Hannan Mundia 
Anime arena fighters have had many heavy hitters, but recent fans have longed for more. The release of Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 marked the beginning of mediocre anime arena fighters that all played the same. This may be why anime fans worldwide collectively celebrated the return of the beloved Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi series with Sparking Zero.
After over a decade of remaining dormant, the built-up excitement seen with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero was one-of-a-kind. The only problem is that nostalgia may have played too big of a role. Sparking Zero is an excellent casual fighting game, but it feels out of place in today’s competitive gaming landscape.
The Good:
- Captures the feel of the classic Budokai Tenkaichi games
- Excellent visuals
The Bad:
- Easily exploitable characters
- The story mode feels like an afterthought
- Tries and fails to be a competitive game
Review Details
- What Platform Did the Reviewer Play On?: PC
- Platforms Available: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
- Official release date: October 11, 2024
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is a triumph and a pretender
Arena fighters are a dime a dozen, especially when talking about anime arena fighters. Throughout the genre’s history, many games have struggled to hold up against competitive play due to shallow gameplay focusing on style over substance. As a result, traditional fighters like Tekken and Street Fighter get more time in the spotlight than the dozens of arena fighters regularly getting released.
Things changed when Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi came out in 2005 for the PlayStation 2. The game was loved by fans for its in-depth fighting mechanics and spawned two sequels in the same console generation.
After the launch of Budokai Tenkaichi 3 in 2007, the series went dormant until the release of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. While the 2024 game lives up to the Budokai Tenkaichi name, it has a bit of an identity issue.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is a fast-paced arena fighter that can get overwhelming for players new to the series. Unlike other games in the same genre, this one has numerous mechanics players must master to excel. While casual players will have no problem button-mashing to victory, the game has enough mechanics for players to take it seriously. Don’t necessarily expect it to land on the Evo tournament lineup, but it’s also not something to take completely lightly.
Combat begins with players selecting a character or team beforehand. Once the match starts, both sides engage in battle, aiming to defeat their opponent before the time limit expires. The HUD displays each side’s health, ki, skill count, and if they can switch characters. Keeping track of the constantly shifting numbers and bars feels overwhelming initially but quickly becomes second nature.
It feels great to fill the shoes of beloved characters in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s story modes. These characters include Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, and more, but many Z Fighters don’t get the same love.
Previous story modes in the Budokai Tenkaichi series had players go through minor and major battles from the manga or anime. Sparking Zero skips over them in exchange for only covering the most important ones. What’s more, it does so by giving players an extremely condensed and streamlined version of events.
Important plot points have well-done cutscenes that allow players to see iconic moments from the character’s perspective. Sadly, these are few and far between, as most scenes are covered in a slideshow or skipped completely. It’s jarring seeing Goku wake up at Kame House beside Chi-Chi directly after the Android 19 fight.
It would have been nice to see Goku suffer from the infamous heart virus or get carried off the battlefield if only to retain the flow.
Then there’s the revamped “What If” scenarios called Sparking Episodes. Covering imagined scenarios like “what if Goku and Piccolo didn’t team up against Raditz” and seeing Gohan Black is an excellent treat. Naturally, Goku gets the most Sparking Episodes, but players can make their personalized Custom Battles to bring their dream matches to life. While the story mode doesn’t have much replayability, Custom Battles do.
Even though there are numerous mechanics to learn, players will still have an easier time playing canonically stronger characters. While other popular fighting games are balanced to ensure every character is viable, Sparking Zero goes a different route. Broly, simply put, is deliberately made to be stronger than Krillin. Although this makes the game more accurate to its source material, it ultimately highlights some balancing issues in weaker characters.
The alternative to balance is DP mode where players must construct a team using a set number of points, with stronger characters costing more. The problem arises when characters meant to be weak are tough even though they don’t cost much DP. For example, players using someone like Android 19 or 20 can run out the timer with ki-free dashing and Yajirobe has infinite health with Senzu Beans.
All these issues would have been fine if Sparking Zero was purely a casual game. After all, the other Budokai Tenkaichi games weren’t known for keeping characters balanced. However, Sparking Zero relies on the multiplayer mode to keep players in the game. Local multiplayer is fun, but playing against strangers is another matter.
The casual mode has players make or join a one-on-one lobby in an extremely outdated fashion. It would have been better if the game had a quick play option where the single press of a button matched two players against each other. Thanks to this, most players look toward the ranked mode, which has its fair share of problems.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s ranked mode suffers from the same character inbalancing issues mentioned earlier. However, arguably a more jarring issue is how players can quit in the middle of a match without any major consequences. One player could have all their characters alive and be in the middle of using their game-winning ultimate but the game will still be a tie if the second player leaves.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s excellent visuals and fun gameplay make it casually enjoyable. The downside is it doesn’t have what it takes to be the competitive game Spike Chunsoft wanted.
The Bottom Line: Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is a faithful entry in the Budokai Tenkaichi series but suffers from balancing and replayability issues.
Score: 7/10
