Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Review - Kicking It Saiyan Style
Anime-based games can always be a hit-and-miss affair, with wildly different levels of quality shipped out depending on the source anime, how it has been adapted into video game form and how big the dev team budget was. Fortunately, given the global popularity of the Dragon Ball series, there have been multiple great adaptations of the adventures of Goku and the Z fighters, and Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero continues in this tradition. Previously known as the Budokai Tenkaichi series, the long-awaited sequel to the series has hit consoles and PC and it has made good use of the technical advances in gaming over its 17-year absence, launching a kaleidoscope of colours on your screen as you power up, transform and energy blast your opponents right to the face.
Right out of the gate the game looks and runs gorgeous. Booting up on my PS5, I was blown away by the combination of colours from the auras, character models and arena backgrounds. Energy blasts tint the world around them as they track towards your opponent, at the same time transformations have a persistent and vibrant aura, from the gold of the OG Super Saiyan to the purple tint elicited by Goku as he combines Super Saiyan Blue with the Kaioken technique. No matter which character you are using, they are all accurately recreated in their look, power-ups and the special attacks they are known for. The team at Spike Chunsoft has put a lot of love and care into making the players feel like they are part of the Dragon Ball universe and allowing them to be part of these epic battles.
Unlike other games in the series, or even the very excellent Dragon Ball FighterZ, Sparking Zero allows you to utilise transformations during battles. There are limits to this of course, as to have access to all of Goku’s transformations would be far too unwieldy in the U.I.. Still, if you choose to start a battle with Kid Goku (GT), you can change into Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan Three and Super Saiyan Four with the quick push of a few buttons, allowing you to access different buffs and super attacks to unleash against your opponent. If you are a fan of changing your playstyle on the fly, these quick transformations can help you overcome your opponent.
One of my favourite touches is the inclusion of battle damage to the fighters, with your fighters’ clothes visibly showing more and more damage the more punishment you take. It is one of those little things that make the fights feel more like what we see in the anime and helps to draw you deeper into the game world, and another sign of the respect the dev team has for the source material.
For what is essentially a fighting game there is a surprising amount of content to keep you engaged if, like me, you prefer to only fight other people in local mode so you can dominate your friends. Rather than following a single linear story that starts with the arrival of Radditz in Dragon Ball Z and ends with the Tournament of Power in Dragon Ball Super, Sparking Zero instead focuses on character-based episodic content, allowing you to pick one of the main Dragon Ball characters and experience their journey through the events of the two series. This means that Goku and Vegeta have the largest amount of content to experience. Still, it also means you can jump into the other character’s content and get right into their action, such as Gohan during the events of the Cell Games Arc, or if you want to get your evil game on you can take control of Frieza or Goku Black.
Not content with just allowing you to relive key moments of the Dragon Ball sagas, Sparking Zero continues the Budokai Tenkaichi tradition of allowing the player to experience ‘what-if’ battles and storylines. Due to the time frame between this and the last entry I had forgotten about these battles and was taken by surprise when I entered one of these alternate timelines and progressed through the battles of that branching story. Not all branches will provide you with multiple battles along the new timeline path, but some of these are interesting to see if you can satisfy their unlock conditions.
There are also a large number of single instance ‘what-if’ battles that you can test yourself against and some of them much harder than others. I still have no idea how the hell I am supposed to beat Goku’s friends as the powerless Mr. Satan, I can’t even beat Yamcha and everyone beats him. If you are feeling particularly crafty you can even try your hand at creating these bonus battles yourself, setting restrictions and event triggers as you see fit, and uploading onto the net for other players to attempt. Be warned though, unlike some other games where you can make a damn near impossible level and upload it, you have to conquer your created battle first before you can upload it.
Despite there being a lot to love about Sparking Zero, it does have a few faults that can hamper a player’s enjoyment of the game. The biggest of these is the initial tutorial is far too basic. I did not even know that I could change out characters in certain battles until I went investigating in the tutorial sub-menus to discover not only was it possible, but what I needed to do to make use of the ability. It is understandable that this type of game, with its different systems and control schemes, cannot cover everything within the basic first-time-startup tutorial, but considering a lot of people will jump into the story content first, having that information presented from the get-go would have been appreciated.
The only other bit I found strange was the reduced amount of voice acting utilised for the story-based content. It is a mix of voice acting and displayed text, with no real distinction of why one method was chosen over the other. Whether budget constraints, issues with voice talent availability or something else I don’t know, and it is by no means a deal breaker, just something that didn’t make sense to me personally.
If you are a fan of Dragon Ball games, then Sparking Zero is a no-brainer. It looks great, plays well and contains plenty of characters to unlock and experiment with while only using the money you earn within the game to pay for character and customisation unlocks. Between the story content and bonus battles there is plenty of content to keep players engaged and while there are no confirmations at this point, I would not be surprised if the DLC adds some more story content to experience on top of new fighters.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was reviewed on the PS5 with code kindly supplied by the publisher.
