Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is effectively Budokai Tenkaichi 4, bringing the hit manga and anime to modern consoles with better graphics and fresh levels of fan service. It seemed like only a matter of time before it arrived on Switch 2, but I didn’t expect to see it on Nintendo’s older hardware as well.
The company announced in its latest Nintendo Direct that Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will arrive on both Switch consoles on November 14. That includes single-player story campaigns, online battles, and the scenario creator mode where fans cook up their own wild battles for one another to play. I’m still curious to see how it runs on the hardware considering some of the framerate and graphical issues that exist even on PS5 and Xbox Series X.
The good news is that unlike those platforms, where Sparking Zero is normally $70, the Switch 2 version is only $60 (though it doesn’t appear to include any of the additional DLC).
While Sparking Zero was one of last year’s bestselling games, fan energy around the game has cooled in recent months as they wait on delayed DLC and grapple with the ongoing shortcomings in the base game, including a somewhat shallow and frustrating branching episode battle mode. Plus, despite the gargantuan roster, there are still plenty of fan favorite characters and transformations that haven’t yet made it into Sparking Zero, if they ever will.
Even so, it’ll be nice to finally have the game on Nintendo’s handheld hybrid system and, perhaps even more importantly, a fresh influx of new and non-jaded players into the online battle mode. A lack of balance has led ranked play to stagnate, but having more players in casual quick matches who just want to have fun and mess around with all of Sparking Zero’s myriad matchups will be great. Even better would be seeing the game get some features unique to Switch 2, like local wireless GameShare with other nearby Switches.
Update 7/31/2025 1:39 p.m. ET: Added the pricing info.
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