When Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero launched last year. I thought it was an excellent Dragon Ball game with a lot of potential. I had no prior experience with the Budokai Tenkaichi series, but Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was a gorgeous 3D fighter with tons of characters and robust online. It unfortunately was borderline unplayable on PC handhelds back then because of how the game’s speed was tied to the frame rate target of 60 frames per second, which the Steam Deck and ROG Ally could not hit reliably. I assumed this was why it hadn’t been ported to the original Nintendo Switch, but we now have Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero on both the base Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, with bespoke versions that target 30 frames per second.
For this Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Switch 2 review, I’ve spent some time revisiting the game on PS5, checking out the current state of the PC version on Steam Deck and ROG Ally, and also a lot of time both online and offline with the Switch 2 version of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.
If you’ve never played Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero before, it is a 3D fighting game developed in Unreal Engine 5 featuring over 180 characters from Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball GT, and many more in the base release, with more available as DLC. It features massive stages with a blend of realistic and stylized visuals that aim to let you revisit battles from the original stories, cut-scenes, and even new battles focused around specific characters.
Now, despite being a new release on Switch and Switch 2, I need to give you some context for the game itself. Since launch, it has gotten some DLC and updates, but the online is kind of dead. It feels like a game that could’ve been legendary with regular updates based on community feedback, but right now, it is just a very good game that looks amazing.
As with most Bandai Namco ports to Nintendo platforms, the game is full price with two editions and a lot of DLC available from the get-go. When Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was announced for Nintendo platforms, Bandai Namco had it listed as 810p 30 frames per second, both docked and handheld. Since then, it has been changed to be 1080p 30 frames per second docked and 810p 30 frames per second in Handheld mode as targets. As with all listings like this, you should treat those numbers as targets and not the final spec.
Having now played Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero both handheld and docked on my 1440p display, it feels like a very conservative port with it looking softer than it should and still running at 30 frames per second (half of PS5/Xbox Series X) and featuring many cutbacks to textures, draw distance, and slower load times. One more major downgrade is the main menu. On other platforms, it has high-quality in-engine scenes as Goku moves between locations when you scroll through the menu. On Switch 2, it uses a low-quality video playing in the background that can look very ugly on transitions, as shown in the comparison. It settles down in a few seconds, but it still looks bad compared to the PS5 and Xbox versions.
If you have access to a PS5 or Xbox Series X, I recommend buying Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero there for the best TV experience, but if you want a good portable version, the Switch 2 version is the one to get. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is still bad on Steam Deck unless you use a mod or edit a file so that it can run at 30 frames per second. If you do that, it will run fine without slowing down, but the online doesn’t work reliably. On ROG Ally, I had a lot of hitching regardless of the settings, so I didn’t spend much time with it there. On Switch 2, the online holds up well, and it looks fine to good handheld, but I feel like the developer could’ve done more, especially given the price and delayed port. It isn’t as bad as Persona 3 Reload’s port for sure, but I wanted more.
While Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero does ship with online and local multiplayer support, I want to note that the ranked mode is not implemented on Switch 2 yet, and there is no cross-platform play with PS5/Xbox/PC. You will need to play with friends since the matchmaking is already not looking great.
If you don’t plan on playing online at all, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is an easier recommendation for offline play, but at this point, I’d recommend buying the Ultimate Edition to get the most out of it. It has been on sale on other systems already, and I assume that will happen here soon. One last thing I want to note is that I hope the developer improves the HD Rumble 2 support. It is quite lacking compared to how well-implemented the DualSense haptics are in the PS5 version.
One last thing I want to comment on is the load times. The Switch 2 version doesn’t take too much longer than some other systems, but it is a notable step back from the PS5 version. I’m only mentioning this since I know many who usually have played Dragon Ball games on PlayStation 4 and then double-dipped on Switch versions before. I know many will want a good portable version of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, and it is worth keeping that in mind.
All things considered, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero on Nintendo Switch 2 delivers a fully playable experience that is good handheld, but the developer should’ve done more for the visuals and performance when playing docked. I would still play it here over PC handhelds I own, but it is hard to recommend the Switch 2 version to play on TV if you have access to PS5 or Xbox Series X.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review copy provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment
