The Dragon Ball’s 40th anniversary event had a lot of new reveals for the series. Other than new announcements for anime series, there were also DLC announcements for Dragon Ball games. One of those titles included Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO.
Right out of the gate, we get a new animation of Goku and Vegeta working together while they are both Super Saiyan Blue. It then pans over to Bardock as it says New Characters. Bardock then turns Super Saiyan to show it isn’t the version of Bardock already in the game. It looks to be based on Bardock in the fan manga that got officially animated, called Episode of Bardock by Naho Ōishi. We then get to see a new frame of Demon King Piccolo from Dragon Ball. Heck yes, more OG Dragon Ball representation!
The next big character reveal is one I have constantly talked about as a missing piece of the GT roster, but Hell Fighter Android 17 fuses with Normal Android 17 to create Super 17! We finally get Super 17 in the game!
After these new character reveals, a big hype moment for me personally was when the text came out of “New Costumes”. One of the big downsides to the main game was the lack of customization in it. The only character that seemed to have costumes was Goku. Every other character was basically using the default costume for everything. The scene that immediately gets me excited is seeing Adolescent Gohan getting his Father’s Gi. One of my favorite movies is Bojack because of letting us see Super Saiyan 2 Gohan in his father’s outfit. That was missing from the base game, but now this DLC is going to add it in!
The new DLC for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO will also add new stages and new modes. The new mode that is planned to come first seems to be Survival mode. There was a glimpse of Grandpa Gohan and Devilman inside the few screenshots between the announcements. Even more OG Dragon Ball Representation. The final thing Bandai showed off in the showcase was a roadmap. It looks like Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 will take some time before it gets the new DLC, but it won’t be too long for the other platforms. Mission 100 and Survival mode are next on the docket. Those will be in Winter and Spring 2026. The rest of the promised DLC will show up later this year, in the summer.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is available to purchase for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. Be sure to read our review before you decide to purchase.
Source: Bandai Namco YouTube
