| Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Spike Chunsoft |
| Publisher | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
| Director | Tairi Kikuchi |
| Producer | Hiroyuki Kaneko |
| Artist | Satoshi Tsurumi |
| Series | Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 5 |
| Platforms | |
| Release | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S Switch, Switch 2
|
| Genre | Fighting |
| Modes | Single-player,multiplayer |
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero[1] is a 2024fighting game developed bySpike Chunsoft and published byBandai Namco Entertainment. Based on theDragon Ball franchise created byAkira Toriyama, it is the fourth main installment in theBudokai Tenkaichi series, a sequel toDragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (2007), and the first to be released under the originalSparking! title outside of Japan.
Sparking! Zero was released forPlayStation 5,Xbox Series X/S andWindows on October 11, 2024. Versions forNintendo Switch andNintendo Switch 2 were released on November 14, 2025. It received generally positive reviews from critics and became a massive commercial success for Bandai Namco.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a 3D team fighting game and expansion onto earlier games such as Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Budokai Tenkaichi 2, and Budokai Tenkaichi, in which players can form a team of five or go alone as Dragon Ball characters and pit them against another team and/or character. The game introduces several new combat systems such as Skill Count, Revenge Counter, and Vanishing Assaults, while retaining the counter and the dash system from previous games.[2] It features both new and returning playable characters, forms, and stages, with the stages containing destructible elements, for a total of 182 playable characters.[a][3] Players can choose from any one of 100 characters at the beginning of the game, and have to unlock other characters using Zeni, an in-game currency earned by playing the game.[4] The game also has 12 stages at launch.[5]
The game introduces a new mode named "Custom", allowing players to create their ownDragon Ball fight scenarios and share them online with other players. Custom mode is further divided into a simple and a normal mode, allowing players to customize their stages with a variety of tools.[4] The game also includes "Episode Battles", which serve as the game's story mode, following the perspective of eight playable characters:Goku,Vegeta,Piccolo,Gohan,Future Trunks,Frieza,Goku Black, andJiren. These episodes depict the story ofDragon Ball Z (1989–1996) andDragon Ball Super (2015–2018), although players can make narrative decisions at various plot points, leading to differing endings from the original.[6]
Theseason pass revealed threedownloadable content (DLC) packs would be released forSparking! Zero. The first is the "Hero of Justice Pack", which includes eleven characters from the filmDragon Ball Super: Super Hero (2022): the film versions of Gohan and Piccolo (each with four forms),Gamma 1, Gamma 2, andCell Max. It became available on January 23, 2025.[7] The second and third DLC packs, "Daima Character Pack" 1 and 2, include characters from the anime seriesDragon Ball Daima (2024–2025):[8][9] the "Mini" versions of Vegeta (with four forms) and Goku (with two forms) as well as their adult forms (Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta and Super Saiyan 4 Goku respectively), Glorio, Panzy, Majin Kuu, Majin Duu, and Gomah (with two forms); the third pack also included a new stage (First Demon World).[9] Those packs became available on April 24 and September 25, 2025, respectively.[8][9] An extra DLC was released on June 26 featuring the character Shallot from themobile gameDragon Ball Legends (2018).[10] Those packs increased the roster to 208 playable characters.[11]
On October 2, 2025, it was confirmed a new DLC pack was set to be revealed in January 2026.[11] Later, on January 25, 2026, a new DLC was announced that contains not only 9 new characters (that being Super Saiyan Bardock, King Piccolo, Super 17, Devilman, Granpa Gohan, Champa, Mercenary Tao, Zangya, and Pikkon), but also stages, costumes, and a new mode.
Sparking! Zero was developed bySpike Chunsoft, and it was the first game in theBudokai Tenkaichi series sinceDragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team (2010) for thePlayStation Portable.[4] The team described having a large roster of characters for the game was "challenging" since they cannot reuse any assets from the older games.[4]Sparking! Zero, unlikeDragon Ball FighterZ (2018), was not envisioned as aneSports game. Some characters, if they are weaker in theDragon Ball canon, will remain weak in the game. To keep the game balanced, the team introduced the "cost" system. Each player only has a predetermined cost in each round, and stronger characters will cost much more than the weaker characters.[12] It was developed usingUnreal Engine 5.[13]
The game was revealed atThe Game Awards 2023 by publisherBandai Namco Entertainment.[14] It was released on October 11, 2024, forWindows,PlayStation 5 andXbox Series X and Series S. Aseason pass will also be available, giving players access to three downloadable content packs that is expected to introduce more than 20 new characters.[15]
Sparking! Zero marked the final performance ofTōru Furuya as the voice ofYamcha, following a scandal earlier in that same year that chose him to step down from the role.[16]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | (PC) 83/100 (PS5) 81/100 (XSX) 83/100 (NS2) 76/100 [17] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Eurogamer | 4/5[18] |
| Famitsu | 34/40[19] |
| GameSpot | 6/10[21] |
| GamesRadar+ | 3/5[20] |
| Hardcore Gamer |    [22] |
| HobbyConsolas | 90%[23] |
| IGN | 7/10[24] |
| Nintendo Life | [25] |
| PC Gamer (US) | 80/100[26] |
| VG247 | 4/5[28] |
| The Games Machine | 8.8/10[27] |
The game received "generally favorable reviews" from critics according toMetacritic.[17] In Japan, four critics fromFamitsu gave the game a total score of 34 out of 40.[19]
Lewis Parker fromEurogamer described it as a "polished" and "rich" experience. While commenting that players did not need to be a fan of the series to enjoy it, it was "everythingDragon Ball fans will have wanted". He praised the extensive amount offan service present in the game, singling out the Episode Battles and their branching player paths.[18] Scott McCrae fromPC Gamer described it as one of the bestDragon Ball games ever released, and wrote that the game was "mechanically complex". Concluding his review, he praised the game for successfully capturing "the magic of the original Tenkaichi games", and felt that its approach to storytelling and its diverse roster of characters "serve as the ultimate celebration ofAkira Toriyama's classic".[26]
Jarrett Green fromIGN criticized the game's menu for being cumbersome. While he appreciated the team for introducing branching paths to the story, he felt that battles in the story can become frustrating, as players need to perform very specific feats during combat in order to reach a new story path.[24] Ian Walker fromGamesRadar called the game the "ultimate toybox" and praised the customization options offered in the Custom mode, adding that it will likely provide "hours upon hours of creative fulfillment after finishing everything else the game has to offer". However, he was disappointed by the game's enemyartificial intelligence for encouraging repetitive combat tactics, and remarked that the game lacked "the depth of its more serious competition to the point of becoming rote".[20] Jason Fanelli fromGameSpot praised the game's visuals for being "visually stunning" and wrote that it did a "serviceable job instant-transmissioning theBudokai Tenkaichi format into the modern age", though he was disappointed by the limited mode variety, the repetitive combat system, and characters sharing the same control scheme.[21] Several critics remarked that the game's tutorial mode was not intuitive enough for players to truly understand the game's mechanics.[18][28]
More than 3 million copies of the game were sold within the game's first day of release.[29] According to Bandai Namco, about 90% of the sales for the game came from North America and Europe.[30] It was the third best-selling video game in the UK, and the second best-selling video game in the US in October 2024.[31][32] It went on to become the best-sellingDragon Ball game in the US, the fourth best-selling game in the US in 2024,[33] and the third best-selling Bandai Namco game, trailing only behindDark Souls III andElden Ring.[32] By February 2025, sales of 5 million had been reached.[34]
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | The Game Awards 2024 | Best Fighting Game | Nominated | [35] |
| The Steam Awards | Best Game You Suck At | Nominated | [36] | |
| 2025 | 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards | Fighting Game of the Year | Nominated | [37][38] |
| Butōden | |
|---|---|
| Idainaru Densetsu | |
| Budokai | |
| Origins | |
| Raging Blast | |
| Xenoverse | |
| Other series | |
| Standalone games |
|
| Crossover games | |
