Dragon Ball Sparking Zero - A Monolithic Disappointment

A mediocre mess saved only by the fanservice of the series its representing, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero also known as the 4th installment in the Budokai Tenkaichi series whose last entry was released 17 years ago in 2007 has been released earlier this month to middling reviews. Critics have criticized the game for some of the same reasons that they criticized the older entries for. The most prominent criticisms have pointed to the simple gameplay design of every character on the massive 181 launch character roster leading to brainless repetition and weak content offerings. This has led to a lower than expected Metascore on Metacritic. That hasn't stopped the game from being a resounding success having sold 3 million units within the game's first 24 hours on the market. However, these numbers are due mainly to a strong consistent marketing campaign combined with fierce enthusiasm on social media. Now that the game has been out on the market for a few weeks and the hype has worn down, it's time to look at the product at face value and question whether or not developer Spike Chunsoft and Bandai Namco delivered a worthy game that lives up to the first 3 entries from nearly 2 decades ago. Avid shares a blunt view of the game and just why it doesn't nearly come close to fulfilling the quality worthy of a game years in the making.