I remember way back when, waking up on christmas morning and finding out Santa had brought all of my siblings a Playstation 2. To our delight it was hooked up already and sitting there waiting for us was Dragon Ball Z: Budokai. We played it to death and as the series grew we could never keep ourselves away from the newest game. That never stopped and I’m happy to share my review of Dragonball Sparking! Zero, a continuation of the Dragonball Budokai series.
So what does Sparking Zero bring to the table? An impressive 181 character roster, an extensive story mode that lets you play through multiple story lines of your favorite characters, ‘what if’ lines in the story mode, extensive battle systems and more! Want to spar with your buddies and find out just who is the strongest in your group? Throw some hands and settle the score! Want to find out if Great Ape Vegeta can beat Beerus? Throw those hands! Sparking Zero offers tons of unique character voice interactions at the start of their battles too! I had a ton of fun playing through Goku’s story, while also being challenged quite hard while playing too. Goku Black and Zamasu are no joke and nothing to sneeze about, but finishing his story and getting the super Dragonballs to summon Super Shenron was great!
The nostalgia factor in the game is STRONG, and the story mode definitely brings you into the world of Dragonball, mainly Z and Super, but there are characters and forms from GT and the original Dragonball series. The game modes and battles are plentiful, however I did find myself occasionally frustrated, especially in the beginning, by the controls and lack of teaching/tutorial. Before I was able to even play the game I had heard a lot of rumors about the difficulty level sometimes being pretty high (looking at you Great Ape Vegeta), and I did see truth to that *I did beat Great Ape Vegeta in two tries*, but I really feel it is more to do with the lack of instruction and tutorials. I ended my very first gaming session right after beating Great Ape Vegeta in Goku’s story line and honestly took a pretty decent break from the game (I was also going on vacation at the same time, so not entirely the games fault). When I returned I was itching to get back to the game, but also dreading it a bit due to the time I had been away and how the controls felt from my first play through, so I booted straight into the training. I was hoping to just jump in and try a few things out, but never actually found a free for all training area, maybe I somehow missed it, there are TONS of options, but while I didn’t find the free for all I did find the breakdown of literally EVERY SINGLE MOVE tutorial, and so I did like any sane person and completed about half before starting to skim through the list trying to find the most useful to me at the time and skill level (NOOB) before hoping back into story mode to continue the fights! I highly recommend going into the training and learning piece by piece what you need to do if you're finding the fights a little tough or if you’ve taken a break for a little while and need a refresher. If that doesn’t help, you can always shatter your Saiyan pride and lower the difficulty.
Where I was a little frustrated with the controls and training, the visuals are what kept me in the game 100%. It is beautiful for a fighting game and really immerses the player into the world of Dragonball. The art style is amazing and the 3d anime style seamlessly transitions from super moves while fighting into minicut scenes, back to fighting, into the next mission. The fighting arenas look straight out of the anime and visually change based on the interactions and destruction made during each battle. Beerus, the god of destruction, powered up and ready to destroy? The whole map turns purple like his aura as he unleashes his power on the area. Broly going on a rampage, you better believe everything is green while he laughs maniacally chasing down his opponent. There are tons of environmental details in each arena that can be used as cover to power up or to be destroyed to get to your target. Not only are the visuals nice, the sound within the game is immersive and makes you want to stand up and do your favorite characters’ super moves with them. On top of that There are tons and tons of unique interaction lines between many of the characters. It would take hours to hear and find them all. On top of that each move and power up all have specific sounds, typically the same sounds from the anime, so another call back to that. Just heads up when looking through the shop, Bulma is a talker!
With all of that being said, I enjoyed my time playing Dragonball Sparking! Zero and look forward to the future stories I haven’t completed. A solid game to add into my rotation, especially to add some diversity with a solid fighting game. The more I learn and the better I get at the game the more fun I have! Feels just like powering up like a Saiyan, getting your butt kicked real good a couple times and then bringing the hammer of destruction down on your opponents, all in a good day's work.
