Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero's Battle and Tournament Modes Revealed in New Trailer

Dragon Ball fighting games have enjoyed immense popularity in the West for over two decades, and the next one, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, is almost here. Bandai Namco recently released a trailer showcasing the game's Battle and Tournament modes, adding a competitive flair with some intriguing options.

Sparking Zero will feature ranked online matches with a leaderboard where players can set specific conditions like connection quality, disconnection rate, and even preferred battle styles. There are also options for casual online and offline versus matches, the latter limited to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber stage.

The classic World Tournament mode, a favorite from the PlayStation 2 era, is making a welcome return. In both online and offline tournaments, players can compete under special rules, including options to disable flying, enable ring-out victories, and limit character selection.

Various tournament types are available, including the World Tournament, Cell Games, Other World Tournament, Tournament of Destroyers, Tournament of Power, and even the infamous Yamcha Games.

While Sparking Zero aims for character strength to reflect their canon power levels, the developers have also considered balance for competitive play. Each character has a cost associated with their strength, and team matches can be limited to a specific cost cap, similar to Marvel vs. Capcom's team-building system.

Ranked matches can be filtered by cost to hopefully create a more even playing field, in addition to customizable tournament rules. Whether this will be enough to generate a dedicated competitive scene for Sparking Zero remains to be seen. It's more of an arena fighter than a traditional fighting game, but the enduring popularity of Dragon Ball might draw a dedicated crowd.

So cats out the bag...... I GOT TO PLAY SPARKING ZERO EARLY 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🔥🔥🔥🔥

Will be making a youtube video on my thoughts on the game and some gameplay but in the meanwhile, check out the special intro between Vegeta and Kid Trunks 😂😂 #SparkingZERO #dbz #DragonBall #animegames pic.twitter.com/FZR09bxIzs

— RIZE | ShykoPlays (@ShykoPlays) September 4, 2024

Over 9000 hype: @ShykoPlays got his hands on the game early and will be dropping videos soon, giving us the inside scoop on everything he discovered during his playtest!

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero releases on October 11 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC. The game boasts a roster of 164 playable characters, including transformations.

We can't wait to see the unexpected upsets and thrilling moments that will undoubtedly emerge from Sparking Zero's tournaments. It's going to be a wild ride!