Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero fully realizes the series’ power fantasy

Dragon Ball’s power and influence can not be contained in one type of media. Goku and the series’ iconic Dragon Balls are prolific in manga, television, film, and more. On the video game front, we’ve had plenty of Dragon Ball games over the years, too. The past few iterations of 3D Dragon Ball games have put large-scale and hectic fighting to the back burner a bit, which were more candidly present in the Budokai Tenkaichi series.

Now with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero on the horizon, developer Spike Chunsoft is going full force to bring new energy to the Budokai Tenkaichi series with the next iteration of its 3D arena fighter. After playing a three-hour demo, which took me through several modes, I’m finding thatSparking! Zero really emboldens what some of the 3D Dragon Ball games have been missing for a bit: powerful characters with absolutely busted power levels.

Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero is primarily focused on creating and showcasing the massive world-destroying bouts the anime series is known for. But rather than shying away from that strength by selectively making a cast of a few “balanced” characters,Sparking! goes all out and asks, “Why not include more than 180 characters with demonstrably different power levels just for fun?”

• Summer Game Fest 2024: How to watch and every confirmed announcement
• Dragon Ball’s Dead by Daylight-like multiplayer game launches in October
• Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot leads slow January as game sales decline 26%

Train with me

Rather than being enticed to dive headfirst into CPU battles with the massive cast, I’d actually have to learn how to play the game first. Super Training seemed like the best place to start. Playing as an Adult Gohan, Piccolo taught me the basics of movement, Ki, energy blasts, special moves, and more. Most of this seemed simple enough, but the challenge escalated quickly.

Skill Count is one of the core pieces of Sparking! Zero’s fight system. It’s expressed as a blue bar that charges over time and allows