I Played Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero and Now Promise to Name My First Child Goku

When I received the opportunity to check out Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, I told the team: “Hey. I have never been a Dragon Ball Z guy.” Nothing against the franchise, but by the time it had started airing in South Africa, I went through a phase where I didn’t watch animated shows and only consumed pro wrestling in astronomical doses. I remained acutely aware of the show, of course, but couldn’t tell you why there were bald, smaller versions of characters running around and everyone was beefing with a green Professor Xavier. 

Then, I remember seeing the live-action movie Dragonball: Evolution in passing and noticed how the lead actor who played Goku looked like some rando from The O.C. or One Tree Hill, and even I could see this miscasting with no knowledge of the franchise. At this point, I had never watched a single episode or played a video game in the franchise, so I figured this would be the one white whale in my pop culture knowledge bank. Much like Dr. Ian Malcom said in Jurassic Park, though: Life, uh, finds a way.

Experiencing Dragon Ball for the first

I installed Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero with zero – get it? – expectations. What’s instantly appealing about the game is the bright, vibrant colors and simplicity of the menu. One of modern gaming’s biggest drawbacks is how the developers overstuff and complicate the UI of menus, giving the illusion of there being more options than what there really is. However, Sparking! Zero takes it back to old-school days of arena fighters, putting the emphasis on getting into the heat of battle as quickly as possible and forgetting about all the other frivolous nonsense. 

Since I’m a newbie noob to the franchise, I didn’t try the online modes off the bat, though I did later on and received an even worse beatdown than Dragonball: Evolution. Instead, I jumped into Episode Battles to explore the lore and learn more about the characters through a combination of trial and error. Surprisingly, this mode catches up the player to all things Dragon Ball. I understood the importance of collecting the Dragon Balls, that Goku and Piccolo have serious beef, and that everyone is basically an OP anime version of a Mortal Kombat character. It also helps that the designs for everything look gorgeous. From the battle arenas to the actual in-game characters, this title captures the influential aesthetics of the franchise – well, at least what I’m familiar with.

More importantly, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is all the rage. Instinctive and intuitive, the gameplay values button-mashing and fluidity in the action, as characters take to the sky (or even water), decimate mountains, and use their special abilities to inflict serious damage that even rips up their clothing. The action doesn’t stop moving for a second, acting as a reminder of a simpler time in gaming where the only concern remained: But was it fun? The answer here is: Yes. Hell yes. Even if there are enemies who prove to be nearly impossible to defeat. Guess I just need to get good or get home here, right?

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a giant love letter to the franchise

It’s easy to see that developer Spike Chunsoft possesses a love for the franchise. It comes across in every detail and the way in which everything plays out in Sparking! Zero. At its core, Dragon Ball is about people resolving their differences through high-powered combat and quipping sensational one-liners. It isn’t rocket science, but oh boy, have we seen how many publishers and developers get it wrong nowadays because they want to reinvent the wheel for whatever arbitrary reason. Here, Spike Chunsoft sticks to what works, what fans expect, and everyone reaps the rewards in the end. Is this really so hard for other developers to do?

Right now, I’m more than a few hours into Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, slowly taking in the experience and magic of this franchise and lore. By no means have I graduated to become a white belt in all things Dragon Ball, but this arena fighter piqued my interest into finding out more about it and realizing what all the fuss is about. At the rate it’s going, don’t be surprised when I name my first-born child Goku Gohan Pereira.

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