Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi is a pivotal fighting game series for Dragon Ball fans and for those who love fighters. However, many people wanted to go back to it, even with a litany of other Dragon Ball fighters coming and going in 15 years since Budokai Tenkaichi’s absence. Well, it’s me, I’m people. At 2024’s Summer Game Fest, I got the chance to go hands-on with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero—a title that embraces the Japanese titles of the Budokai Tenkaichi series.
Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is publisher Bandai Namco, and developer Spike Chunsoft is making just another Budokai Tenkaichi game, but I mean that in the most complimentary of ways. By bringing the systems to modern consoles, the developers have also chosen to allow for modern controls (the default) and the classic control scheme that speaks directly to the audience they’re trying to reach. By choosing to make couch co-op available at release, well, it’s embodying the nostalgic moments of our past Budokai Tenkaichi memories rise to the surface.
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During our time with the game, we got time to go hands-on with Battle Mode and watch a gameplay presentation of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero‘s new Episode Battle Mode. For the latter—keeping in line with current anime fighters—players will battle through key moments of the Dragon Ball saga. During the mode, players will pick one of eight characters to follow their story or, more importantly, change it. While it’s common at this point in any anime fighter to play through episode moments, Sparking Zero takes it a step further and allows the player to explore alternate narratives.
In our demo, we saw Goku fight Radditz and win instead of just surviving (the win condition set on the match). With Raditz defeated and no reason for Goku to hold him still when Piccolo arrives, the story changes drastically. The option to stick to canon and the option to go down the “What if?” road makes the Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero intriguing and, honestly, worth it for players who aren’t looking to just rehash the past.
The new additions to the playable character list include Goku (Super), Ultra Instinct, Gohan (Adult), Super Saiyan 2, Golden Frieza, Bardock, Raditz, Goku Black, Zamasu, as well as Jiren, and Full Power—all shown in the most recent trailer. Throw in Broly, Yamcha, and a few other fan favorites, and the roster is getting exciting. While the Battle roster we saw wasn’t complete, I’d be remiss not to call out the lack of women on the roster, which was frustrating even as it expanded to include Super characters for the first time in the series. Videl, Caulifla, Kale, or Pan can still make the roster; and honestly, it’s needed.
We also got a brief explanation of Custom Battle. This mode introduces a new element to experiencing Dragon Ball as a game where players can try their hands at a match imagined by the developers or create their own battle scenarios and share them with the world. By creating scenarios, you can set win conditions, teams, and more. Here, player agency comes first, and with the ability to share your Custom Battles with other players, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is embracing a community feature that makes the game more than just one thing.
One of the jokes circling around the game is that you can play as 100 Goku. Going into the hands-on preview, I had that assumed gimmick rattling in my mind. However, I did, make a team of Vegetas fight a team of Vegetas, and to be honest, it was actually exciting. At the outset, including the same character from different canonical eras may seem like too much. In execution, however, the care developer Spike Chunsoft put into understanding who each character is in different parts of the story comes through.
Using Vegeta as an example, his narrative and place on the power spectrum when he first appears is wildly different from where we see him in Super. Allowing players to grab onto specific iterations of their favorite characters creates a tether between the player and the character. I mean, c’mon, Majin Vegeta has a very different cultural impact than when the villain-turned-rival is straight from Planet Vegeta, and both of those are different than his role in Dragon Ball Super. In that way, while casual Dragon Ball watchers or those unfamiliar with the nuances of power set differences across seasons and properties might be unaware, it will mean something for those who do the deepest of dives into Toriyama’s iconic shonen.
Outside of the character variances, the choice to pit characters with each other against each other also offers dialogue that will have you pointing at the screen—the best of which is when you get Android 18 against Krillin. These interactions are half the joy of the Battle Mode, the only mode we went hands-on with. The fighting was great, and the controls, particularly the vertical movement, were smooth. But, the way that different characters talked to each other made Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero feel like a return to something special.
Add in the fact that in Battle Mode, you have the option to change both the stage and the background music with any number of Dragon Ball franchise songs, and every bit of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is made to capture what fans of the franchise love—both big and small. Whether it’s a very specific version of Vegeta or one song you played on repeat, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero has the chance to keep drawing players in.
To put it simply, while I haven’t talked much about the controls, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero plays like just about every Budokai Tenkaichi game before it. That said, with killer animation and new modes that prioritize player creativity and choice, there is more than enough to make Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero something more than nostalgia.
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO will release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam on October 11, 2024.
