Bandai Namco has just released what may not only be the greatest Dragon Ball Z video game in history, but also the best fighter in the anime arena with Dragon Ball: Sparking! zero. While the debate over what constitutes an exceptional Dragon Ball Z game is debatable, what cannot be denied is the franchise’s enduring popularity in the gaming zeitgeist. With excitement! Zero, producer Bandai Namco, and developer Spike Chunsoft are preparing to let the proverbial crown jewels hang as the undisputed king of the anime gaming industry.
The enduring popularity of Dragon Ball Z’s lasting fingerprints on the world of video games goes far beyond the Midas touch of its late creator, Akira Toriyama. Musically, Dragon Ball Z is to popular culture what the Three Magic Chords are to rock ‘n’ roll. Its cultural influence has permeated professional wrestling, competitive sports, and hip-hop, to name a few. These accomplishments barely scratch the surface regarding Toriyama’s huge influence on the “Big Three” anime series: Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece.
DBZ’s influence in anime and manga is only paralleled by its four-decade supremacy in the gaming world, where it has graced numerous consoles from the Super NES to the Steam Deck. The highlight of the series is the hugely popular 3D fighter series, Budokai Tenkaichi, with the final release, Budokai Tenkaichi 3, in 2007. Its spiritual successor, Sparking! Zero seeks to bridge this 16-year gap by reclaiming its crown as the pinnacle of anime gaming and ushering in a paradigm shift in the genre by taking it to amazing new heights with its ambitious “more is more” philosophy.
Arena fighters, in general, are the anime’s actual game type. In this game, players have free rein to unleash their imagination in a deceptively simple sandbox setting with today’s popular fighting anime like Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia or Jujutsu Kaisen. While serving as a SparkNotes encyclopedia of anime mythos, Arena Fighters also allows players to deviate from the show’s story path and go full throttle into fanfiction territory by having heroes and villains battle it out in custom battles. In short, arena fighters are a tried-and-true — if unsatisfied — formula for capitalizing on an up-and-coming anime series. That is, as long as it follows the four core principles Budokai Tenkaichi and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm established for their predecessors: polished graphics, a diverse and distinctive roster of characters, engaging gameplay, and great replayability. Editor’s Picks
“stir!” Zero features characters from every version of Dragon Ball, Canon or Bandai Namco
However, contemporary fighters in the anime arena have not kept up their end of the bargain. If anything, they felt more like a derivative attempt to replicate Budokai Tenkaichi’s winning formula than a revolutionary step forward in the genre. With excitement! Zero’s announcement came with the nagging fear that it would also fail to live up to fans’ lofty expectations to salvage the perceived decline in quality of the gaming genre. Fortunately, stir! Zero has become the pinnacle of what fighters can be in the anime arena, and then some.
As far as the first two principles of anime arena fighters go, excitement! Zero is the Ayatollah of God with stunningly accurate 3D character designs and stages lifted directly from his decades of mythology. Furthermore, the game supports the series’ largest roster of 182 characters spanning the OG Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Super, and the upcoming Dragon Ball Daima anime with three waves of DLC (downloadable content) characters.
While other grinder battlers fail to keep players’ attention beyond the initial session with shallow gameplay mechanics that can easily implement a winning strategy, Sparking! Zero is dense in terms of difficulty and combat complexity. As far as the mechanical complexity of combat is concerned, Sparking! Zero is as challenging as the deepest fighting game. The highlight of its design is the challenging AI that seems impervious to previous game exploits like charging your energy power from a safe distance and dealing damage by unleashing raw supernatural items. If anything, stir! Basic Difficulty Zero The AI knows every trick in the book, including spamming teleport, and will throw them back at you if you’re not careful. Related to
By allowing for an imbalance in the power of the characters, it comes closer to reviving the anime than being a basic Bandai Namco fighter.
Unlike traditional fighters, Sparking! Zero emphasizes that his characters’ power levels remain true to the anime, meaning that the heroes become increasingly unbalanced the closer they get to the modern Dragon Ball anime. This not only adds authenticity to the anime’s penchant for power levels, but also makes the game more challenging.
For example, ranked online battles see the return of Budokai Tenkaichi 3’s Destruction Point Battle system. In it, team compositions are capped at 15 DP, meaning players are incentivized not to crowd their team with heavy hitters like Super Saiyan 4 Goku (10 DP) and instead start small with mid-range/weaker DP level characters like Base Cabba (5 DP) or Hercule (1DP) and slowly work their way up to Super Saiyan powered characters. If online battles aren’t your thing, Sparking! Zero is packed with the same amount of complexity and replayability as Episode Battles. As its name suggests, Episode Battles puts people in the shoes of a character (literally with a switch from first-person perspective) and playing through their story. Furthermore, players can choose through dialogue options and their proficiency in gameplay that changes the traditional events.
For example, in the Goku episode, defeating Raditz opened a new story branch where Goku not only survived, but trained Gohan himself for their upcoming battle against Vegeta and Nappa. Episode Battle’s story branches not only challenge players to break through the series canon by overcoming challenging combat mechanics, but also make their alternate paths rewarding to achieve.
Scenario battles allow players to relive their favorite or broken moments from the Bandai Namco series
Quite a thrill! Zero’s greatest achievement is its replayability. Excitement! Zero does what no fighter in the anime arena – let alone Dragon Ball – has ever done: it allows players to sit in the director’s chair and make their dream scenarios they’ve been living for years come to life through Custom and Bonus Battle modes. Taking a page from underappreciated successes like the Game Boy’s Dragon Ball Super Sonic Warriors playbook, Bonus Battles tasks players with completing several unique what-if battles in a set amount of time. These can range from taking on the challenge as the Great Saiyaman defending a city against a giant kaiju chain, perfect Cell tag teaming with Goku against the villains of the Buu era, or proving once and for all that Hercule is the strongest warrior under the heavens. Whether you win or lose these intense battles, players are motivated to become complete by increasing their proficiency with different DBZ characters.
Custom Battles take things to a whole other level by allowing players to create their own playable episode of Dragon Ball Z. This includes creating customizable episode title cards, cutscenes and dialogue from 500 customizable in-game names. Furthermore, players can record scenes with accompanying music, choose a narrator, apply distinctive camera filters, and pre-arrange post-fight scenes. As an added bonus on top, players can upload their custom battles online and let other fans play their dream Dragon Ball episodes. Trending
Custom Battle puts you in the director’s chair to create your perfect version of Bandai Namco’s “Dragon Ball” match
Excitement! Zero stands out as a unique gem in the world of video games, where the “more is more” philosophy actually improves the experience. Far from being just another installment in a series steeped in nostalgia, Sparking! Zero boldly goes beyond simply reenacting familiar scenes. It enables players to shape their own stories, turning fans’ dreams into reality across different game modes. Although it may be decades before a similar fighter appears on the anime scene, Sparking! Zero has reclaimed his throne in the gaming world. May his reign be long and celebrated.
Dragon Ball: Excitement! Zero is scheduled to launch on October 11 for Xbox Series