan Bardock… I get the DLC is coming but like, now please, thanks.

—Aaron