The fighting game Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero released a new trailer on Tuesday, and it’s crammed full of characters from the Dragon Ball Z anime’s Saiyan and Namek sagas. The game is now available for preorder and comes to Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5, and PC on Oct. 11.
Characters shown in the trailer include Saibaman, Chiaotzu, Cui, Dodoria, Super Zarbon, Nail, Guldo, Recoome, Captain Ginyu and all the forms of Frieza from the Z era. Most of these hail from the Frieza Saga, when Goku, Piccolo and other heroes travel to planet Namek in search of the wish-granting Dragon Balls — but also in pursuit are the underlings of Frieza, intergalactic conqueror and one of the franchise’s most iconic villains.
It’s no surprise that Bandai Namco kept this trailer in its back pocket until now. This era of Dragon Ball is one of its most iconic, as it appeared in Dragon Ball Z shortly after the series began airing on Cartoon Network’s anime-filled Toonami programming block. One of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s new features is Episode Battle, a sort of campaign mode putting players in some of the most legendary fights in the series.
The game also has a custom battle mode where players can set special parameters and assemble teams of varying sizes — and now that we’ve seen all the Frieza Saga characters introduced, Sparking Zero is giving players the tools and characters to recreate some of the best battles across the shows. Want to pit Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin against the Ginyu Force? Go for it. Want to line up several iterations of Goku against all of Frieza’s monstrous forms? Now you can!
It’s been 15 years since the last entry in Bandai Namco’s beloved Budokai Tenkaichi game series set in the worlds of Dragon Ball. CNET’s David Lumb had an early chance to play the new game, and reports, “my inner 12-year-old was singing.”
“Sparking Zero has more in store for longtime Dragon Ball fans than more casual players, but even novices to the legendary anime, manga and games will have a good time blasting enemies in deep-bench brawls with iconic heroes,” Lumb said in his review.
The sheer number of characters has its pros and cons.
“It was a bit tough to figure out the minor differences between all 11 Gokus and 13 Vegetas (except for the massive Great Ape Vegeta, who’s choosable as his own character),” Lumb noted.
And the trailer seemed to get fans in the right mood, even though the game is still months away.
“Not even mad that in every single (Dragon Ball) game they do this exact same trailer, still a blast,” wrote one YouTube commenter.
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