There’s not much that unites the Dragon Ball community between favourite shows – Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT or Dragon Ball Super – favourite characters, favourite series arcs, or even favourite language dubbing. What does, however, bring together the majority of the fans of this iconic Japanese manga (and later anime) is that the PS2-era Budokai Tenkaichi series of games are among the most beloved across the varied list of titles charting the adventures of Goku and friends.
The fast-paced brawlers didn’t necessarily strive to be the most competitive or comprehensive fighting experiences compared to the likes of Street Fighter or Tekken, but they achieved the most complete representation of being in the world of Dragon Ball that any of the games spanning the series had so far managed to do. Hundreds of characters, dozens of different costumes, packed story content and multiplayer battling all added up to three epic experiences for any fans from 2005-2007. There were spin-offs on portable devices, there were parts of the mechanics adapted into different game structures, but it wasn’t until 2024 that Bandai Namco finally returned to the Tenkaichi style with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, with Switch 2 gamers waiting until January this year to get their hands on the Nintendo port.
Anyone who has played Sparking! Zero on another platform might immediately be worried about the prospect of picking up their Switch 2 and getting a significantly toned-down experience. After all, the series is known for its intense and brutal combat, with huge beam blasts, massive explosions and generally bits of scenery going flying as super warriors from across the franchise collide. Despite its smaller form factor, playing on Switch 2 is without doubt still a ridiculously fun experience that actually has relatively few compromises compared to the PS5 and Xbox Series versions.
Yes, the Switch 2 version runs at 30fps both docked and undocked compared to a targeted 60fps on the other consoles, but it must be said this is a rock solid 30 even when playing portably. Despite sometimes chaotic action and characters smashing and blasting through rocks at light-speed, the frame rate restrictions never take away from the immense sense of speed and momentum that mirrors the action of the show so well. Nor is there much of a compromise when it comes to most of the visual presentation.
Characters look incredibly detailed, and there’s no doubt that in terms of replicating the look of the anime, Sparking! Zero has nailed it. Colours pop as characters power up and fire their signature moves. Animations are fluid, and despite the mammoth 182-character roster (including a raft of transformations counted separately), every fighter has a unique feel and sense of style, not to mention a unique move-list of attacks.
While there is no obvious compromise to character models on the Switch 2, there may have been a toning down of the overall world graphics. Environmental textures are generally of a lower quality when getting close to rocks, trees and buildings across the 12 or so maps on offer. However, the action is happening so fast usually that actually stopping to admire the world around is rare.
In terms of that action, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero puts the player’s perspective behind the character they have picked. As mentioned, this isn’t a fighter that forces memorising huge combos. Instead, it very much opts for the easy-to-pick-up-and-get-started approach, which masks a surprisingly in-depth fighting system in the background. Basic attacks and movement include dashing towards an opponent, stringing together a basic attack combo, firing a ki-blast, and guarding/dodging. Add on the four main special attacks and one ultimate attack, and it’s simple to enjoy most fights across the single-player episode battles, which act as a story campaign and the various battles and tournaments.
Play online, however, against others and it soon becomes apparent just how much depth there is to this system. Dig a little deeper into combat and fights start to mirror the TV show, with huge combos, chaining together attacks, deflecting attacks, and teleporting across the map. The length of the in-game tutorials is testament to just how comprehensive a fighter Sparking! Zero is behind the veneer of a pick-up-and-play DBZ simulator.
With both English and Japanese audio options also, again fans of both no longer need to be disappointed when it comes to the characters they know and love having the voice actor they recognise. The sounds of destruction and things smashing apart, beams clashing, and punches landing is as intense as could be expected. The only disappointment is the need to lock the ability to play music tracks from the anime and films on demand behind two separate DLC packages – a move that feels a little disappointing for fans of the series.
The previously mentioned episode battles represent the main single-player mode in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, charting the main beats of the whole DBZ saga (and beyond) from the perspective of a number of the key characters throughout the sagas. Think the likes of Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo and a few of the villains like Freiza and Goku Black.
Initially, some might be disappointed at the pared back nature of the story presentation here, with many of the main plot points reduced to slide show screenshots with some text and a small portion of dialogue. It’s definitely a compromise compared to some previous Tenkaichi games, which themselves featured a selection of moving cutscenes replicating the anime and a more detailed walkthrough of the memorable tale of DBZ. That said, to defend Sparking! Zero, there are very few fans of the series that haven’t played through this story countless times before – and for those that seek it, the recently released (and still regularly updated) Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot RPG caters for those needs.
What Sparking! Zero does smartly is introduce a ‘what if’ mechanic to the story mode, allowing players to make choices that never happened in the anime and see the results. Sometimes these can be small dialogue changes like refusing Piccolo’s help when fighting Raditz at the beginning of Goku’s tale, all the way to altering entire plot points and taking the story on a different tangent. It’s a very clever way to breathe new life into this well-trod adventure and adds a good layer of replayability to the story content.
