It’s no secret that I love Dragon Ball. I grew up with the series and it continues to be something I continue to got back to and constantly enjoy. The anime, the manga, the movies. I love it all. And despite the series ending (for the most part) many years ago, we still consistently get more and more video games based on the series. Now we’re just around the corner from another one. And when it comes to anime games, the Dragon Ball ones have always stood head and shoulders above most others in the genre when it comes to fun, replayability, respect for the source material and all-round quality. But one reason this game has me even more on-board is that it’s a continuation of the Budokai Tenkaichi series. The series that for me personally sits at the peak of the mountain that is Dragon Ball games.
I recently got the chance to go hands-on with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero and came away not only satisfied with how the next 3D fighter entry was being handled, but actually surprisingly impressed with how it’s going to make the story feel fresh, even for other veterans of the series and also how fun it feels to play.
For those unfamiliar with the Budokai series, they encompassed a series of Dragon Ball games that released in the 2000s, typically followed the stories of the Dragon Ball Z sagas and had ever growing rosters of characters. Unlike FighterZ which has been Dragon Ball’s most popular game in recent years, the Budokai series were 3D fighters where you would go up against your opponent, or opponents and be able to fully control your characters on a 3D plane and also utilise the environment. Sparking! Zero is a return to that formula.
During my time with the game, I was able to learn about a couple of modes that will feature in Sparking! Zero. The first of which is Episode Battle. Episode Battle lets you experience the classic story moments we know and love from the perspective of a number of playable characters and plays out through cutscenes and surprisingly a lot of storytelling also takes place during the battles themselves, replicating the flow of the show and also adding a bit of extra excitement and spectacle to the combat encounter. Where Sparking! Zero brings something new to the table is the option of choices within the story that can divert the path of the original series. Very much like an integrated ‘What-If’ mode that was a seperate system altogether in Tenkaichi 3.
For example, in the Raditz battle that occurs right at the start of DBZ. After being defeated and proposed by Piccolo for a team up, we get the choice of ‘working with Piccolo’, as Goku did in the series, and then getting to play out the story we’ve experienced many times. Or you can take the option of ‘Go it alone’, which will cause the story to branch off into an original ‘what-if’ scenario.
In this version of events Goku refuses Piccolo’s proposal to team up and take on Raditz, resulting in Piccolo taking off. Goku instead takes Krillin and Master Roshi to track down Raditz. Of course, a battle ensues, but in this version of events, it’s Krillin that is your secondary party character and not Piccolo. Towards the end of the battle, Piccolo does make an appearance, and he does still take Raditz out with a Special Beam Canon, but he gets the opportunity thanks to a combo distraction caused by Krillin and Master Roshi and not Goku holding Raditz in place. So while the events in this scenario have a similar outcome, the journey to get there was very different. And after playing the same Dragon Ball story many times at this point, I’m so pleased to see that not only are the ‘what-of moments returning to the Budokai series, they’re actually well integrated into the story itself as player choices.
Sparking! Zero has also integrated key moments where you’re able to experience scenes from the perspective of a character in first-person, with a controllable camera. With the moment I witnessed being Piccolo piercing Raditz and Goku with his iconic Special Beam Canon. A scene I’ve seen a hundred times before but never from the perspective of the beam coming right at me. I’m excited to see what other key moments from the series will be offered up utilising this fresh perspective.
Another exciting reveal was the confirmation that for the first time in the Budokai series’ history, we’re going to be able to experience content and characters from Dragon Ball Super.
The next main mode on offer to play was Versus Battle. This will likely be the portion of the game many spend a large portion of their time in when not playing through the story itself (unless they happen to surprise us with additional modes I haven’t seen yet). In this mode I was able to construct a team of up-to 3 characters to go up against an enemy team (once again, up-to 3 players) as well as selecting one of the game’s numerous stages and then go head to head against the cpu. The mode itself offered up pretty much just what you’d expect of a VS mode but it’s also a great way to test out any of the games 160+ characters that will appear in the final roster, mix and match a perfect team and also enjoy the bits of dialogue and banter that occur when specific characters face off against each other. And it’s been a much rumoured feature and one the community really wants, so I can confirm, yes, the game has local multiplayer. A feature the development team also seemed passionate about including.
Another mode that is quite complimentary to VS mode that I got to witness is called Custom Battle. This spot allows you to create the battles and scenarios you’ve always dreamed up in your head, but now you can play them. Ever wondered how and interaction between Frieza and Mr Satan would play out, well now you can. And it’s not just limited to the fights, you can also frame up the scene itself, as well as the character dialogue and custom episode screen to really live out a dream scenario.
While it’s rarely the case for anime games, Dragon Ball titles have pretty much always gone the extra mile and had the dub cast come back in and re-record dialogue for the video games. And Sparking! Zero is no different. From what I was able to experience, it appears they were able to get all of the Funimation cast back to reprise their roles and there’s a lot of dialogue and characters just in the portion I was able to witness, so I can only imagine the massive effort it must have taken to record for a series as huge as Dragon Ball. The game from what I was able to see so far appears to have most main sequences fully voiced as well as dialogue banter between characters at the beginning and end of fights, during key combat moments and also in the delivery of special and ultimate moves.
After spending a little bit of time with the game, it’s got me even more excited to see what other surprises await in the final release. The game looks and plays amazingly and captures the look and fast paced action of the Dragon Ball series. Even though it’s a series I’m very familiar with, I’m looking forward to experience this iconic story again, hopefully with plenty more unique twists.
Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero launches on October 11th this year on PS5, Xbox Series S|X and PC.
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