Dragon Ball Spark Zero review – the sequel fans begged for

There's never been a better time to be a Dragon Ball fan, but I don't think the community knows how great they are. To be honest, while there was a steady stream of pretty middling DBZ games back in the '00s, the anime was still on hiatus, only to return over a decade later. The series has undergone a revival since 2012, and now we have Dragon Ball: Spark Zeroa sequel I never expected.

"Dragon Ball: Spark Zero" is the fourth game in the "Budokai Tenkaichi" series, 17 years have passed since its last release. A lot has changed since then with multiple movies, the arrival of Dragon Ball Super, and even a new anime series set to launch later this month. More content means more characters, with over 180 playable warriors in the Sparking Zero roster, each with their own unique moves. Okay, so there are 19 versions of Goku included in this roster, but even if you remove all transformations and variations, there are still 81 unique characters to choose from.

Returning players can pick up exactly where they left off, while the core mechanics of the fighting game remain largely unchanged. Budokai Tenkaichi is known for its simple combat, with combos based on a series of button presses rather than traditional movement inputs. Considering the speed and intensity of the action, it's incredible how easy it is to pick up and play Spark Zero. You won't get lost trying new characters because the combo chains are mostly the same, and considering the huge roster, that's probably for the best.

There's a common misconception that these games are just button-mashing games, but some of the missions in the campaign, Gorilla Vegeta Battle, prove otherwise. A lot of strategy comes from the defensive aspect of the anime game; choosing the right opportunities to build up your chi, knowing when to block and when to counterattack, and keeping track of each player's skill counter are all needed to win battles.

While there's a tutorial that walks you through all the major mechanics, it does a poor job of teaching you how to fight. For example, while it's crucial to know how to perform a dragon dash to catch up with an opponent, it's even more helpful if the game creates a scenario to show you Why This move is important. You can get through the single-player content by knowing the basics, but limited knowledge isn't enough to stop you from being stepped on by veteran players online.

Sparking Zero's episodic battles serve as an in-game campaign, taking you through key moments in the series through the eyes of the main cast. While you can lower the difficulty level to Easy if you get stuck, I strongly recommend against doing so as it will prevent you from accessing the story's various branching paths.

These missions contain different mission objectives that require you to complete battles within a limited time or defeat enemies with specific attacks. Doing so unlocks spark plots, special what-if scenarios that take the narrative in new directions. These branching paths are easily the highlight of the campaign, and what surprised me most was how many branching paths appear in each character's journey.

Unfortunately, the game's cutscenes are very rudimentary, with simple animations and lots of freeze frames. While most cutscenes use original voice actors from Japanese and British anime, and fans will feel nostalgic when characters recite some famous lines, the immersion isn't there, even in the most crucial moments.

If you're feeling creative, though, custom battles give you access to an editor where you can build campaign-like scenarios. For what I wrongly thought was going to be a one-off mode, the amount of detail you can add to a custom scene is pretty impressive. One Reddit user was able to recreate a battle in DBZ in which you are absorbed by Cell as Android 17, which transforms him into his second form, forcing you to switch to Android 18. The editor lets you fine-tune battles to trigger events, opening up the ability to create more complex battles than in the main story.

Budokai Tenkaichi has always featured split-screen local multiplayer, and for a while, it looked like that mode wouldn't be coming to Spark Zero. Thankfully, there's a split-screen mode, but you can only play on the Hyperbolic Time Chamber map. I have to assume this is due to potential performance issues, as this is the only map with barely any destructible overlay. I'd rather have this mode in a stripped-down state than not use it at all, so this solution seems to work and my experience playing in split-screen mode is flawless.

You'd think that a game based on a source material from over 30 years ago would include some deep cuts, but I was still shocked to experience some interactions that I'm sure players will never see in the game. It's become so granular that there are interactions between characters that you can only recreate with specific moves using specific warriors on specific maps. It's obvious that this game was made by die-hard Dragon Ball fans. No one is begging the developers to include Goku's costume when he visits the planet Adrat, but you better believe you can choose it. Yes, there are some glaring omissions, like Vegeta's iconic pink bad guy shirt, but I know it's impossible to include everything.

However, gameplay aside, the PC port of Sparking Zero isn't quite where it needs to be. The game doesn't perform shader compositing on launch, so you'll experience random stuttering until everything is resolved. The game is also hard-locked at 60 fps, and while this limit can be lifted, you won't be able to play the game online without severe desync issues. HDR support is lacking, with brightness being the only adjustable setting, and even so, games look better with HDR turned off.

Still, my biggest complaint is the lack of cross-platform play. Spark Zero doesn't appear to have any form of anti-cheat features, so I'm not surprised that cross-platform play isn't an option. Once cheaters get their hands on a game, there's nothing to stop them from ruining the online experience. On consoles, you're less likely to run into bad guys, but if you plan on playing Spark Zero competitively, you may want to avoid the PC version entirely.

The only advantage of Sparking Zero not having any anti-cheat features is that this opens up the mod floodgates. I've seen a mod that lets you change maps in local multiplayer, and there's model swapping that lets you play as CJ and Big Smoke from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Online multiplayer may be limited in the future, but there's no telling how good custom single-player content will end up being.

Dragon Ball Spark Zero manages to satisfy fans of all types with simple yet surprisingly deep combat mechanics that make the game easy to pick up but difficult to master. With new content already planned via Season Pass DLC and free updates, there's enough content here to satisfy most players, even if they've never touched upon multiplayer modes.