Fans couldn’t believe it when Bandai Namco teased that a new Budokai Tenkaichi fighting game was in the works. We now know it’s called Dragon Ball Sparking Zero and it looks like something players who have been waiting almost two decades can get excited about.
The game is being developed by Spike Chunsoft, the studio behind the original Budokai Tenkaichi series, and is being made in Unreal Engine 5 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Like the earlier games, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero seems like it will feature a big roster spanning the original manga and anime’s history, big destructable arenas, and flashy automatic combos. Publisher Bandai Namco is also promising “new genre-defining features.”
Heres’ the trailer:
Unlike the 2D Dragon Ball Z fighting games, the Budokai Tenkaichi series takes place in 3D maps where players can fly around, lock-onto one another, and smash eachother into mountains and craters. The battles are messy but tend to emulate the feel, speed, and dynamis of the anime versions across huge rosters sporting almost every major character.
The last Budokai Tenkaichi was in 2007, leaving fans waiting for true successor even amid great alternative adaptations like Dragon Ball FighterZ. So Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will have big shoes to fill and huge expectations. The game will no doubt look great on modern consoles, but whether it can maintain the chaotic charm of the originals while still feeling polishes and precise enough to cater to modern fighting game sensibilities remains to be seen.
Personally, I kind of hope it’s messy as hell, with broken combos, busted characters, and too many “holy shit!” moments to count. Who knows what the online multiplayer will be like. I don’t really care. Couch coop is the only way I’m playing this one.