Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Preview - The ultimate Dragon Ball fantasy

Let me get this out of the way, I'm not really a Dragon Ball fan. There are a bunch of very passionate folk out there that fall head over heels for the anime/manga brand, but that's not me. The reason why I wanted to start this preview with this information is because I also understand that there's a very dedicated community who are absolutely desperate to know how this game will allow them to really put their own spin on the Dragon Ball franchise. If that's you, let me just confirm that judging by what I got to see for myself during a hands-on preview session in Los Angeles for Summer Game Fest and by gauging the interest in the room, this game will absolutely do that.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is the ultimate Dragon Ball fantasy. This is a game that both nails the thrill and power that the Saiyans have at their disposal in the combat and fighting mechanics, all while opening the ways to test and scheme about how specific Dragon Ball moments would have unravelled should a specific instance gone a different way. Yes, a What If...? type mode is here, meaning you can now check out what would happen if Goku never decided to team up with Piccolo during the early days of Dragon Ball Z to take down Raditz, all during the Episode Battle mode. This mode features eight episodes each based on different characters, with Goku's being the longest and broadest (unsurprisingly), and picks out story moments, starting from the Z days all the way to the more recent Super events, and shows them off in a different light.

But this is just the beginning of the What If...? elements as the Custom Battles also allows you to pit various characters against one another in a variety of untold encounters either created by the developers at Spike Chunsoft or by the community. This mode allows you to fiddle with pretty much every mechanic and system, including by adding your own captions, meaning if there's one Dragon Ball match-up you have been desperate to see unfold, you will soon be able to do so without needing it to thematically and officially happen in the anime or manga.

Keeping on the story and narrative focus for the time being, the developers have also added the option to experience cutscenes in first-person this time around, meaning if you have ever wondered what it felt like for Goku to take Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon during his sacrificial takedown of Raditz, now you can get the most immersive taste of precisely that.

Right, to the gameplay. As an avid fighting game fan, I can tell you that Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero feels fantastic to play. The actions and combos feel fluid and responsive all while maintaining the signature power fantasy that Dragon Ball always excelled at. You can throw the typical punches, kicks, and melee attacks, but then you can match this up with Dragon Ball ki energy attacks like the iconic Kamehameha. The main catch with using these energy abilities is that you must have ki in the first place to cast them and this is generated by simply going full-Dragon Ball screaming and shouting while you channel, power-up, and charge up a ki bar that ultimately caps out by seeing you go fully Super, opening the way to devastating and near fatal attacks. The catch with using this system is of course that while charging you are a sitting duck and prone to enemy onslaughts, more so than ever since the game uses an omnidirectional movement suite that makes the player open to attacks from all angles.

The movement system - due to its omnidirectional premise - does lack a bit of refinement in my eyes, with it feeling a bit stiff and rigid, but there's also no denying that zooming after and hunting down Vegeta after punching him through a mountain isn't massively satisfying. More so since the destruction system that has been incorporated seems to make each and every part of a level ripe and ready to be blasted into oblivion. It's a real treat to see how each level can be shattered into tiny little pieces, and does make the limited and quite bland graphics less of an issue.

The combat does also have a few different tricks that revolve around certain characters. Not only can you engage in team battles where you can choose to switch between fighters on your team on a whim, but there is now the ability to transform specific characters during a match too. Now this only works for characters that actually have transformations baked into their lore, meaning Goku in particular has a lot of alternative options to play as, each of which open the door to new abilities and moves to use. You can choose a more powerful version of Goku from the get-go or you could select the Super Saiyan God version of the character instead, but the one thing that is worth being aware of is that this mostly a cosmetic change, as each character (and each version of each character) is designed to be able to thrive in every encounter. This is pretty much typical fighting game design philosophy and something we see in Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken, and even Smash Bros. Let's be real, Isabelle from Animal Crossing loses 100 out of 100 fights against Sephiroth... unless it's in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate world.

Speaking about fighters that wouldn't usually stand a chance against one another, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has a great list of characters to let you explore some crazy encounters. Want to see how baby Gohan from Dragon Ball Z would fare against the God of Destruction Lord Beerus? Now you can. The roster list is significant, but it's worth knowing that a lot seem to be transformations of one character, with Goku having countless iterations to check out, while there are only a couple of choices for Frieza, for example.

As a fan of the more traditional side-profile fighting games that tend to prioritise speed, combo technique, and mechanical prowess, I was less drawn in by what I experienced with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. It's without a doubt a treat with tons of potential that will no doubt be high on the wishlist for many fans, but as far as a fighting experience goes, I do think it lacks a bit of a punch. Perhaps the story and narrative, and the multiplayer elements will offset this opinion, and that's something we'll no doubt be able to tell you more about sometime further in the lead up to launch. But as it stands, I'm not too convinced that Sparking! Zero will be breathing the same air as acclaimed fighters like Tekken 8 or Street Fighter 6.