Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Review – Kamehameha x100

The long-awaited sequel to the Budokai Tenkaichi series has a lot of nostalgia to live up to. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has more material to work with than ever, and making it a cohesive package is no easy feat.

For Shenron's sake, among the 182 characters, there are seven Gokus and six Vegetas, each with their own set of transformations and fusions (that doesn't even include Goku Black or Baby Vegeta!). There's a bunch of new material from Dragon Ball Super to cover, too.

For the most part, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero handles all of that and more with care and heart, all while lovingly bringing your favorite spikey-haired Saiyans to life in Unreal Engine 5. Even if you get tired of hearing Goku yell "Kamehameha" a hundred times, at least it'll look good.

Watch Those Sparks Fly

Above all, Dragon Ball is all about the fights, and Sparking! Zero takes that seriously. The fighting system here is very comparable to the old-school Budokai Tenkaichi games, meaning it's frantic, energetic, and fast. However, there's an order to the chaos, especially with the meaningful updates to the combat introduced here.

For example, Revenge Counters let you use a Skill Count to get a breather while your enemy is mid-combo, sort of like a burst in Guilty Gear. Short Dashes also give you more options for close-quarters maneuverability and mid-combo versatility.

The camera, often a source of frustration in arena fighters, follows the action fairly well, too. When there's a quick series of high-speed movements, the camera goes for a bird's-eye view, valuing clarity instead of staying locked over the shoulder. It's another welcome upgrade, though it still struggles once you're in a corner.

No matter whether you're on the offensive or the defensive, it never feels like you're short of options. If you're beating down the enemy, there are at least five ways to extend your combo at any given moment, and it's up to you to mix things up, whether it's for style points or to trip up your opponent.

Similarly, when you're being attacked, there are tight timing windows to execute counters, vanishes, and all manners of parries. It feels like a series of high-speed rock-paper-scissors matches, but only metaphorically—this isn't like Ultimate Tenkaichi, thankfully.

Super attacks, of course, are the flashiest part of combat here. Every character gets three attack ones and two utility skills. These utility skills can instantly max your ki meter or give a mini power boost. For example, one of Super Saiyan Blue Goku's utility skills is a temporary Kaioken.

The attacks are exactly what you think: These are your Kamehamehas and Final Flashes. Some are just projectiles, while others are rush attacks where you have to make contact with the enemy.

I've found the tracking for these attacks to be more forgiving than what I remembered from the older Budokai Tenkaichi games. I pretty consistently could land long combos, launch the enemy across the map, and reliably add a super attack for that extra touch of damage and pizazz.

Once you're in the groove, it really does feel like playing an episode of Dragon Ball, where quick combos and tricky teleports are punctuated by trash talk and big blasts. The super attacks are also all choreographed very well, referencing specific frames from the anime while being snappy enough to not outstay their welcome.

To put it simply, Sparking! Zero is everything I wanted in a Dragon Ball arena fighter and more. However, if you're looking for a truly competitive multiplayer experience here, I'd temper your expectations. There's online play and ranked matches, but the game is also absolutely unbalanced—in a good way.

After all, Ultra Instinct Goku or Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta are absolute powerhouses in the story, and this game is all about fulfilling that power fantasy. Could Krillin beat them? Sure, anything is possible. But I don't think we're here to see an equal playing field; we're here to see that field demolished.

Next Time on Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has lots of game modes, where you can play against friends on the couch or online. There are even tournament modes to check out. But the star of the show, and what you'll likely first check out, is the Episode Battle mode.

You get a total of eight characters to choose from, and you follow their stories throughout the entirety of Dragon Ball. Goku's story is the first one you'll have, but you'll unlock more like Vegeta, Gohan, Frieza, and even Goku Black.

The real question is, how many more times do we need to see Frieza blow up Krillin? If you're picking up this game, chances are you already know the canon decently. This game knows that and treats the story with brevity where it's due.

For example, in Goku's story, the Android/Cell Saga is just three fights: one with Android 19, one with Cell, then one with Cell Jr. There's some storytelling to tie them all together, but it handles it quickly because you'll get more of the context in Vegeta's and Gohan's stories.

It was a bit of a weird choice at first, but I grew to appreciate it in the long run. It makes the story mode overall feel better-paced, even if you occasionally see repeats of the same scenes from slightly different angles.

The way some scenes are presented can feel a little bit dry, with unvoiced text over essentially a slideshow. The choice is only made more jarring when certain endings have a narrator reading out the words. Regardless, despite the sometimes lacking presentation, the full-motion cutscenes make up for it.

Certain scenes from the anime are lovingly remade in Unreal Engine 5, and the particle effects and energy beams look wonderful in it. Even better, you can press a button to toggle between your character's perspective or the pre-determined camera angles of the scene.

Sometimes, it's really cool to see a unique perspective in these vignettes. Watching Piccolo kill Raditz and Goku from Goku's view is equally wild and wonderful. There's another scene where one character runs distraction while yours flanks the opponent, and it's cool seeing the distraction from afar.

Other times though, the first-person perspective is kind of awkward and unnecessary. Simple discussions are just a little weird, especially when the other character is really far away.

A Love Letter to Dragon Ball Fans

Some fights also come with unique finish conditions that open up new paths in the narrative. They can be as simple as Goku finishing off Cell before Gohan needs to join in, and it leads to a fun-yet-brief happily ever after. But others are entire mini sagas on their own.

These what-if scenarios in the story mode are some of the best parts of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, especially the lengthier ones. They play with the canon in interesting, fun ways, and more importantly, they bring those fun hypotheticals to life.

If you grew up on Dragon Ball, there's no doubt you've heard friends say stuff like, "What if Vegeta killed Krillin on Earth and Goku went Super Saiyan early?" Heck, you might have been that kid yourself.

This game lives out that scenario in an eight-fight long alternate story, and it even adds a fun little twist I wasn't expecting. And that's just one of many lengthy breakaways from the known canon.

If you initially thought that it was weird for Goku Black or Frieza to be the protagonists of their own story modes, rest assured, they're fleshed out by all sorts of interesting hypotheticals. Frieza and Gohan especially have some of the best alternate stories as you get into the Super sections of the narrative.

As a whole, these story modes feel like a celebration of Dragon Ball's most iconic moments while sparking the fans' imaginations. The weakest stories might be Jiren's and Goku Black's, since they're both confined to one arc each. Their what-if scenarios didn't feel so excitingly different from one another, often presenting slightly different flavors of "but what if they defeated Goku?"

If your imagination goes wild, there's also the Custom Battle mode in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, where you can play and create your own dream matchups. It comes preloaded with 37 custom fights that range from silly to dramatic.

For example, there's one where Ginyu turns against Frieza and body changes with him. In another, the Great Saiyaman saves the city from evil Kaiju, like Hirudegarn and Great Ape Vegeta.

To up the ante even more, the Custom Battle editor lets you create all sorts of scenarios yourself. The editor is a little bit tedious to use, and it could use better filters for finding names and pre-set sentences. But if you're determined, it's robust enough to make interesting cutscenes and fights.

Within a fight itself, you can program if-then statements to alter the flow as the fight continues. You can really up the stakes, creating an enemy that feels nigh invincible, but then another hero comes in and saves the day after your character loses a percent of health.

I'm not sure how enamored I am by the editor itself, but I love the idea it presents, and for the mega fans out there, I'm sure the potential of making and publishing unique Dragon Ball fights will be a dream come true. I'm personally excited to explore the online library a couple of days after it fully launches.

And as a final note for all the major Dragon Ball fans out there, please check out the Encyclopedia. It gives you your usage stats for each character, but more importantly, while you're perusing, you'll be on a Zoom call with Chi-Chi, Bulma, and Videl. You can ask them to dish on literally any character, and it's as delightful as you can imagine.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Review | Final Thoughts

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is the Dragon Ball game I've waited years for. I sunk so much of my youth into the Budokai Tenkaichi series, and this game just breaks the limits of what I thought would be possible.

Its story mode alone delivers so much more than just the narrative you know. It's a treasure trove of easter eggs and winks to the audience, all wrapped up in a beautifully rendered package.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was reviewed on PlayStation 5 with a copy provided by the publisher over the course of 24 hours of gameplay – all screenshots were taken during the process of review.