DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO - Welcome home
Welcome back to the world of Akira Toriyama. It's a familiar place, but it's still a lot of fun.
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Akira Toriyama, his name is legend. He crafted an incredible world that has entertained generations and now I am lucky enough to check out the latest video game inspired by his work. I got my hands on DRAGON BALL: Sparking! Zero and this latest entry is something else.

Like the majority of Dragon Ball titles, this title is mainly a beat’em up. Much like the Budokai Tenkaichi games that many fans have grown up with, it’s an expansive arena fighter with a ridiculous roster, 181 to be precise. Now a major caveat to that whopping number is that many of the fighters are duplicates, the number of Goku and Vegeta clones alone take up a large number. Luckily, this works because each Goku clone has a different moveset. Meaning that there will be a favourite Goku or a favourite Vegeta, etc for every player.

So, what’s there to do here?

DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is the ultimate love letter to fans of Akira Toriyama’s celebrated manga. It is as simple as that. If you’ve been looking for a Dragon Ball game that has everything to offer you, well look no further. The Story Mode goes from the beginning of Dragon Ball Z, through the movies up until Dragon Ball Super. You play the game through the point of view of several characters. These include Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Gohan to begin with but then it expands to some weird ones, like Frieza, and my personal favourite Goku Black.

This Story Mode is simply the tip of the iceberg though, I’ve never been overwhelmed by what’s available in a game but DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO might just be the first one. Not only is there a What If Mode, that gives players the opportunity to see moments play out vastly differently than they did in the original manga/anime, but there is also a mode where you can create battles for other players around the world. It’s a fascinating expansion on an element that fans have enjoyed in every game in some shape or form over the past decades.

On top of this is an expansive online mode, sadly I didn’t get to do much there as no one seemed to be online in my area. I will however rectify that once DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO goes live.

For all the things that change, so many stay the same

Now, there are issues with this title. DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO seems to have all the problems that plagued its predecessors. Certain attacks which rush you at your opponent can miss for no one reason at all, this is something that I remember annoying me when I played previous Budokai Tenkaichi titles. To this point, I felt at times that I was simply playing a remake of one of the previous Budokai Tenkaichi titles. Graphically the game is competent, there are highlights, particularly when characters unleash their ultimate attacks. There are also lowlights when characters end up moving with the fluidity of characters from games generations past.

There is also the issue that only Dragon Ball fans will understand, you have to run through the entire chronological story of Goku and the gang all over again to unlock characters, moves, transformations etc. Now this might not seem so bad but when you’re a long-time fan like myself this will irk you. Also, there isn’t as much Dragon Ball Super as I’d hoped. I currently see no sign of the Gammas, Cell Max, Beast Gohan or Orange Piccolo which is a real shame. It seems some of the more interesting Dragon Ball Super characters will not be available until a DLC is announced. Which in my opinion is completely unnecessary.

Ultimately though, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is still an absolute blast, especially with friends. There is so much to unlock and so much to experience that as I stated earlier this is a Dragon Ball fans dream. I just wish that the team had pushed the envelope a little harder instead of resting on a few of their laurels.

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