Dragon Ball Sparking Zerois without a shred of doubt the most fun I’ve had with a game this year, so far.
As a Dragon Ball it exceeded my expectations, and while there were a few ideas I think could have been pushed further I simply can’t complain at the quality this fighting game provides.
Take a look at the trailer forDragon Ball Sparking Zerobelow
As a successor toDragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3it’s not a secret that Sparking Zero had a lot to live up to. While it’s not available on modern platforms many Dragon Ball fans like myself hold fond memories ofTenkaichi 3’sroster, earth-shattering combat and environmental destruction.
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Sparking Zeroexpertly takes what we knew and loved fromTenkaichi 3and enhances it for modern platforms, and dare I say, it’sperfect.
Bandai Namco
All 182 characters, yes I played as them all, are fun to play and fun to play against though I will recommend ramping up the difficulty to Super if you’re a veteran player. Combat is a bombastic union of style and scale, and while there are many moves and techniques to master they’re not a prerequisite for your victory.
That being said I’d highly recommend learning them, asSparking Zerobrings back some old favourites as well as new ones to teach the old dogs some new tricks. Perception is arguably the biggest change, as depending on the amount of skill points you have saved up it allows you to pull off some ludicrous countermoves.
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My personal favourites were the Ki-Blast deflects, as effortlessly batting away Buu’s Kamehameha as Vegito simply added to the spectacle and flair of the battle. Perception can also be used to stop an opponent’s melee attack, but if they’re quick enough they can counteryour counterwhich almost made me fall off my chair the first time it happened to me.
For new players, and old, you can learn just about every move and mechanic in the game through the training mode. This was very helpful early on as some of the story missions can get ridiculously hard, but there are lower difficulties to switch to for a more casual experience.
Experience is the best teacher though, so throwing yourself into as many battles as you can is the best way to progress, and while I didn’t get the chance to fight any humans the AI did more than enough to test my mettle. This is especially true of theDragon Ball Supercharacters, almost all of which have trespassed into the domain of the Gods, and have that might reflected into their gameplay. If you fire a Final Kamehameha as SSJ Blue Vegito as SSJ4 Gogeta fires a Big Bang Kamehameha, not only do you get a fantastic beam clash mini-game, you also break reality around you for a second. Both characters transcend the physical plain and temporarily have their battle outside their dimension before things snap back to normal. This is a levelbeyondcool, and it’s unique to the God-like Super characters.
Bandai Namco
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Thankfully, theDragon Ball Zcharacters will do their clashes wherever they were fighting before. Throw in some of those clashes in addition to some gorgeously animated moves ripped straight from the anime and every battle feels like an event, so God-knows how it’ll feel when two actual players duke it out for supremacy.
Players are given the choice of several different story branches, Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Future Trunks, Piccolo, Frieza, Goku Black and Jiren as an unlockable one. In all honesty they were a mixed bag, and I came away from most of them feeling satisfied but longing for more.
While playing each story you’re presented with two new options compared to previous stories. The first is a first-person mode that lets you see the cutscenes from your character’s perspective. I liked this a lot during my preview, as seeing iconic moments like Goku getting beam-cannoned and the last push against Jiren in the Tournament Of Power through our hero’s eyes was a neat gimmick, just a shame it felt so out of place so often. Too many moments where you could go first person were when characters were just standing talking to each other. Nothing was really gained from changing your perspective, you’re just seeing the villain-of-the-week monologuing at a distance rather than up-close where the normal camera would be.
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The branching paths were also hit-or-miss. Vegeta’s story was the best in my opinion as there were loads of opportunities to right the wrongs in his history, like defeating Cell before his perfect form could wreak havoc, and shaking off mind-control to stop Buu from emerging. Other What-If encounters were less interesting though, like Zamasu killing Vegito and Trunks before they could defeat him, as all you got for the trouble was a short storyboard that in summary says “he wins” before you go back and let the canon story play out.
Bandai Namco
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It’s without a doubt the best Dragon Ball game I’ve ever played, and if I ever stop playing it over the next few months it won’t be because I’m not enjoying it, it’ll be because I’ve broken my PS5 controller trying to win too many clashes.
Pros: Faithful but modernised combat, visuals that could blow up the moon, so many characters, plenty of side content, both offline and online
Cons: Episode Battle could have done more
For fans of: Dragon Ball, Anime, 3D Arena Fighting Games
9/10: Exceptional
Topics:Reviews,Anime,Xbox,Xbox Series S,Xbox Series X,PlayStation,PlayStation 5,PC
