Bandai Namco announced that the Dragon Ball Sparking Zero Dragon Ball Daima Character Pack 1 DLC, which includes eight characters, is now available in early access. If you own the $34.99 season for the game, you’ve got the characters from the new anime adaptation now. The full launch is April 24, 2025.

This announcement means we now know everything in the add-on as well. There’s a costume for Goku (Mini). If you had the pre-order pack, this can be equipped to have him go Super Saiyan and use Aura Impact. If you didn’t, it shows as a ninth character in the select screen. As for the other additions, this brings one new form of Goku and four new versions of Vegeta.

Here’s the full character list:

• Glorio
• Goku (Mini) Super Saiyan
• Majin Kuu
• Panzy
• Vegeta (Mini) 
• Vegeta (Mini) Super Saiyan
• Vegeta (Mini) Super Saiyan 2
• Vegeta (Mini) Super Saiyan 3

Here's the trailer for it:

As a reminder, the season for Dragon Ball Sparking Zero consists of three add-ons. The first involves 11 Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero characters, costumes, and bonus battles. The second and third ones both are tied to Dragon Ball Daima. The last add-on is expected to launch between July and September 2025. 

Since the Dragon Ball Daima anime debuted, appearances also ended up confirmed for multiple games. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot also got add-ons tied to it.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is available worldwide on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, and the Daima first DLC is available now in early access and officially on April 24, 2025. 

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During the Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero The Dramatic Showdown Grand Finals on March 16, 2025, Bandai Namco shared a trailer looking at the Daima anime DLC characters that will come to the game. In addition to Son Goku (Mini), who appeared in the pre-order pack for the game, we get to see Vegeta (Mini) and Glorio. There are also Super Saiyan forms of Goku (Mini) and Vegeta (Mini) in it. That add-on will debut in April 2025.

The video begins with Vegeta (Mini) appearing to fight in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. He brings up how mad he is about being trapped in a child’s body as he fights a foe. He then goes Super Saiyan, showing how that version of himself would fight in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. From there, the fight shifts to Glorio. He’s one of the original characters who debuted in the Dragon Ball Daima anime. It seems his moveset will include his energy whip attack. From there, we get to see Goku (Mini) go Super Saiyan. However, his appearance is only a brief teaser, so there’s no clue as to what his moveset will look like.

Here’s the full trailer, which Bandai Namco shared on the official social media for the series’ games.

This is the second DLC pack to appear for Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, not counting the pre-order bonus. The first was a Hero of Justice pack. That added 11 different characters to the game. Among them were four versions of Gohan, four versions of Piccolo, Gamma 1, Gamma 2, and Cell Max. It also included a Superhero costume for Piccolo. 

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is available for the PS5, Xbox Series X and PC, and the Dragon Ball Daima Goku, Vegeta, and Glorio DLC characters will debut in April 2025. The Dragon Ball Daima anime is streaming on Crunchyroll. 

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Bandai Namco announced the first Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero DLC is the Hero of Justice, and it adds 11 characters from the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie. People with the Season get early access to it on January 20, 2025. Everyone else can play it on January 23, 2025.

We already knew Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 would be in this collection. But the new trailer confirmed the other additions and alts that will appear. However, while there are 11 characters in the Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Hero of Justice DLC, most of them are alternate forms of Gohan and Piccolo. There are four different Gohans and four Piccolos. 

Here’s the full list of characters we see. As some of them don’t have their proper names appear in it, such as the SSJ form of Gohan, in some cases they are placeholders based on what we know about the movie. 

• Cell Max
• Gamma 1
• Gamma 2
• Gohan Beast
• Gohan (SH)
• Orange Piccolo
• Orange Piccolo (Awakened)
• Piccolo (SH)
• Piccolo (SH Awakened)
• SSJ Gohan
• Ultimate Gohan

Here’s the trailer introducing the newest add-on. At the end, it confirmed three custom battles, like one against Cell Max, are a part of the DLC. It also showed a new costume. 

We do have an idea of what’s coming after this add-on. The second pack will be tied to Dragon Ball Daima. So far, Glorio and Vegeta (Mini) are confirmed characters for it. The third DLC set will also feature Dragon Ball Daima. 

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is available on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, and the Hero of Justice DLC debuts on January 20, 2025 for Season holders and everyone else on January 23, 2025.

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In 24 hours since it came out, Bandai Namco announced that Dragon Ball Sparking Zero sales ed 3 million copies worldwide. This data includes digital versions, including PC copies from Steam.

Dragon Ball Sparking Zero is the latest entry in the Sparking and Budokai Tenkaichi series from Bandai Namco and Spike Chunsoft, with the last one having come out 17 years ago. At launch, it introduced 182 characters—the most in the fighting game series—with their own unique skills and abilities. We already also saw Bandai Namco add the first additional character in the form of Goku (Mini). He's a pre-order pack bonus. The fighter is designed to allow us to re-enact some of the most dramatic fights from the anime and manga series.

As a note, the 24 hours in question started from October 11, 2024. This is because the Steam version came out a day later, whereas those on the PS5 and Xbox Series X got to play the game from October 10, 2024. While the game is only on three platforms, it’s available in many different languages, which makes it very accessible to players from all regions. That could’ve also been a contributing factor to how quickly Dragon Ball Sparking Zero sales racked up.

Dragon Ball Sparking Zero is readily available on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC.

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Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero aims to capture the wild, acrobatic, over-the-top battles of the anime and its various iterations as characters vanish and reappear behind one another, counter each other’s counter moves, and fire off devastating blasts that leave the area a wasteland. When even the early story battles have that much mayhem in them, you’d better be ready for everything your opponents can throw at you right from the very first battle. Bandai Namco will throw some incredibly thrilling fights at you in this latest Dragon Ball game, but you’d best believe you need to be trained and ready before you start fighting against these ultra powerful characters.

I cannot stress this enough: if you have not played the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi arena fighter games, you need to head over to the Super Training menu and go over everything in Battle Training. I figured since I have a decent handle on fighting games I could give the commands a glance and hop right into playing the game. I was utterly wrong and got stomped immediately. I thought the game would at least let me learn the ropes by lowering the difficulty, but by the time I hit Vegeta in Episode Battle (the story mode), I was getting mauled constantly. I even turned on every possible Battle Assist, getting the game to help with combos, Dragon Dashes to catch up with hurled foes, and help with blocking, and it made next to no difference. You can’t just lower the difficulty and mash buttons, here. You need to learn the systems.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s systems are very satisfying and help you fall in love with game once you commit to learning them. Battle Training will walk you through each of your moves one by one, letting you practice them until you master them. Since there’s a lot to factor into every second of combat, you should take your time, here. For instance, basic movement involves far more than just walking around, as you can leap into the air and fly at will. You can also Dragon Dash to move far faster, allowing you to chase foes you’ve launched away from you or to make a quick getaway if you need to get to some cover to avoid an incoming blast.

This leads us to your Ki, the meter that fuels many of your handy abilities. Dragon Dash costs Ki to use (the yellow bar under your health bar), and while it recharges as you smack your foe around (or if you stand still and hold R2, which charges it fast but practically begs to get you smacked), you can burn through it fast if you Dragon Dash too much. Same if you use Ki Blasts to pepper foes with a few bursts of energy or if you hold the button down to launch a single, devastating one. You’ll also burn through Ki in a hurry if you use your character-specific specials (like Gohan’s Explosive Cannon). While managing a special meter in a fighting game isn’t unique, since it’s connected to movement and being able to use many of your best moves, it feels even more stressful to keep track of it in this game.

So, it’s got more in-depth moves and the special meter is tied into combat a bit deeper. Why would I be worried about getting trashed playing Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero? On top of this, there are in-depth dodge, clash, and counters system in play. If you’re about to get slammed up close, you can Vanish Assault to appear behind your enemy, trying to get the drop on them. You can also just hold Circle and use Perception to counter your opponent’s strikes. You can do a high speed evasion by blocking with perfect timing when you’re about to get hit, slipping away to hit back. Your throws, fast steps, and Ultimate Blasts can enter a clash state against your opponent, resulting in a short quicktime event where you’re suddenly mashing buttons to come out on top. You have lots of tools to quickly turn a bout around, but things can just as easily get turned around on you.

This all results in battles that are extremely chaotic if you don’t have all of these moves, skills, and combat possibilities firmly in your mind. Right from the start, and even at low difficulties, you and your opponent will be vanishing and reappearing around one another, entering sudden clash states where you have to switch what you’re doing, and alternating between chasing and hurtling away from one another. It all happens blazingly fast, too. The game gives you a fair amount of health to make it so the matches don’t end too quickly even while you’re getting the hang of this stuff, but it can still be a lot to learn and get the hang of.

But when you start to get it, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero looks and feels incredible. While I would argue that Dragon Ball FighterZ looks a little bit sharper when it comes to its characters and attacks, it doesn’t capture the feeling of movement and massive destruction that this game does. You will both be flying all over these massive battlefields, shifting from high-speed flight to an intimate beatdown where you’re doing dodges and counters against one another in the space of milliseconds. It captures this incredible spectacle because of all of these systems working in tandem – especially so as your attacks blow up the battlefield itself. If you slowed the game down to look at its visuals they don't look as good as FighterZ, but when everything's moving, it looks great. It’s relentlessly cool to look at these fights, and feels even better that you’re the one in charge of what happens.

Episode Battle is a good place to start practicing these skills; just don’t expect it to go easy on you. This story mode follows the narrative arcs of some of the major characters, capturing several major battles they went through. It manages to hit highlights from the various plotlines quickly and effectively without boring you with long plot dumps between fights, hitting a rare good middle ground for story that I didn’t see in Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash or Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections. The game gets to the point while still conveying the story and looking good while doing it, making Episode Battle pleasant to fight through. You can also bounce around several character arcs at will, so if you get stuck on a fight, you can switch characters and do someone else for a bit.

If you want something else that’s not in any previous Dragon Ball Z storyline, Bonus Battles offers some unique fights between characters in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. Maybe it’s just a hard battle where you are especially weak or it has some unique restrictions, but these offer special fights to test your abilities or just try out a battle between characters that would be different from the regular storyline. These add some extra fun for single player, but you can also design your own Bonus Battle for you or other players to work through.

Custom Battles sees you choosing who will fight and where they’ll fight. On top of this, you can set battle conditions for the fight. For these, you set a trigger condition (someone gets defeated, for example, or hits a certain level of health left), and then something will happen (they get transformed, lose access to certain moves, enemies will get harder, etc). You can also set up a story scene before, during, and after the fight, choosing effects, captions, announcer voices – basically creating your own cutscene (with some limitations). You can really do a lot with this – far more than I expected.

You can also post these Custom Battles online for others to play through, too. You can’t just create some miserable beatdown, though, as, like Mario Maker, you need to win the fight to be able to post it online. That said, players who want to set up creative challenges or to dabble with making their own limited Dragon Ball Z stories can do some neat things with this tool. It’s time-consuming, but is an incredibly neat extra for the game to have.

If you find yourself having trouble with some of the fights in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero or are getting frustrated that you’re not progressing, there are Ability Items you can buy in the game’s shop that can improve your character’s powers when equipped. I didn’t find these broke the game – more like they gave you a bit of an edge in a fight. Plus, you can only equip so many on your character. Still, they make a difference and are fairly affordable as the game gives you Zeni constantly for every little thing you do in it. Even if you lose, simply playing as characters and doing things in a fight gives you Zeni, so you’re always getting a little something from playing it.

After being unimpressed with Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash and Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections, I was pleasantly surprised with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. It looks spectacular in motion and really captures the scope of the franchise’s wild fights. With its many counters, fast movements, explosive field effects, and incredible blast moves, it makes you feel like you’re fighting for your life against relentless enemies. It will take some real training to get all of its battle expectations down, but it is absolutely worth it.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will be available on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 11, 2024.

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Bandai Namco shared a new Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero trailer, with this one focusing on characters from the movies, in addition to ones that also showed p in the GT and Super series. The company also confirmed that when we do get to play, we’ll get to pick from 181 fighters.

As is usual for these trailers, we get to see gameplay featuring all of the new additions. 27 fighters total show up, with a mix of heroes and villains appearing in this latest batch. Here are the latest confirmed cast :

• Android 13
• Bojack
• Bojack Full-Power
• Broly (Z)
• Broly (Z) Legendary Super Saiyan
• Broly (Z) Super Saiyan
• Cabba
• Cabba Super Saiyan
• Cabba Super Saiyan 2
• Cooler Final Form
• Dr. Wheelo
• Frieza Force Soldier
• Frost
• Fusion Android 13
• Goku (Teen)
• Hirudegarn
• Janemba
• Lord Slug
• Lord Slug Giant Form
• Metal Cooler
• Super Garlic Jr
• Super Gogeta (Z)
• Super Janemba
• Tapion
• Toppo: God of Destruction
• Turles

Here’s the new Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero trailer featuring folks from the movies and both GT and Super series. Special attention is paid to Broly at the two minute mark.

We did already see some other Dragon Ball GT teases earlier in September 2024. There will also be characters from the Android Saga and Majin Buu Saga too.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will come out on October 11, 2024 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam.

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Bandai Namco has revealed details on its appearance at the Tokyo Game Show 2024. There will be demos from only three games Bandai Namco will place on its TGS 2024 booths. The titles in question will be Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, and Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival.

The SAO: Fractured Daydream demos will be available in two versions: The "Kirito The Hero" mini-game on Nintendo Switch and the cross-play online multiplayer mode on other platforms. Meanwhile, the Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will let players choose from 77 characters available in the demo. Demos of Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival on the Switch and PS5 will appear separately at the Family Game Park zone on September 28-29, 2024.

In its Japanese press release, Bandai Namco acknowledged that it will approach TGS 2024 in a different way from prior years, as it wants to focus on the titles that it will release soon. Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream will appear first on October 4, 2024. Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will follow suit the week after on October 11, 2024. Bandai Namco will also release the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC ports of Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival the following month on November 7, 2024.

Bandai Namco will also hold its live streams completely separate from the TGS 2024 Official Program. The company will host three live streams of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero on September 21 and 22, 2024, at 8 PM JST, and September 28, 2024, at 12 PM JST. It will also broadcast a stream for Synduality: Echo of Ada on Friday, September 27, 2024, at 7 PM JST. Tales of Graces f Remastered will also have its own stream on Monday, September 23, 2024, at 7 PM JST—three days before TGS 2024 even starts.

Tokyo Game Show 2024 will take place at Makuhari Messe on September 26-29, 2024.

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Bandai Namco shared yet another Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero trailer that is an unending barrage of new characters, with the latest one including Android Saga elements. It also introduced more versions of Frieza and Trunks that will be playable in this installment, as well as offered our first look at different forms of Cell from Dragon Ball Z.

Here’s the full list of all the new characters that appeared for the first time in the Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Android Saga trailer, and four versions of Cell are confirmed. There will also be one of the Cell Juniors in the game.

• Android 16
• Android 17
• Android 18
• Android 19
• Cell, 1st Form
• Cell, 2nd Form
• Cell, Perfect Form
• Cell Jr.
• Dr. Gero
• Gohan (Teen) Super Saiyan
• Gohan (Teen) Super Saiyan 2
• King Cold
• Mecha Frieza
• Perfect Cell
• Piccolo Fused with Kami
• Trunks (Sword) Super Saiyan

Here’s the full Android Saga trailer. Note that after the halfway point, “Unmeino Hi: Tamashii vs Tamashii” from Dragon Ball Z plays. However, the this is just for the trailer and a note said that song isn’t in the game. 

34 empty spaces still appeared on the character select screen at the end of the video. Given 16 characters were revealed in the Android Saga trailer and 15 were in the Saiyan and Namek Sagas trailer, there could be at least two more character-focused trailers left with reveals.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will appear on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 11, 2024.

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During the 40th anniversary event of Dragon Ball, you’ll be able to catch the first ever episode of the new anime series Dragon Ball Daima. The late Akira Toriyama was the one who worked on the story and character design of Dragon Ball Daima, which will be a brand new tale in the franchise.

The new show will start airing some time in October 2024. But if you go to the 40th anniversary Dragon Ball festival on October 6, 2024, you’ll be able to watch it before anyone else can. There will only be three premieres, with the cast (including Masako Nozawa who plays Goku and his kids), appearing to greet the audience during the first two.

Aside from showing off Dragon Ball Daima, the 40th anniversary event will also have announcements about new games. You’ll be able to play their demos, as well as purchase event-exclusive merchandise. Demos will include that of Sparking Zero and Super Divers. Though the event itself is free, the tickets are only available via lottery. You can try for a ticket via the official website.

The Dragon Ball 40th anniversary event will be on October 6, 2024. North America will also be able to check out the show in November 2024.

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As promised, Bandai Namco shared a new Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero video filled with characters, and the “Saiyan & Namek Sagas” trailer is filled with many familiar faces. Among them are five different playable versions of Frieza based on his many forms in the Dragon Ball series.

Here’s the full list of all the Saiyan and Namek characters introduced as Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero characters in the new trailer. In the Dragon Ball video, the Frieza forms basically appear one after the other.

• Captain Ginyu
• Chiaotzu
• Cui
• Dodoria
• Frieza (Z) 1st Form
• Frieza (Z) 2nd Form
• Frieza (Z) 3rd Form
• Frieza (Z) 4th Form
• Frieza (Z) Full Power
• Guldo
• Nail
• Recoome
• Saibaiman
• Super Zarbon
• Zarbon

Note that the full Ginyu Force was briefly shown in the trailer. However, while Burter and Jeice appeared for the pose, only footage of Captain Ginyu, Guldo, and Recoome showed up.

Here’s the full Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero “Saiyan & Namek Sagas” character trailer:

At the end of the video, the character select screen is shown. As of July 30, 2024, there are still 49 unrevealed characters in the grid. Back in June 2024, we saw characters like Super Vegito, Jiren, Future Trunks, Roasie, Ribrianne, Yajirobe, Mr. Satan, and Dabura. That last trailer was also when Goku (Super) Ultra Instinct -Sign- and Goku Black Super Saiyan Rose showed up.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will come to the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 11, 2024. 

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Bandai Namco announced Dragon Ball Daima, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, and the Dragon Ball Super Card Game Fusion World will all appear at its SDCC 2024 booth. This will be free to enter if you go to the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina Terrace at West Harbor Drive in San Diego, California from 9:30am to 7pm PT between July 25-28, 2024. However, a preview night will also be open there between 6pm-9pm PT on July 24, 2024.

Both the Dragon Ball Sparking Zero and the Dragon Ball Super Card Game Fusion World elements of the SDCC booth will involve a demo. The new fighting game will be playable. Those who try it will get a lanyard with the game’s logo that proclaims the person who wears it played the title. In the case of the card game, people who take part in the tutorial event will also get the 2024 trial decks with demo cards. A Vol. 1 Promotion Pack will also be a part of the booth giveaways.

Here’s how those bonuses look:

The Dragon Ball Daima elements involve free items tied to the new anime. Two of the booth giveaway bonuses are a bag and fan featuring that version of Goku and the show’s logo. However, people who visit the booth also get a lanyard that can have ribbons attached if you visit different zones tied to things Bandai Namco is promoting. If you collect all the ribbons, you can trade them for an acrylic stand of Goku inspired by the show. 

Here’s how those items will look:

A number of figures and models will also be there. The Figure-rise Standard part will include a Son Goku Model Kit Trial Version for people to build. 

Dragon Ball Sparking Zero will be on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 11, 2024. The Dragon Ball Daima anime will begin airing in Fall 2024.

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More people will get a chance to play Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero soon, as an Evo 2024 demo is on the way. Bandai Namco revealed the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC game will show up at the event. 

We don’t have too many details about the Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero demo just yet. Bandai Namco said this will be one of the first playable appearances of the game. Many of the characters, such as Goku and Vegeta, will appear in the arena fighter. We do know the final game will have a story mode and over 160 characters from the series in it. 

This will be one of two games from the developer and publisher at the event. It also noted it will have Tekken 8 there. In addition to being a part of the main Evo 2024 lineup alongside titles like Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, and Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising, there will be demo stations for that fighter as well. Those will include DLC characters. 

Prior to this reveal, Bandai Namco shared more details about characters and features in the fighter. For example, players will be able to set up Custom Battle Scenes. Also, the latest roster update included characters like Future Trunks, Goku Black Super Saiyan Rose, Mr. Satan, Super Vegito, and Yajirobe.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will appear on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 11, 2024. Evo will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall in Las Vegas, Nevada between July 19-21, 2024. 

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