Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO Hands-On Preview – The 29th World Martial Arts Tournament

Ask any Dragon Ball Z fan in the mid-00s who the strongest fighter is, and you'll probably hear a million different answers. If you ask them instead to name the best Dragon Ball game, it would almost certainly be a unanimous call for Budokai Tenkaichi 3. In all of the years since the PS2 release, there hasn't quite been a fighting game featuring Goku that's captured that high (although Dragon Ball FighterZ certainly came close). As the 40th anniversary of Dragon Ball as a whole is rapidly approaching, Bandai Namco has revived the fighting tournament with the first new title to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Budokai spinoff series specifically. Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO aims to revive the trash-talking of the late 2000s and have fans decide just who the strongest Saiyan really is.

The rise of Goku from spunky youth to family man to the strongest gold/blue/red-haired fighter in the universe is a tale that's been told innumerable times across both games and anime alike, but Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO hopes to keep that tale on the lips of Akira Toriyama fans once more through the abundance of story modes that go beyond just throwing a few punches back and forth.

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Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO offers a few different story modes depending on where in the Dragon Ball Z timeline you're interested in revisiting, starting with Goku's first encounter with Nappa and Vegeta and beyond. While the story initially focuses on Goku, additional stories unlock, including Frieza and a few other familiar faces. These fights appear to branch off in different paths, based on win/lose conditions and other hidden criteria that might need a couple of extra playthroughs to get the full story or at least some secret unlockables.

If all you're looking for is an excuse to match fists with faces, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO features a wide array of buffet options depending on your hunger for battle. If you're itching for a