After over 15 years, Dragon Ball fans finally have new Budokai Tenkaichi fighter footage to fuel their power level hype.
A blazing trailer for 2023’s Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero depicts series icons like Goku and Vegeta exchanging earth-cracking blows. Beyond looking as slick as ever, the combat makes full use of the anime fighter’s trademark frenetic 3D battles and exaggerated aerial combat.
Veterans rightly revere Budokai Tenkaichi as one of anime gaming’s crowning arena combat achievements. It distills Dragon Ball’s outlandish power fantasy to pure tests of strength and will, letting players smash as legendary heroes and villains. Based on this first proper glimpse, Sparking! Zero looks to build on that strong foundation and take things even further into overdrive.
As developers Bandai Namco put it: “Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO takes the legendary gameplay of the Budokai Tenkaichi series and raises it to whole new levels.” Fans can expect revamped movesets and spectacles fitting some of fiction’s mightiest warriors, not to mention key mechanics refinements.
Sparking! Zero marks the acclaimed fighting series’ first entry since 2007’s Budokai Tenkaichi 3. After over 15 years away, anticipation runs sky high for its modern return to consoles and PC, now enhanced by new-gen hardware.
With wishes listed and muscles flexed, now we eagerly await seeing just how wild Sparking! Zero’s witless clashes get. Goku may preach restraint, but after so long without proper Dragon Ball arena battles, no one can blame us for going all out in the arena later this year. Any fighting game that lets me shoot Kamehamehas as Master Roshi is a winner in my book!
