Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, the successor to the old Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series, is on its way. Trailers have begun slowly unveiling parts of its enormous character roster, as well as detailing what fans can expect from the latest iteration of simulated Dragon Ball Z combat. A big focus of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero has been its environmental destruction, enhanced by a strongly cell-shaded art style, coupled with a thoroughly built-up playable cast to make recreating iconic Dragon Ball fights easier than ever.

Impressively, the end of the Goku vs. Vegeta trailer implies that the playable cast will be 164 characters strong at Sparking Zero’s launch, up from Budokai Tenkaichi 3's 162. The trailer’s accompanying press release also confirmed that character slots would be assigned to every unique form, often including the same form from different Dragon Ball sagas and even obscure forms like Super Vegeta, distinct from Super Saiyan Vegeta, and Vegeta's Great Ape transformation. With Sparking Zero set to cover at least Dragon Ball Z and the Dragon Ball Super anime, those 164 slots will fill up fast, but the game should still save room for a few special additions.

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New Forms Are A Classic Dragon Ball Game Feature

Above all else, the Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi games are known for their fanservice. Not only did they eventually collect every pre-Dragon Ball Super character of some notoriety in one place, but they also added lots of obscure characters like backstory Saiyans, anime filler combatants, and various underlings from throughout Dragon Ball and DBZ. Furthermore, the different Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi games featured what-if scenarios that included bizarre non-canon fusions like Cellin, made from Cell absorbing Krillin instead of Android 18, and Tiencha, Tien performing a Fusion Dance with Yamcha. These non-canon forms weren't always part of the regularly selectable roster, but their existence is still appreciated by these games’ fans.

What-If Sagas In Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Would Be Great

Adding non-canon content to Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero would permit more what-if scenarios like these to be in the game, which will be another point in its favor. Going by what the best Dragon Ball games have done, any made-up characters involved wouldn't even need to be fleshed-out members of the main roster, though that would also be appreciated. If nothing else, the chance to experience cool and silly Dragon Ball dream scenarios could easily be a back-of-the-box selling point for any Dragon Ball title, and the non-canon form that would give Sparking Zero the highest “wow” factor is Super Saiyan 3.

More Super Saiyan 3 Representation Should Come In Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero

Super Saiyan 3 is a rare form in Dragon Ball, despite having technically been surpassed in Super several times over. Only Goku and the fused Gotenks can regularly summon the cascading stream of hair spikes that has become SS3's signature, despite several other characters theoretically having similar potential. Non-canon works have seen Vegeta and Broly, alongside various other characters like Bardock and the Saiyan villain Cumber, attain Super Saiyan 3, and forms like Super Saiyan 4 and the later Super Saiyan God states imply that Super-era Vegeta should have it, but always passes over it.

How Super Saiyan 3 Would Fit Into Sparking Zero

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero has the chance to fix this while many eyes are on it, and should make these non-canon forms fully playable in the process. Only a couple of major Dragon Ball characters like Vegeta and DBZ Broly would gain SS3 transformations, and said pair have the best shot considering they reached SS3 in the Budokai Tenkaichi-adjacent Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2. It would be best for Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero to prioritize adding obscure canon characters over mainstay fighters’ non-canon forms, but a couple extra Super Saiyan 3 states would enhance the game's story and make fans happy.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero

Franchise

Dragon Ball

Platform(s)

PC , PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Developer(s)

Spike Chunsoft

Publisher(s)

Namco Bandai

Genre(s)

Fighting , Action

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