Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero | REVIEW | PC

''JAAN! JAKA JAAN!''

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Developed: Spike Chunsoft

Published: Bandai Namco Entertainment

Genre: Arena Fighter

Release Date: October 11th, 2024

Platforms: PS5/PC/Xbox Family

*REVIEW COPY PROVIDED TO ME BY GAMESPLANET AND BANDAI NAMCO

-BANDAI NAMCO CREATOR-

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Dragon Ball Sparking Zero is the latest arena fighter in the Budokai Tenkaichi series and it is developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. With Dragon Ball being on such a roll lately with Dragon Ball FighterZ, newly released Dragon Ball anime of Daima and the never wanting to die Xenoverse 2, Bandai decided hey, you guys remember the Budokai Tenkaichi series? how about we just do another one of those and set the internet on fire. But is the long wait for this newest entry worth it? or is this a case of the game just being a wolf fang fist, you know.. flash, a spectacle but overall useless? Only one way to find out, so lets go!

''RESPECT KNUCKLES''

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GAMEPLAY:

If you grew up playing the older Budokai Tenkaichi series on PS2 and Nintendo Wii, like myself who played on Wii due to the motion controls so I can feel just like Trunks using Burning Attack and flailing my arms all over the place while trying to remember to keep a sturdy grip on the Wii remote so I don't smash my tv screen or worse like so many other people have done in the past. So if you grew up just like me in a similar situations then the day that Sparking Zero got announced was probably one of the most hyped up days ever. Its literally been 17 years since the latest entry into the series and since then we've been through 4 U.S. Presidents, 500 versions of The Last Of Us, Klonoa somehow making a comeback, a re-release of Plumbers Dont Wear Ties, the freaking Cubs winning the World Series and a global pandemic. The only thing missing from all of that was myself finally beating U.N. Squadron on Super Nintendo, but... I'm pretty sure that's never going to happen though. Oh well, at least the theme song is catchy as heck. But were off topic now as we somehow always end up doing. In case you are new to the Tenkaichi series and wondering what the ''big deal'' is even about a 4th entry into the series, then the answer to that is DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH BRO, IM NOT YOUR TECH AND GAMEINFORMER GUIDE, GO TOUCH GRASS BRO. Okay I'm sorry, I'm just kidding. The reason beyhind the hype is because the Tenkaichi series took what was successful in the line of ''fighting games'' in the Dragon Ball series, which were more akin to straight up standard fighters that you would see in the market at the time that focused mostly on the 2D side of things - however, instead of just doing the same thing once again with minor tweaks and changes, the entirely formula of the Tenkaichi brand changed and pretty much borderline revolutionized or rather pushed the genre forward that was MUCH MORE in tune with the aesthetic of the anime itself and offering you a full 3D realm of movement that was a foreign concept in previous Dragon Ball fighting games. Game literally made you feel like you were Peter Pan, '' I CAN FLY, I CAN FLY'' as you moved around the environment and sending people through destructible environments just like you saw in the destruction of the anime. It was freaking awesome. Its basically the same levels of hype as when Square-Enix figured out how to input a jump button into the Final Fantasy series - After 30 years they had a lightbulb moment. Pathetic thing is though, I literally was hyped, especially going from FFXI to FFXIV, a ten year gap of not being able to jump in an MMO. Definitely weird.

What also made Tenkaichi so much fun was the freedom you got and the cinematic feel of it due to being able fly left, right, up, down, dash forward and really changed the dynamic of how battles can be fought and strategized, it just felt way more immersive and impressive than any other game of the genre at the time, even bolstering rosters up to 140 playable characters. Like WHAT. Granted it was like Goku version 1 to 15 and things like that to inflate the roster, but still, would yall really wanna go without having Super Saiyan 4 in your game and Yamcha? yeah, I dont think so. Picking up with Tenkaichi 3 left off, albeit this time with a bigger budget feel, Sparking Zero once again brings is back to mindset of why we loved this series in the first place. By adding in faster combat, beam battles, 180 characters, story mode that branches from the Saiyan Saga to Super arc, Sparking Zero genuinely captures the magic of the PS2 and Wii era of games and makes you feel like a kid again or for people my age, like a teenager once again - and its a great feeling. Only thing missing though is not being able to have the most OP character ever of Farmer save the galaxy from the likes of Beerus. Yeah, you know Beerus is scared, he cant hide it, no one has ever withstood even 1% of Farmers power before and lived. Then again maybe its for the best because then we would probably see an influx of ''IN THE END'' Anime AMV videos made like in the 2000's. Maybe I should make one!. Ehh on second thought maybe not. Moving more in depth to the combat of this game, if were expecting over the top, chaotic, crazy and fast gameplay this go around as seen in the previously entries...well... that's exactly what you're going to get and then some. The mechanics aim to keep you on your toes and constantly guessing and managing your energy bars properly so you know when to properly use your Ki, when to charge to boost your power while an enemy is down or distracted, know the right time to teleport in a defensive manner to evade attacks and even GO FURTHER BEYOND and transform into many different variations from the series that are in this game. Sadly, there's no Ultra Instinct Chaotzu, so I guess for him its still a case '' Goodbye, Tien...''. Combination attacks in Sparking Zero though however arent exactly as in depth as movesets you'd find in recent titles like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat or even Tekken, since most of your combination attacks here will be relate to mashing your attack button to punch away and pull off multi-hit attacks to overwhelm your opponent with Ultimate Moves that go hand and hand with over the top flashy animations that immerse you further in the experience to sorta make up for bigger lack of depth of its combat.

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''ACTIVATE YOUR ZOOMIES!''

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Depending how many characters you actually like from the series itself, which I assume its a lot since there are a ton of great characters over the years for this franchise, then you might feel tad bit overwhelmed as that will give you 180 some odd characters to play around with and sludge through the titles tutorial to learn even more... but tutorial doesnt exactly make the game very inviting, mostly because the game goes under the assumption you're a returning a fan and you already know what to do, whereas for newer fans of the series might not be able to grasp it right away, similar to Goku not realizing what the word ''marriage'' was, but still going along with it anyways and is now married to an overbearing loud mouth of wife who only cares about money and turning Gohan into the second coming of Yamcha, only smarter and more of a nerd... which to be honest, is a lot better than Yamcha himself since Yamcha never amounted to anything but an ex baseball player who was left by his girlfriend, while he was dead, for the guy that was responsible for killing him. You don't get sad than that... well unless your name is Sakura, but that's a totally different anime. Once again 180 characters is A LOT to adjust to, from the many Goku variations to odd characters from filler arcs and movies, characters from DRAGON BALL GT. Sorry, you just cannot say DRAGON BALL GT, without playing the theme song, I don't make the rules, that's just how it goes, The Oracle Fish said it, so, who am I to argue?. Alongside the plethora of characters to choose from, they all have unique voice lines with some interactions you'd never expect to happen, like a full team of Goku's from different timelines or variations of each other and Goku even acknowledging that fact, including the Daima version of Goku, which is awesome and there's even one that..... ok maybe not that one, but there are many others, with some being heartfelt like Goku lives timeline Gohan having a short heart to heart with Future Trunks. Its sad but a bit bittersweet too. Now if we can only have a conversation between Emperor Pilaf and Garlic Jr, then I feel that could be pretty dang fun, but maybe some other time. But there's more to this game than just the combat mechanics themselves or how many characters you pick and how many times you end up as dead as Krillin and Yamcha in the series because... yes.. you're going to know their pain very shortly, so just like Thanos says ''Perhaps I was too harsh on you'', because I feel this is our karma for making fun of them. Maybe this is our chance to make a change, to be better people, to fill the hearts and souls of the world with love, devotion, care and respect.. to praise the achievements of characters and judge them for their courage and strength under pressure for the adversity that they fight with to protect us and earth, perhaps it is WE who are the true demon kings and not Piccolo and if we just look inwards of ourselves, perhaps we too will realize when our eyes are opened, we judged them wrongly. Nah screw that. BOOM.

Story mode here is probably my favorite mode, I know I know, might not be the most popular opinion around, main because of the very competitive native of online play, which I absolutely get stomped in. But people also seem to have an issue with slide show like story telling for the cinematics of it all, which to me is like ok.. I get it but, they've literally made the gameplay of this game the best the series has ever been, so I feel to that extend we can give them a tad bit of a pass right?. The story mode this go around doesn't just cover Dragon Ball Z for the 5 billionth time thankfully and finally we get some story details from Dragon Ball Super. Its kind of weird now that I think about it. We've had so many Dragon Ball games since the airing and ending of the Super anime and a lot of these games refuse to touch on all the arcs from the anime itself, its like what is this? Bandai's version of Final Fantasy 8 like Square-Enix ignores that?. My whining aside, one of the reasons I love the story mode is for the instances known as ''Sparking Episodes'', which yeah, now you KNOW why its called ''SPARKING ZERO'', mind blown. In Sparking Episodes, you get introduced to alternate timelines, similar to the way you saw in the actual anime of Super itself and even the sort of thing you came across to an extent in the Xenoverse set of games. In these alternate timelines, you basically take part in ''what if'' scenarios that never happened in the main timeline and gives you a glimpse on what universes and timelines may exist if one or two things may have gone a tad bit different than you're used to with deviations from the normal storylines like when Goku dies and trains with King Kai to learn both the Spirit Bomb and Kaioken, but in this instance, what if he never trained with him or learned those techniques, but STILL had to go and fight Vegeta and Nappa, including Vegeta's great ape form without those powers too. Well.. that means you're going to end up like me... completely getting my ass handed to me. This stupid ape!. I literally beat the crap out of King Kong in Call Of Duty years ago and I can't even take down this Oozaru with a powered up Goku!?. Bro you're lucky this isn't some Dragon Ball Evolution lore, otherwise I'll wait to fight you on the night of the blood moon because thats the only way to turn into a Great Ape as Goku. Thankfully there's no Dragon Ball Evolution to be found here. ''Human Power Has Failed Before and It WILL AGAIN''. Ok what the heck.

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''BOTTOM RIGHT. IT SAVED MY LIFE''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero gives you what you're looking for and then some. From story mode and Sparking Episodes that let you breathe new life into the same narratives of old with fresh twists like a new version of Frieza fighting our boy Gohan, fast and intense combat that takes this franchise to new heights in playability, 180 characters to play as which gives every die hard Dragon Ball fan a choice to pick from their favorite character, smooth online gameplay that allows for quick matchmaking, interactive cutscenes that allow you to jump into the Point Of View of the character and see the scene playout through their eyes, which is amazing, difficulty level that ranges from pretty easy to extremely hard and frustrating that makes you think a bit more how to tackle your opponent.. or take the easy way out, just like me, and decide to be a baby and lower the difficulty and retry the fight. There's just so much to do in this game that its honestly insane, I mean heck you can even call on Good Boy Shenron to come grant you a wish for extra characters and other goodie rewards. He's just lucky I'm not the one making the wish personally, otherwise he would probably be very traumatized. Being a great game though is not without its faults as well, with some loading screens, while awesome, letting Goku fly by or transitioning between other characters can tend to make loading times a bit faster, difficulty level spiking way too fast early on in the very first arcs that dont feel like a true progression of difficulty it should be, cutscenes not all animated like other anime based games and instead left to slideshow shots instead, etc. I know, there's not a lot of negatives, believe me, I even tried nitpicking at a it, but I cant force any other ''negatives'' really, otherwise I just become IGN and Gamespot and that's worse at this current time than listening to the Para Para Brothers sing in GT. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW.

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