Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a 3D fighting game was released in 2024 for PS5, XSX/S, and PC, and then was later released both on Switch 1 and 2 in 2025.
It was developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, and it is a sequel to 2007's title such as Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 making it a 4th installiment in the Budokai Tenkaichi series.
Before I begin reviewing the game, I wanted to mention that I've previously reviewed 2 of the Dragon Ball Z games quite long time ago.
I've covered the review of Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit for PS3 in 2017 which I've described it as one and the only decent DBZ game for 7th-gen consoles in comparsion with the later games like Raging Blast and Battle of Z are definitely not good as the Burst Limit, and then I also covered the review of Dragon Ball FighterZ for PS4 in 2021 which is definitely being one of the best fighting game in the Dragon Ball Franchises is something to appericate anime-style fighting game genre more thanks to numerous of memorable base roster, enjoyable 3 on 3 matches, well-written story, quality visuals, and smooth fighting gameplay is what makes the game epically fun on the 8th-gen system.
Here is the link on down below to see my previous review of Dragon Ball games:
Okay let's get on with this review shall we? we all know this media franchise was created by Akira Toriyama in 1984 which started out as manga series was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995.
As manga series has been adapted into two anime TV series such as Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z which together were broadcast in Japan from 1986 to 1996.
It was later aired on worldwide channels like Cartoon Network in late 90's, as well as CNX in 2002 and Toonami 2003.
Since the release, Dragon Ball has widely become one of the most successful manga and anime series of all time with the manga sold in over 40 countries and the anime broadcast in more than 80 countries.
It was highly praised for its art, characterization, and humour of the story, as well as many manga artists citing Dragon Ball as a source of inspiration for their own now popular works.
Many people had talked about Dragon Ball Z which is the reason why it became popular across the world and is considered one of the most influential in boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in Western culture has impact on global popular culture such as artists, athletes, celebrities, filmmakers, musicians and writers across the world.
It also spawned into films, both animated and live-action, collectible trading card games, numerous action figures, along with several collections of soundtracks and numerous video games.
As I grew up watching Dragon Ball Z as a child back in the days of late-90s and early-2000s, I also got interested to play any of DBZ games which I had a blast time playing with the titles like Dragon Ball Z 2 -Super Battle for Arcade (via Mame 32), Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit for PS3, Super Dragon Ball Z for PS2, and of course Dragon Ball FighterZ for PS4, but there's one of the series that I've never actually played which is DBZ: Budokai and DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi is because I'm mostly got used with the traditional 2D fighting game as opposed to 3D-arena style fighting game for DBZ games which is why I've never payed closely attention on 3D fighting DBZ games, but I did hear many positives things about these games by the fans including my classmate from my old-days at college in early-2010s had talked about these game he played said something really special about how fun these DBZ: Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi games really are in terms of story mode, base rosters, tournament matches, and perfectly great for versus battles which is why it got me convinced to tryout these games if only I had a chance to get it on my gaming console, so it took me 15 years to finally getting my hands-on a 3D fighting DBZ game and also my very first Budokai Tenkaichi game for the PS5 which is Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.
It's one of the game that the Budokai Tenkaichi series made the return since 2007, so it's been incredibly long time for DBZ fans were expecting to see a new entry for the modern platform is because it really shows how much they loved the series back in their PS2 days where you had bunch of fighters flying around the arena, throwing tons of rapid punches and kicks, and blasting the shit of each others with projectiles is something that made the series quite special, so does this game lives up the same expectations as the previous entries or is it a huge step backwards in comparsion? let's find out how this game plays it well throughout the journey.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game's episodes depict the story of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super where you must take control of any of selected fighters including Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Future Trunks, Frieza, Goku Black, and of course Jiren, so each of them has their story arc that follows the canonical events of these two animated series, but it also featured the story branching which require players to complete the secondary objectives in order to access the "what if" scenarios that change the course of history.
Thats the interesting way of having the multiple paths in story mode which resulted a different outcome of story cutscenes just makes the game quite unique for fighting game genre.
The game however shares a really great sagas starting from Saiyan Saga to Frieza Saga and then Cell Saga to Majin Buu Saga is the reason I loved watching Dragon Ball Z back in the good old days, where as I haven't watched Dragon Ball Super but thankfully this game includes two sagas such as Universal Survival Saga and Future Trunks Saga which are also quite decent too.
While these story sagas are pretty amazing in the story mode, it also shares likable heroes like Goku who is the main protagonist of whole Dragon Ball franchise which was loved by many fans and communites due to his super saiyan power and fighting techniques are incredibly badass throughout the fight sequence and he also quite an likable character with his friendly personality which he enjoys challenging with tough opponents, eats huge amounts of food, and being quite kind-hearted and forgiving person.
I also liked Vegeta which is another badass fighter which was best known for being an arrogance and stubborness as he likes to test opponents to prove his dominance, but he then evolves from a cold ruthless villain into a dedicated family man and hero throughout the story.
Then you have Gohan who is the son of Goku which descibed as gentle and compassionate pacifist who hates fighting, but he only steps up when forced to defend home planet and his friends.
You have Piccolo the green alien dude who is formally villain from the original Dragon Ball are now shifts dramatically as wise mentor and trusted ally after bonding with Gohan in Dragon Ball Z.
Future Trunks is basically the future version of Trunks who is a Vegeta's son, as he visited to his past timeline to warn Vegeta and Goku about the incoming threat of two invincible foes such as Goku Black and Future Zamasu.
Then you have the cast of villains such as Frieza, Cell, and Super Buu which I concider these dudes are the best bad guys in Dragon Ball Z saga, where as you have Goku Black and Future Zamasu in Dragon Ball Super are just as crazy chaotic villains like the previous ones.
Lastly I concider Jiren as not a traditional villain but rather more of being an rival in the tournament match which he has an incredibly impressive power throughout the battle sequence.
The game's presentation is excellent which I really liked the Akira Toriyama's style of design that are bold, bright, and colourful just like the good old days of animated series we knew and love back in the 90s.
I really love the overall design of cutscenes that are fully cinematic during the conversation dialogue between the characters and the whole scenery in the cutscenes are all in 3D perspective giving the story sequences a dynamic feel which I got to say it's a pretty well designed throughout the story campaign.
I say I do like the game's main menu screen which has fully animated navigation are filled with cast of characters and the background scenery in each menu screens, and I also liked the menu's user interface design which has really nice layouts and fonts throughout the navigations just looking quite good on the menu screen.
The game does have 12 really great fighting stage locations such as Planet Namek take place on a small clearing surrounded with destructable trees and mountains, empty namekian village with destructible homes and furniture, and small shore that leads to a ocean with underwater.
Open Field is a wasteland areas are filled with small mountains and trees covered in grass and multiple dirt patches along it's vast surface.
Rocky Land is a desert level filled with uneven terrain and has many tall rock formations, canyons, and short small rivers.
City is a large metropolitan places are filled with tall skyscraper buildings, parks, and road with futuristc style layouts and design.
World Tournament is a fighting stadium with large arena of grey tiled square shaped that's elevated over a big patch grass and the whole area is walled off by brick walls on three sides.
Tournament of Power Arena is another fighting area takes place on a huge floating circular battle arena with a huge pole struck in the middle and the surface of the stage is littered with serveral big pieces of debris and broken parts of the ground.
Hyberbolic Time Chamber is an open cicular structre with two small rooms, big clock, two giant hourglasses with green sand, and small pole with a glass sphere.
Land of the Kais is an open field filled with small rock formations and trees covered in grass and a long winding dirt path that crosses along it's vast surface, and it also has a few purple rivers, lakes, and a waterfalls on the background.
Islands is a stage takes place on a 8-shaped island with palm trees and oak trees, tall rock formation, ocean, and small mountains above the surface.
Cell Games Arena is simular to World Tournament stage but without the stadium layout which has open field with mountains and trees.
City Ruins is a stage that depicts a dilapidated city from the future timeline featuring abandoned run down buildings, wrecked cars, and many pieces of debris.
Destroyed Planet Namek is a dark and gloomy stage are filled with red hot magma spewing from the planet's core, and a lot of jagged terrains along with a few trees and mountains left to be destroyed.
First Demon World takes place on a huge floating circular rock arena with huge curved spikes sticking around the edges and surface of the stage is littered with serveral big spikes and broken parts of the ground.
Overall, it has amazing story sagas, recogniable cast of characters, and excellent presentation settings.
Gameplay
The game has serveral of game modes to play including episode battle, custom battle, mission 100, survival mode, battle mode, and tournament mode which I will explain these game modes for later on this review.
You take control of any playable fighters in 3rd-person perspective as your goal is to defeat your opponent till their health points reaches to zero to win the match.
You have 3 of HUDs such as your health, ki, and skill bar at the top of the screen which displays your character's real-time status during the battles.
The health bar changes the color from blue to orange/red gradients as the health depletes, and it also has small numerical icons or stacked indicators which show how many total health bars remain.
The Ki Gauge represented by the yellow meter boxes underneath the health bar, so it fills up your ki power as you manually charge or land physical attacks, but it also depletes when you fly, dash, or fire energy blasts.
The skill count is a blast stocks shown as blue charging segments beside the main meters, so these fill over time (and faster when dealing damage) to let you use transformations, fusions, super perceptions, or revenge counters.
Sparking! Gauge becomes available to activate once your ki is maxed out and you have at least one skill count ready, pushing your character into a temporary hyper-powered state.
Lets get to the controls scheme starting off with the basics, so push the left-stick control is to move your character around, where as the right-stick control is to move camera around.
Press the left shoulder button is to jump, but pressing the same button again in mid-air to make you float allowing you to fly around in the air, but you can also ascend and descend your flying by holding with the left shoulder button and left trigger.
Press the cross button is to use step which allowing your character to make a short dash used as dashing speed or evading enemy's melee or projectiles.
You can also perform high speed dash by holding the both right trigger and cross button which treverse your dash speed into the enemies much faster.
Press the square button is to use rush attack which acts as an melee deals weak damage attack on enemies, but to perform the smash attack hold the square button is to charge your melee then let go of it into a strong damage attack on enemies causing them to fly-off the stage in mid-distance.
Press the triangle button is to shoot multiples of ki blast deals weak damage projectiles on enemies, but to perform charged ki blast hold the triangle button is to charge your ki blast then let go of it to shoot out a large ki blast deals strong damage projectiles on enemies.
The triangle button is also used as a rush chain meaning that you had to make chain attack by pressing the square button from 1 to 4 times then hit the triangle button which creates the chain combo deals a mid-damage attack on enemies.
You can perform a vanishing assault by pressing both of cross and square button near an enemy to teleport behind them allowing your character to attack your enemy from behind.
To defend yourself, hold the right shoulder button is to block the enemy's melee attack, where as you can able to parry enemy's incoming melee attack or projectiles by pressing the circle button at the right time as their enemy attacks you closely will deflect their melee attack or projectiles away from you.
To charge up your ki gauge, hold the right trigger to charge up your ki meter which you will see on the ki gauge bar, so having a fully charged up ki energy will allow you to use it for ki blast, super attacks, execute high speed dash, and of course the sparking! mode.
To perform super attacks, hold the right trigger then press any of two buttons such as square or triangle which allowing your character to use their super attacks deals heavy damage attack on enemies.
To activate the sparking! mode, make sure your one skill count is ready before you charge up your ki gauge, so once you have obtained the skill count on top of the screen then you can able to activate it by keep holding the right trigger to charge your ki gauge till it reaches up to fully maxed level, so this will allow your character to perform an ultimate blast by holding the right trigger then press the circle button to use it resulting a cinematic finishing blast deals servere damage on enemy.
So far, the controls is not that complicated is because it may takes a while to learn and practice at the very beginning until after you have done completing the tutorials you've finally get used with it at the very end will eventually make you play better throughout the matches.
You can also customise your controls scheme from the option menu which lets you re-map your button layouts to suit your control preferences, as well as giving you an option to turn on assist settings to suit your playstyle which is fine for the beginners, but when it comes with having the best settings for competitve matches I always have all assists turned off except recovery assist is turned on is the better way of playing the game without any unwanted interference or breaking inputs during the matches otherwise your combos and parry system stops working which prevent players enjoying their experience on this game which is why I highly recommended to turn off all battle assists, but you can keep the recovery assist turned on to ease tedious button mashing when trying to recover or stabilizing in mid-air after getting launched which makes pretty sense is because the recovery time is quite slow which you don't really want to keep mashing all the buttons to get it recovered.
Is the control scheme plays any good? I say it plays really decently which I had no problem with controlling the character which I find the movements and fighting system plays out really smoothly, so I can able to pull off many good combos, melees, blasts, dashing, flying, and of course using the special techniques that made the match quite enjoyable to play.
What I liked about the game is the customisation which lets you alter fighters using alternate costumes, accessories, and of course the stat-boosting ability items which tweaks your character's stats like health, strength, and speed for offline and permitted modes.
This will change your fighter's attributes starting from default to custom status meaning that your fighter will have larger advantages of their fighting ability making it stronger and faster during the battles, so its entirely up to you whether you like to change the fighter's stats or just sticking it to the default instead if you do not wish to make changes.
You can get these stat-boosting ability items from the shop which requires zeni coins to purchase these items.
I did had a blast time of playing various of game modes such as episode battle which is the story mode based on both Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super with epic story sagas that are incredibly great for not just the canon story, but also shares with multiple routes which resulted a different "what if" scenarios that aren't present on the original animated series meaning that once the alternate objective has been met then you will see the new outcome with different storyline and endings which I really liked the idea of having to choose between the scenario A and B that makes the story in the game quite interesting to play, but the issue is that in order to access at the scenario B you have to set the game's difficulty to normal settings is the only way of unlocking the new scenario which unfortunately it's not that easy is because you had to go through fighting with the opponent while trying to complete the alternate objective is painfully takes too long to beat it just adds up frustration for players who really wanted to get access to new story route.
I'm not saying it plays bad, but at least try not to make alternate objective quite difficult to play otherwise it's takes forever to beat it.
Despite the difficulty swings on alternate objective, the rest of the whole single-player story mode still plays great which I really liked having to battle against any of the foes such as Frieza, Cell, Super Buu, Goku Black, and Future Zamasu is what keeps the whole story campaign going forward.
I do like the custom battle which includes bonus battles where it had numerous of battles with original scenes that have different victory conditions and some that have event cutscenes trigger during the middle of battle, so not only you can enjoy the bonus battles but it also featured the edit mode is where you can able to create your own original scenes allowing you to freely select any of playable characters, along with camera cuts, poses, facial expressions, effects, dialogue, BGM, and even title screens which I think it's a cool feature that you can create your own original story and battle can be uploaded to the bonus battles servers, so that the public users can able to select and play any of these custom made battles.
Then you have mission 100 from Budokai Tenkaichi 3 makes a return in a free update which consists of a 100 difficult battles against preset enemies, so it is good to include this mode for this recent title which I adored having the challenge mode for most of the fighting games in general.
Then you have survival mode which features 2 battle types such as round robin where you fight every fighters one after the other, and you have the deathmatch tests you to see how many win streaks you can rack up for a high score.
Then you have battle mode where the players must challenge each other through local split-screen and online multiplayer matches.
It also has tournament mode where you can create or join a tournament online with rivals around the world or play offline.
I say these game modes are actually fun to play especially playing with your friends or rivals through local or online matches, as well as having the tournament mode in this game is also a great addition which I fully appericate.
I wanted to praise the game for its over 100s of playable base roster including your favourites such as Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Master Roshi, Goten, Trunks, Yamcha, Tien, Mr Satan, Majin Buu, Android 18, Kale, Frieza, Cell, Super Buu, Broly, Cooler, Raditz, and many more amazing cast of rosters to play as in the game.
I do like the base content in this game where you can able to earn the bonus points by completing serveral of single-player episodes and other modes or bonus log-in message will reward you with the zeni coins which is a in-game currencies where you can use these to spend on shopping menu to unlock various of playable rosters, outfits, musics, emote voice lines, and title cards.
If this wasn't enough, you can also get a paid DLCs pack called "Super Limit Breaking NEO" which includes 30 plus new playable roster, 20 more new expanded customisation, 4 brand new stages, and of course the new single-player solo mode called limit breaker journey which is available on digital storefront including PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam for £29.
I do appericate the additonal content of the game which sounds pretty cool to have one, but I don't think it's the right price for everyone to purchase which I think it's quite too expensive, so it would have been acceptable if the price were down to £15 or less to get everyone easily to purchase this paid DLCs.
These are all the game modes and base content that keeps me going with tons of replayability really proves that this game is just as entertaining that made the Budokai Tenkaichi series quite fun to play thanks to multiple story routes on episode battles, creating your own original story on custom battles, take the challenge of mission 100, and of course participating the local or online match on battle mode is something that makes the game worth of play.
I had a fun time of playing the game with many cool battles between the fighters with many punching, kicking, and blasting each others, destroying many of environmental areas, having to fly around the arena, charging their power level up, and of course throwing large gigantic spirit ball or blast out with KAMEHAMEHA!!! right at your face is what I love playing Dragon Ball games in general.
Overall, it has decent controls and fighting system, and many great game modes and base contents.
Graphics
The graphics in this game is looking very good for its cel-shaded environments that has an large open-area which is perfect for big arena battle, and I do like the stage layouts with many structures and objects around the areas such as rocks, trees, houses, and walls which can be break apart in pieces, so I really liked how destructable these stages which I had a wonderful time of having to smash these objects and launched opponents onto the buildings and rocks is just looks awesome during the battle.
The texture surfaces are nicely bold, the art-style are colourful, the background landscape are detailed, the use of lighting and shadow effects in some stages are perfected, and of course the use of special effects is very well made especially the fighters charging up their ki gauge and throwing their blast at them is looking sharp and heavy that made the previous entry of the series look very appealing.
I got to love the character's animation in the game especially the Akira Toriyama's art-style which I really liked the anime/manga in general is because I find their design quite unique and appealing with cool facial expressions and movements is something that made the series quite likable.
Let's talk about how was the game's performance ran on the system is because PS5 and XSX/S (X Model) had managed to run on dynamic 4K or 1440p resolution with 60fps that keeping the pace of the whole quite smoothly as well as the sharp images on the screen is wonderfully look amazing throughout the battles.
I also got suprised finding out with the XSX/S (S model) had managed to upscale between 1080p and 1440p resolution with 60fps which thankfully its runs pretty smoothly throughout the battles.
The Switch 2 on other hand which the game runs on 810p resolution with locked 30fps on both docked and undocked mode which makes the whole image of the game appears to be a bit soft on the screen and the performances does appears to have minimal stutters during the battle but it's still remains playable.
Then sadly the Switch 1 is a huge step backwards in comparsion with the 9th-gen systems which ran on 720p docked and 480p undocked with locked 30fps which makes the pace of the game appears to be quite janky to play and it is not running smoothly and detailed as the Switch 2 which you better off sticking with the new Nintendo system instead for playable experience.
Overall, it has very good visual design, great character's animation, and wonderful performance.
Music and Sounds
The game has the solid numbers of epic soundtrack done really right for most of the in-game cutscenes and battle.
It fuses the style of J-Rock and epic orchestra just sounds so good to listen especially when battling against the foes just making the players ready to pump up for fast-paced brawling action, so you have the tracks like "Let the Battle Begin", "Flurry of Power", "Believe in Tommorow", "Limit Breaker", "Ultimate Instinct", "Dragon Spirit", "My Hero", "Day of Awakening", "The Final Battle", "Hidden Potential", "Next-Gen Hero", "Peaceful Days", "Serious", "Hope for the Future", and of course the "Main Theme".
It was composed by Takanori Arima, a same composer behind his work on Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3, did a great job on his original score.
The game did a stunning job with the sound effects uses the same collision noises like from animated series which is why I finding these sound designs fits perfectly for the fight sequences with the sound of the clinging fists and exploding blasts everywhere and I also liked the heavy impact sounds of the destructable environments scattered all over the places is just sounds magnificent.
It also has the returning English dubbing voice cast from the long-running series for their iconic character role that we all know and love which is why it brings me back the nostalgia of the DBZ as my childhood anime TV series.
Overall, it has solid epic soundtrack, stunning sound design, and returning voice cast for iconic characters.
Special Features
The game has many unlockable base contents including many playable rosters, outfits, emote voice lines, BGMs, and title cards.
It also has paid DLCs such as "Super Limit Breaking NEO" which includes 30 plus new playable roster, 20 more new expanded customisation, 4 brand new stages, and of course the new single-player solo mode called limit breaker journey.
Overall, an awesome overall content.
Advantages
Amazing story sagas and cast of characters
Excellent presentation settings
Decent controls and fighting system
Many great game modes and base contents
Very good graphics and performance
Solid epic soundtrack and stunning sound design
Disadvantages
Alternate objectives is painfully tough
Battle assist option is not suitable for competitve matches
Paid DLCs is overpriced
Final Verdict
Presentation 8.5/10 - amazing story sagas, recogniable cast of characters, and excellent presentation settings.
Gameplay 8.5/10 - decent controls and fighting system, and many great game modes.
Graphics 8/10 - very good visual design, great character's animation, and wonderful performance.
Music and Sounds 8/10 - solid epic soundtrack, stunning sound design, and returning voice cast for iconic characters.
Special Features 8/10 - unlockable base contents and additional paid DLCs with many awesome features.
Overall 8.5/10 - While I concider Dragon Ball FighterZ as the strongest and also my top favourite fighting game in the series, this could be my 2nd favourite title is because they did a fabulous job of putting so much effort to work on this game with many overall content are filled with many cool things like the story mode has branching paths and choices, custom battles gives you a freedom to create your own original battle, has 100 challenge missions, survival, versus, and tournament modes to keep you busy with the game, and of course having to earn rewards to unlock base content by simply beating the game is what makes the game quite fun to play.
I had a wonderful good time of fighting these opponents by rapidly throwing punches and kicks, shooting many crazy blasts, dashing and flying around the fighting arena, and launching them onto destructable environments is what I loved about playing Dragon Ball games.
I am glad that I've picked really great 3D fighting game that do not regret playing it which shows that how much fun this game really is and I can honestly say is that the game is definitely made for those who previously enjoyed the Budokai Tenkaichi games.
You can get it physical copy on PS5 and XSX/S cheaper for £25, where as the Switch 1 and 2 are slightly expensive for £40.
It is also available on digital storefront such as PS Store, Xbox Store, and Steam for £45, where as the Nintendo eShop are quite pricey for £55.
Is the game worth playing? the answer is if you really love playing the Dragon Ball's video games then "IT'S OVER 9000!" yes is because it's a solid 3D fighting game title that you may going to find this game an entertaining to play.
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