Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero! Gets New Gameplay Showcase and Characters, But No Release Date

Bandai Namco has provided another look at Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, the next installment in its Budokai Tenkaichi series. Although there’s no release date, today’s showcase provided an in-depth overview of the features and mechanics we can expect in Sparking! Zero.

The gameplay showcase, which you can check out below, shows a fight between longtime rivals Goku and Vegeta. We spend a few minutes watching both characters duke it out, with both transforming into Super Saiyan God before an energy wave battle towards the end of the battle.

As with previous installments in the Budokai Tenkaichi games, Sparking! Zero has a behind-the-back third-person camera system with the dynamic and action-packed gameplay that has become the signature of the franchise, from manga to anime.

Producer Jun Furutani notes that since Sparking! Zero is “a genuine sequel and evolution of the series,” the development team’s goal is “to preserve the essence of what made the Budokai Tenkaichi series so popular.”

The showcase reveals that Sparking! Zero will keep battle systems like Impact Action and Ultimate Blast, the latter of which is an ultimate attack that displays a flashy animation as the character winds up to perform their most powerful technique. While Ultimate Blast is nothing new, Furutani touts that the stunning effects of these moves can “only be achieved on the current generation of consoles.”

Of course, it would not be a proper sequel without some new additions; Furutani revealed that the team “tweaked some and added new” gameplay mechanics to “better express the high-speed and authentic battles unique to the Dragon Ball action.” One of these new additions is increasing the normal movement speed, which lets characters move as “as fast” as the dash was in the previous title. While Furutani did not specify, the most recent Budokai Tenkaichi game was 2010’s Tenkaichi Tag Team.

Alongside new gameplay, we also got a new trailer, which reveals 11 new characters joining the Sparking! Zero roster. This increases the roster from 24 to 35 playable characters. You can check out the list of new additions to the roster below in the order in which they appear in the new trailer:

• Super Trunks
• Dyspo
• Kakunsa
• Master Roshi (Max Power)
• Nappa
• Burter
• Toppo
• Jeice
• Super Saiyan Kale (Berserk)
• Super Saiyan Broly (Full Power)
• HIT

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero launches on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. While we wait for a release date, consider checking out the previous trailer released in January. If you already watched that trailer, check out our feature where we point out seven details you might have missed.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.