Dragon Ball’s Greatest Hits
Dragon Ball! A series that quite frankly needs no introduction has gifted us a new instalment. The series is no stranger to the video game adaptation with well over 100 games in its arsenal. They range from questionable licensed releases to console defining experiences, I’m looking at you ‘Legacy Of Goku 2’; a personal Gameboy Advance highlight. More recent offerings from the series have mostly been fantastic. ‘Kakarot’ lovingly retold the Z saga in a action rpg format. ‘Fighter Z’ was an insane competitive fighting game drawing graphical inspiration from the anime. I could go on, but needless to say ‘Sparking Zero’ has a lot to live up to.
‘Sparking Zero’ was developed by Spike Chunsoft for PS5, Xbox Series and PC. It is the long awaited sequel from the ‘Budokai Tenkaichi’ series of video games which we last saw in 2007. For those unfamiliar, it was a 3D arena fighter that spent the majority of it’s life on the PS2. With the flavour of its pedigree noted let’s go Super Saiyan and fly into the game.
Like its predecessor ‘Sparking Zero’ is a 3D arena fighting game. The core fighting mechanics are basic and easy to learn but assuredly hard to master. Each character has a basic attack that can be chained into a combo or charged for a heavy hard hitting punch or kick. Ki blasts which are ranged attacks that you can use to apply pressure while zoning, like your basic attack these can be charged for bigger impact. Ki blasts do use your Ki energy that can charged by staying stationary and powering up. Charging your Ki can give you access to your two special moves, which use far more energy than a Ki blast. Typically each character has one ranged and one melee special move which can seriously damage your opponent if their guard is down. Overcharging your Ki can result in your character to become sparking. When sparking your Ki drops both over time and through actions made, however you are buffed in various ways depending on your character. This can result in you whittling away the enemies health very efficently. Not only do your basic actions become stronger but while sparking you can pull off your ultimate move. The ultimate moves make me giddy with excitement. Not only are they totally dazzling from a visual standpoint they also melt health bars.
Defensively speaking you have a few options in your arsenal to attempt to brush off what is thrown at you. A basic block can be used to protect you against virtually anything. While blocking basic attacks wont even scratch you and ki blast will be knocked off with ease. Any special moves that are used against you while blocking will significantly reduce the damage output keeping you in the fight. You can go into a counter stance that can block and punish aggressive opponents. The better the timing of your counter the more effective both the push back and damage inflicted. If your timing is wildly good you can actually pull off a counter while your opponent is mid combo, this will turn the tide of attack. You have a dash and fly that can help you dodge attacks or get you into the heart of the battle. Each character has two abilities you can activate during the fight that can give you a slight buff to have an edge on the fight. The abilities do need a bit of learning sadly as they are not descriptive in what they are going to do. As an example an ability could be called “Getting Really Angry” which doesn’t really inform you that it’s going to give you a small attack and defensive buff.
Overall the mechanics in the fights as I previously mentioned are basic and easy to get to grips with. It feels like no matter your background or experience in the fighting game genre you can pick this title up and have a fun and flashy fight. It is very refreshing in a fighting game having your special and ultimate moves being resource based rather than skill based. Anyone could pick this game up and pull off an ultimate move. This is a far cry from the frame perfect combo button presses of other games in the genre.
Story wise the game follows a massively abridged retelling of the Saiyan Saga to the Universe Survival Saga. Throwing you into the big memorable fights that defined the anime. Small cut scenes play in-between the fight just giving a condensed plot overview to keep you up to speed. For me I was grand from the Saiyan Saga to the Buu Saga, I watched a hell of a lot of ‘Dragon Ball Z’ as a child. I adored every moment of playing through this short and sharp all killer, no filler retelling of a key part of my childhood. I must admit the way ‘Sparking Zero’ retells the plot is very much designed for fans and people who have experienced it before. When I was venturing into the ‘Dragon Ball GT’ and ‘ Dragon Ball Super’ sagas, I was watching every cutscene to learn more about the elements I only have peripheral knowledge on. I don’t feel like I know anything more than when I went in. I have known about characters like ‘Goku Black’ and ‘Jiren’ for a while from other ‘Dragon Ball’ video games and was excited to learn more about the stories around them. It was a little disappointing coming away from them not being a lot of the wiser; maybe I need to watch the anime.
The playable fights in the story mode have totally wild difficultly spikes. The earliest of which is a fight against ‘Great Ape Vegeta’. This level completely brick walled my progress for a considerable amount of time. It feels bizarre to have such an early game skill check of such a brutal nature. You do have an option to reduce difficulty of story fights at the risk of not unlocking side content to play. I would advise players to look at a guide first to see which fights lead to side content and reduced difficulty as the ape isn’t the only road block in the single player experience. The side missions are worth unlocking if you can. They act as what if scenarios going away from the canon the anime. A personal favourite is ‘Goku’ defeating ‘Cell’ before he had chance to absorb the androids. If you’re not familiar with the story the ‘what if’ scenarios will not have the intended fun impact.
The game includes other modes as well as the story. Custom battle is single self contained scenarios that you can duke it out in. Custom battle has plenty to do with over 30 customised battles and an editor to make your own. World Tournament mode is your standard knockout mode. It includes various different rule changes dependant on which tournament you choose, all based on what occurs in the anime. Then last but not least the make or break of fighting games; versus mode. Playing offline as a quick play is great fun to get stuck into. However it’s the online that a lot of fighting fans come for. Technically with the game speed locked to its 60 fps frame rate it does have the foundation for a competitive fighter. Alas the balance in the game is a little off for those serious players. If playing single fighter you or your opponent could pick one of the overpowered fusion characters and just go full rush down. The DP mode is a little more balanced. In this mode you pick a team of characters and everyone has a DP ranking between one and ten. More powerful characters like ‘Ultra Instinct Goku’ or ‘Brolly’ will cost you nine or ten points each. While weaker characters like ‘Teen Gohan’ or ‘Vegeta’ will set you back four to five points. With fifteen points to spend you can strategise. Choosing between one or two beefy rush down characters or a full team of five weaker characters that could potentially power up during the fight, if you can keep them alive. While great fun playing online against digital rivals if ‘Sparking Zero’ want to enter the e-sports competitive scene the balancing needs some serious adjustment.
A large portion of ‘Sparking Zero’ and its marketing have been focused on the massive character roster. With 180 characters to boast about and more coming courtesy of a season pass. With numbers that high I felt a slight anxiety going in, how on earth will I be able to cover even half of this content? Luckily for me Goku takes up well over 10 characters with each different transformation being a different character. So many of the playable characters feel very similar to one another with some changes in special moves. With the ability to transform mid fight it makes these characters feel like the exact same fighter. However saying that the roster is still ridiculously stacked full of fan favourite fighters. Ive always loved how ‘Dragon Ball’ games make ‘Brolly’ feel and control like a hulking juggernaut of power, ‘Sparking Zero’ does not disappoint on this front.
All in all ‘Sparking Zero’ is a totally great ride for any ‘Dragon Ball’ fan but may leave a few things to be desired from competitive fighter fans. The game really does its pedigree justice and most assuredly goes down as one of the good games. While being mostly objective during this review ‘Sparking Zero’ gave me many moments that brought out my inner child and rocked my excitement. With so much attention to detail that a fan such as myself could gush about for hours, it shows that the developers have approached this game with love and adoration for the source material. With the recent passing of the legendary ‘Akira Toriyama’ creator of ‘Dragon Ball’, ‘Sparking Zero’ shows the highlights of his work beautifully.
Thank You ‘Akira Toriyama’ for your contribution to culture.
