I Played Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero and Now Promise to Name My First Child Goku

fortressofsolitude.co.za:

When I received the opportunity to check out Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, I told the team: “Hey. I have never been a Dragon Ball Z guy.” Nothing against the franchise, but by the time it had started airing in South Africa, I went through a phase where I didn’t watch animated shows and only consumed pro wrestling in astronomical doses. I remained acutely aware of the show, of course, but couldn’t tell you why there were bald, smaller versions of characters running around and everyone was beefing with a green Professor Xavier. 

Then, I remember seeing the live-action movie Dragonball: Evolution in passing and noticed how the lead actor who played Goku looked like some rando from The O.C. or One Tree Hill, and even I could see this miscasting with no knowledge of the franchise. At this point, I had never watched a single episode or played a video game in the franchise, so I figured this would be the one white whale in my pop culture knowledge bank. Much like Dr. Ian Malcom said in Jurassic Park, though: Life, uh, finds a way.

I installed Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero with zero – get it? – expectations. What’s instantly appealing about the game is the bright, vibrant colors and simplicity of the menu. One of modern gaming’s biggest drawbacks is how the developers overstuff and complicate the UI of menus, giving the illusion of there being more options than what there really is. However, Sparking! Zero takes it back to old-school days of arena fighters, putting the emphasis on getting into the heat of battle as quickly as possible and forgetting about all the other frivolous nonsense. 

Since I’m a newbie noob to the franchise, I didn’t try the online modes off the bat, though I did later on and received an even worse beatdown than Dragonball: Evolution. Instead, I jumped into Episode Battles to explore the lore and learn more about the characters through a combination of trial and error. Surprisingly, this mode catches up the player to all things Dragon Ball. I understood the