It's only been a few hours since Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero launched in early access for those who pre-ordered the Deluxe and Ultimate editions of Spike Chunsoft's new fighting game, but players are already being thoroughly destroyed by AI opponents.
Across social media, the immediate reaction to Sparking Zero is clear – beyond its massive roster and fanservice, it's very tough. One player on Twitter has shared a clip of a fight against a 'Super' difficulty Vegeta CPU, who pulls off a sickening string of attacks in a glorious combo, before de-transforming himself part-way through to become less powerful, despite continuing the onslaught immediately after. This disrespectful series of moves was so humbling that the player in question clearly had to pause for a while to absorb what just happened, and I frankly don't blame them.
Put the CPU on super and they fucking BEAT YOUR ASS pic.twitter.com/flU8HkUhuoOctober 7, 2024
Similar struggles have been noted in the story mode, with many players hitting a brick wall when coming face to face with Great Ape Vegeta. One player on Reddit summarizes the fight as "some BS," noting: "Literally in the first millisecond, no let me be accurate, the first PIXEL of the battle he's firing a Galick Gun and then just spams it if you actually start winning."
They're not alone, and another player thinks the "game is WAY too hard" in general, with a "borderline impossible" story mode. From CPUs dealing "18 quintillion damage with a standard punch" to the player themselves dealing so little damage that they "may as well be standing there with a straw shooting spitballs," they conclude that the experience is "fucking absurd."
While I can certainly imagine that being an intimidating prospect for newcomers, those tough fights might actually be a selling point to veteran fans of the Budokai Tenkaichi games. Either way though, it's still early days for the game – there's no doubt that fighting game enthusiasts will come up with plenty of strategies and approaches to Sparking Zero's battles as time goes on.
Be sure to take a look at our Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero review to see if it truly has what it takes to be one of the best fighting games of the year.
