In March 2023, to the surprise of Dragon Ball fans worldwide, it was announced that there would be a brand-new entry in the Budokai Tenkaichi franchise, with the title eventually revealed to be Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. At that point, there hadn’t been a proper Budokai Tenkaichi game in almost 20 years, so the news was incredibly exciting, especially for the countless fans who grew up with the franchise.

Spike Chunsoft's Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is finally set to release on Friday, October 11, and there’s plenty to be excited about. Between new additions to the franchise and how much it refines some of the classic elements, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is the pinnacle of anime arena fighters in nearly every regard, albeit with a few shortcomings regarding performance and presentation here and there. Even those don’t fully detract from the great experience, however, and any Dragon Ball fan will find a lot to love about this game from the moment they start playing.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Brings Budokai Tenkaichi’s Gameplay To Its Peak

Some Of The Best Gameplay Of Any Dragon Ball Game

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero uses virtually the same gameplay as the original Budokai Tenkaichi games, and it’s better than ever. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has made combat much faster and more dynamic than in any other Budokai Tenkaichi game, with characters always moving at incredibly high speeds and causing massive destruction at every turn. For an additional nice touch, their bodies even get dirtied and damaged at faster rates, too. The animation style of Dragon Ball Super: Broly animator Naohiro Shintani was allegedly an influence on the game’s visual style, and overall, it translates wonderfully into 3D.

Combat in Sparking! Zero plays largely the same as in Budokai Tenkaichi, but there are some notable additions and changes in quality of life. The Blast Stock gauge, now called “Skill Count,” refills much faster than in previous games, making it easy to use skills, transformations, and ultimate moves multiple times per match, but the addition of new defensive moves like the Revenge Counter and Perception add even more depth to the combat than before. The Tenkaichi combat style has never been as refined as it is in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, and it’s all the better for it.

As with previous games, there’s a definite learning curve to the combat. While it’s easy enough to get by on the basic combat elements, learning the more advanced maneuvers is the key difference between having an easy time and struggling from the start, even if you’re just playing against the computer. Fortunately, learning the more advanced combat of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is largely a matter of patience and timing, and it’s easy enough to get some modicum of skill whether you’re a casual player or if you intend to be far more serious in your investment.

Another issue players might have while on their own is with the AI. While the AI is largely consistent, there will be numerous times when Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero’s AI will do things that make no sense to do, whether it’s going out of a transformation just to go back into it, going out of bounds in tournament mode, or simply doing nothing as you land one blow after another. It doesn’t happen too often, and it’s the kind of thing a future patch is bound to fix, but it can still make single-player campaigns more annoying than need be.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Is Nearly Perfect With Its Massive Roster

One Of The Largest Rosters Of Any Fighting Game

What the Budokai Tenkaichi games are known for the most after their gameplay is the massive roster of characters every game boasts, and Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero takes that to its logical extreme. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero boasts a roster of 182 characters covering both canon material and the original non-canon movies, and fortunately, the vast majority of them are available at launch. Any missing characters can be unlocked by playing various game modes or purchasing them from the shop, and with how easy it is to gain the in-game currency, it’s plenty easy to max out the roster.

What makes the characters even more fun is how much attention to detail the game puts into their gameplay. Every technique a character can use in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is filled with Easter eggs to classic moments from both canon and filler, and that’s always the case whether it’s just a character using a skill or when they’re being used against a specific opponent. There are dozens of references like that within the game, and seeing them pop up at random times is a big part of what makes playing the game so much fun.

Regarding the roster, it would be remiss not to mention the notable exclusions. Not only does the base roster miss popular characters like Super 17, Pikkon, and King Piccolo, but even with the wide selection of transformations for some characters, for some reason, forms like Goku’s Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken and Vegeta’s Super Saiyan Blue Evolution are only present as skill buffs as opposed to genuine transformations. With multiple waves of DLC in the works, of course some familiar faces have been left behind at launch, but even so, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero’s roster still comes up somewhat short, even with its massive size.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero’s Story Mode Brings More Life To The Games Than Ever

Sparking! Zero's Story Mode Explained

As with previous games, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero features an extensive story mode covering all of canon from the perspective of eight different characters, but it’s unfortunately not without its issues. For starters, most cutscenes and transitions are conveyed with still images and text devoid of narration; there are few cutscenes in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero’s story mode that have any animation to speak of, and there are even fewer that make it a continuous scene as opposed to several short cuts in quick succession, and even if the visuals are great, it can still get rather tedious.

That being said, the story mode is still plenty of fun to play through. While there aren’t as many fights as in previous games, with each main story mode sticking primarily to canon fights, not only is it always fun to play through Dragon Ball's story arcs, but the few times Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero’s story mode does have a full cinematic, it’s always made to look as gorgeous as possible thanks to the graphics and shading of the game. It’s another testament to the stunning visuals of the game, and this is probably the best place to experience them.

Where story mode truly shines, of course, is with the “what if” stories that branch off into alternate takes of the story. Many of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero’s “what if” stories tell engaging narratives that take the characters in fascinating new directions, with some notable examples being Goku saving Piccolo as soon as Cell showed up and two different takes on Goku surviving the fight with Raditz. Some of the most fun a player can have is doubling back to find all the branching paths, and no matter which character they use, they’re sure to find something fun to do.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Invites Players To Flex Their Creativity With Custom Battles

Why Custom Battle Mode Is So Good

One of the most hotly-anticipated additions to Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was the custom battle mode, and for the most part, it lives up to its hype. On the negative side, because the system needs to for any random scenario a person might create, the dialogue in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero’s custom battle mode tends to be stilted and downright nonsensical, with it sometimes not even matching the context of the story. This might be a problem with the English translation, but considering how the translation is fine everywhere else, that seems unlikely.

That being said, custom battle mode is still great to play through. Not only does it give you a lot of fun pre-made battles from the start, but the near-limitless amount of scenarios and dialogue the player is afforded allows for an incredible amount of creativity that they can spend hours on without even cracking the surface of what’s possible. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero’s custom battle mode is the game’s most extensive and creative mode, and for anyone willing to put in the time, it’s where they’ll undoubtedly have the most fun.

Final Thoughts On Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero & Review Score

9/10: Sparking! Zero Excels Through A Mixture Of Old & New Style

There are definite issues with gameplay and overall presentation, but between how much it refines the work of its predecessors and every stellar new addition to the gameplay, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is an excellent addition to the Budokai Tenkaichi franchise that more than justifies the long wait for its release. Whether someone grew up with the older games or is jumping into the style for the first time, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero will be plenty of fun to play, and it’s bound to go down as one of the best Dragon Ball games of all time.

A digital PS5 game code was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.