Video Gamers Podcast - DBZ Sparking Zero Deep Dive - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are charging up and going Super Saiyan for a deep dive into Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! ZERO! Is this long-awaited return to the Budokai Tenkaichi series everything fans of anime and gaming hoped for? We’re breaking down everything from the massive character roster and explosive combat to how it stacks up in today’s video games landscape. Whether you grew up watching DBZ or just love high-octane action in your video games, this episode is packed. It’s a gaming-fueled ride you don’t want to miss—only on the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf and Phelps   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, Patrick and PeopleWonder   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.com/invite/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1    Visit us on the web:https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the video gamers podcast. There's been a hijacking and I have to say I'm actually super curious about this game. So I'm excited to see if fandom can carry it or if it stands on its own But before we get to what the game is who had to play it and what they thought about it some introductions are in order I am your host Josh and joining me many calm the chiatsu of our group It's Ryan many call him the Chiatsu of our group. It's Ryan. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Okay, I'm sorry for the- Get wrecked, Ryan. I'm sorry for the silence there, but if you were watching, by the way, we have video, so if you're not watching on video, shame on you, come check us out. Bro, what did I do to hurt you? Cause that's some shade, man.

That is, I don't know how deep in the Dragon Ball Z lore, but like out of anyone you could have picked, Tatsu, come on! This isn't a compliment run! I just went to Google, man. That's all. Please call me Dende or something. Like somebody, a non-significant character

that at least is cool, but come on. Okay, I will, look, peek behind the curtain here, fellas. Non-significant character that at least is cool, but come on. Okay, I will look peek behind the curtain here fellas. I googled who was the weakest character and came up with this. This is how I came up with this. Alright, that's dirty. Now we know where it came from. Alright, we got it. That's for stealing my water in Grounded 2 last night, man. Okay, we're gonna go down a path we don't want to go on. Let guess we got to steal in my water in grounded two last night, man. So, OK, I don't know. We're going to go down a path. We don't want to go on. Let's go on to the next one. Who else is with us today?

And joining us, he said he only knows one punch, but he's once played this game. So he is the second best expert on this episode. It's a I'll have, you know, it's One Piece, you hooligan. And it is the best anime ever. Don't at me. Well, OK, so this was this was on purpose, Ace, to kind of, you know, combine the One Punch Man with One Piece with Ryan being Chiazzu. And I'm trying to give some hints as to what the topic of this game

and the genre of this game is and really I'm Just trying to cover my own stupidity here, buddy. So oh Man guys We have a great episode in store for you But we also have some very important news that we need to share with all of you listeners out there need to share with all of you listeners out there. We are going to be changing up the release schedule that we have for this podcast just a little bit. Nothing, nothing too crazy.

As people know, we have been trying to do five shows a week for probably like what, like a month and a half, almost two months now, something like that. We've been going strong on it for a little bit here, man. Yeah. And listen, something like that. We've been going strong on it for a little bit here, man. Yeah. And, and listen, while we absolutely, exactly. That's really the thing. Listen, we're tired, man. You know, we, we all have lives and jobs and, and families and, you know, other

things going on in life. And while we absolutely love doing this podcast, five shows a week was a lot. And we kind of just said, look, you know, we don't want to get burned out. We want to have fun. That's always been the premise of this show. And so we got to scale it back just a little bit,

not too much, nothing shocking, but we're going to pair it back to three episodes a week, you know? And what makes me really happy about this is that we announced this to our community and a lot of people went, oh, thank goodness, I couldn't keep up with five shows a week anyway.

And then we were like, okay, maybe this was a good idea. Maybe it was for the best to let everyone catch up to where we are now. Yeah, I think so. So we're still gonna release episodes on Monday. Tuesdays are going to be our gaming news episodes or our kind of alternate episodes that we do sometimes

when there's not a lot of gaming news, like our side quests or maybe a couple silly episodes or something like that. And then the indie episode, we're going to move to Thursday, which Ace is very excited about. Got a prime time spot, baby. Yeah, prime time spot, Ace. So don't blow it.

Make sure you keep these indie titles rolling in here. But that will be the release schedule is new episodes, Monday, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We will very likely release some older episodes from the vault, either on Fridays or Wednesdays occasionally, just because we have so many episodes that we know a lot of people have missed some and you know that people like them, you know, and so we go, hey, this is a great way for people to catch up on some of the older stuff. It helps just keep the cadence of the show, which helps the algorithm and all that stuff too. So but there you go That's the new schedule. It starts this week

So you're listening to this on Monday That means tomorrow is Tuesday and then you won't get anything on Wednesday But you'll get indie episode on Thursdays and we'll keep it like that moving forward So and if and if you need if you need some VGP in your life on Wednesday come to our discord If you need some VGP in your life on Wednesday come to our discord like links in all our descriptions Like come on hang out with us It is the oasis of gaming the oasis of of just friendship and hanging out and it's a good place to be So if you're in need of that, please swing on by it's it's a cool place to check out Absolutely. All right. So there we go. We got the, the official announcement

out of the way. Guys, we're going to do something we haven't done in a while. We're going to read a review. We're going to read a review. You know why? Because people have been leaving us amazing reviews and we've been slacking on these. And my goodness, if people haven't stepped up their review game and we go, you know what you got? Y'all are taking the time to leave these amazing reviews. We're going to read them so that everybody can hear them and just as way of saying thank you. Um, so this one comes in from skull Lord and it's titled best gaming podcast.

And it says, I love this podcast. The passion is noticeable through just the audio. The feeling of friendship is amazing and their insights are amazing and always have powerful and fun conversations. I listen every day and never get tired. It's so unique and a fun time to listen to. Well, Skull Lord, thank you for taking the time

to leave us a five star review. We're glad that you love the passion. And you know, we like the compliment, man. We work hard to have good audio and video and all that too. So thanks for noticing, buddy. Yeah, very, very good. All right, guys, let's, okay. So we recently revamped all of our Patreon perks.

We had perks for a while. We said, hey guys, you know, we wanna reward people that support the show. What are some of the ways that we can do that and the number one requested thing was the return of hijack a host? This is a super fun thing that we do our listeners get to pick a game for one of us to play And then we have to play it and then we'll come back and we'll give our thoughts on it And that's what this episode is Well before we moved to the new format where once a month our epic and legendary Supporters get to pick a game and pick a host to make us play it

We had a sneaky person. We had a sneaky sneaky person sneak in to the old way and And so but we are men of honor. We pay our debts and so I'm just gonna put this out there. I freaking love this guy, dude. Joined our community, has become a founding member in our community, Panzerfaust, Ali, incredible person, love chatting with you, makes our Twitch streams, which Panzer lives in, I think like Germany, if I've got that right. Maybe not Austria.

Is it Austria? Thank you, Austria. Austria. Austria. So Panzer's like, guys, I'm hanging out, but it's 3.30 a.m. my time. And we're like, bro, way to just be. So Panzer snuck into the old perks

and hijacked Ryan. Wait, how'd this happen? Right? I know Ryan was like, I thought we shut that down. We're like, wait, what? So Panzer number one, thank you, buddy. We all appreciate you. Number two, Ryan, Panzer reached out to you

and basically said, I know a game I'm making you play. So Ryan, what is the game the Panzer decided for you to play? Uh, this is why this is, this is a spot where, you know, our community is so awesome and, uh, you know, they, they, they truly do know us. They understand our, our desires, our beliefs, like our, our past games that we played and what we really love. And he picked a game that I had never touched. And I don't know if he knew this or not, but he picked Dragon Ball Sparking Zero. And it's a straight up fighting game. You can go through like the missions and the levels and stuff

like that. But this is like we've been waiting, you know, Dragon Ball Z fans have been waiting for a long time for another kind of reboot of of just a quality awesome game. And Dragon Ball Sparking Zero is the one that was picked for me. So I remember seeing this trailer for this game and I remember being very intrigued because I absolutely loved Dragon Ball Z when I was in like high school and I remember going over to my friend Cory's house like almost every single night and we would watch Dragon Ball Z and we'd have like four or five guys over there friends just hanging out watching whatever the new episode was.

I had never seen Dragon Ball Z prior to that. I remember falling in love with it instantly. I am not an old school Dragon Ball fan, where it's like, I only knew Dragon Ball Z. I was super into it for about a year. And then it kind of just fell to the wayside for honestly a really long time for me. I just kind of got back into anime

in the last probably four or five years, honestly. You have always loved Dragon Ball, Ryan, is that right? I have. Yes. I was in the, I was in the prime era of Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Network and Toonami and all that stuff. So yeah, that was like, that was like my area. All right. So Ace, what about you? Because you are a big fan of anime or at least one piece. Yeah. You know, and I know about you? Because you are a big fan of anime or at least one piece. Yeah. You know, and I know that you've watched some other anime,

but, like, I mean, you, are you a fan of Dragon Ball? Is it like, hey, I like it, but I just tend to watch other things? Or where's your stance on Dragon Ball? I feel like Dragon Ball is an anime I respect more than I enjoy, because I haven't really given it a fair enough shake, but I cannot deny how much of a pillar of anime it is and just like it is where shonen comes from basically in my mind like if I think I've shown an anime it started with a Kira Toriyama and Dragon Ball. Yeah. Yeah

So Ryan you get picked to play this What's funny is right about the same time. I think like legitimately the day before Panzerfaust picked you, I picked up Street Fighter 6 because I was like, I need something different. I'm in this game wall. I'm picking up Street Fighter 6. And then like, like, I really think it was like the day after this, you were like, guys, guys, like Panzer picked my game. It's Dragon Ball Z, Sparking Zero. Uh, you know, and I was like, sorry, bro. I'm going down the Street Fighter Six path, and they were like, ah, man.

What were your initial thoughts on this? I mean, you do like fighting games. You have talked about Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter and stuff like that, but what was your kind of initial impression with this? I was excited, to be honest like I I had um, I mean I have a lifelong Love of of dragon ball dragon ball z gt like everything dragon ball related. It's just I grew up with it

so it has a real good not only quality place in my heart but nostalgic place in my heart and I remember getting games like they didn't have a lot of Dragon Ball games as a kid like I remember uh I had some dude I used to skate with that had some rare Japanese like nobody else had it Dragon Ball Z game and I'm like no there's no Dragon Ball Z games and we played it you know until the sun came up and so so getting to have a quality Dragon Ball Z game is at least that's what I hoped it was going to be excited me you know, until the sun came up. And so, so getting to have a quality Dragon Ball Z game is at least that's what I hoped it was going to be excited me, you know, uh, uh, what is it? Budokai,

three came out a bajillion years ago. And, you know, I, I was, you know, I played a lot of that with my little brother, Jake, love you buddy. And he's a Dragon Ball guy too. So I was excited to keep it short and I was very enthused to see what this was gonna be. So a surprisingly when Ryan mentioned this, you said, oh, I've played this before. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, I have played Dragon Ball Sparking Zero because a friend gifted me the deluxe copy

when the game came out, so he'd have someone to play with. That's fair, that's how you get people to play fighting games with you. Here, you play. Honestly, yeah. You play with me. Here, I'll give it to you, you just play. Okay, sure. Real quick too, I just wanna get this out there.

Did anybody else have a consistently hard time not saying sparkling zero? Or was that just me? No, I picked up sparking because that's the whole mechanic in the game is spark. I know, but like, they also, they sparkle when they do it. So like, I kept wanting to say sparkling. Like it was very hard for me not to say sparkling zero.

Sparkling, like sparkling ramparts in Twilight. Yeah, I was gonna say, this is a cross between like Twilight and like, Seltzer's. Yeah. I was gonna say, this is a cross between Twilight and seltzers. Yeah. I don't like the sun. But I love Sparkling Zero Seltzer Water. SpongeBob Dragon Ball Z. Continue on, that's all.

Okay, so you're excited about this game. Ace has played it. Ace, I wanna know your opinion on this game. Now, I know you said it's been a while and you didn't play it a whole lot, but just give us your like, give us your initial impressions on this. Well, as someone who doesn't play a lot of fighting games, this was one of them. Few I have played.

I had a really good time playing this with some friends, honestly, even as someone who doesn't know a ton about Dragon Ball, it's super easy to get into just the flow of the combat and how it all feels. And a lot of the combat, what makes this game interesting? A lot of the combat is up in the air. It is not like on the ground. You are fighting in the air, just like throwing hand makers and doing grabs and all sorts of combos and stuff.

And I think it's just really, honestly, it's a cool game, even if you don't like Dragon Ball. All right, so we're gonna get into what the fighting game aspects are and what the actual Dragon Ball aspects are and how it kind of combines these two things and get Ryan's take on this game right after this break. All right. We're back.

We're talking Dragon Ball, sparking zero. Ryan was forced to play this game by a member of our community Ryan I'll be honest. I've watched trailers for this. I've watched gameplay for it I still don't understand what the heck this is and I am a big fan of fighting games Like I have played a lot of fighting games in my day. This one just looks weird, dude I can't figure out like the people are flying around the cameras constantly panning and zooming. And then like Ace said before the break, like you're flying, you're hovering in the air. Like this absolutely feels like Dragon Ball.

Like they capture a lot of those kinds of showdowns from the cartoons. Like explain this game to me because it looks really weird. It looks very good on one hand with the animations and the graphics. And I keep going like, wow, they really captured the soul of the anime. How would you explain this game, man? Give me the basics of how it plays. Is it just a straight up pure fighting game, but it just looks different?

Long and the short of it is yes, it is you know, it is, uh, it's a straight up fighting game, but, but there's a lot more to it. If you know, um, you know, similar to one piece, um, there's a lot of episodes of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, GT, like, uh, you know, there's a, there's a million of them and it takes a long time to get through a series and, and kind of a saga if you will so this is a cool kind of compilation of everything which is awesome so the thing you can do with this aside from just straight up fighting is

you can run through stories or campaigns of of these sagas to where you know if you're Goku you're gonna start at the beginning and go go through and fight where you know if you're Goku you're gonna start at the beginning and go go through and fight you know ape Vegeta and then go through and fight Frieza and then go through and fight Cell and you you run through the sagas that you watched as a child which was so cool to see so there is some story there I will say it's it's very minor as far as the dialogue and what you get from it, but it delivers what you need. But at the end of the day, you're playing a fighting game and that's what you're there

for. There's a really cool, like, there's a lot more, I mean, there's 180 characters that you can- There's, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There are 180 characters? I think it's 180 or 18 or hundred eighty two something like that It's like around hundred eighty to hundred eighty two three something something around there What I think thirty of them thirty of them are Goku another thirty or twenty. I say how many were Goku and Vegeta?

Yeah, there's a lot of variance between those two because obviously those are the main guys, but Having said that like there's there's a lot of characters you can pick through and then you can additionally pick through those, some of them to run through their campaign and through their saga, which is cool. So you see their perspective of that story when you're fighting as them. Uh, 180 care, like dude, the character select screen. Yeah. Oh, it's a nightmare.

It's a nightmare it's a nightmare 18 rows of 10 characters like it's just like the world's largest grid it's just like all the way down oh my goodness man and there's a time limit for selecting your characters too so a lot of the time you run out of time before you get who you want yeah because i'm trying to just menu like menu down to the bottom vegeta's way down in the Vs. Like hurry, I gotta get there quick, man. Okay, so, all right. So it has a story slash character mode where I'm sure this, like you said,

this pays like fan service to people that just really enjoy the anime Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z. You're saying this spans all of the Dragon Ball series, right? Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball. It's basically Dragon Ball Z to Dragon Ball Z you're saying this spans all of the Dragon Ball series right Dragon Ball Z It's all it's basically Dragon Ball Z to Dragon Ball Super like it comes through that kind of sequence to where you know You know you fight You know the Saiyan Saga all the way through the world

The Universal Tournament with Zeno and all those guys and stuff like that So it okay it goes all the way through that sequence. And then you can pick certain characters through that, you know, that tracks like Goku Black, like that's kind of a little bit further back, but that's in a different universe. And then you could play that saga. It's not very long, but you get to experience it from the other side being him, you know, so it's really unique how they gave you the ability to kind of see it from a different perspective with these characters, which was just cool. You're still just fighting, but it's like, okay, now I'm fighting Gaikoku, or I'm fighting Vegeta or a little Gohan, you know, or these types of things. So it's pretty neat.

So despite the way that the appearance of this game looks, is this... does this play like Street Fighter? Does it play like Mortal Kombat? Does it play like Mortal Kombat? Does it play like I mean, it's just mono Emono face off on this one level and, you know, get your enemy's health bar down. Or I mean, I'm sure that it has special moves and stuff like that. But for somebody that is completely unaware, like, is that the closest like references? Yeah, this is basically Street Fighter, but with Dragon Ball characters, it is the the unique part is like, I think, you know, any of those those games, you know, Street Fighter, but with Dragon Ball characters. It is the, the unique part is like, I think, you know, any of those, those games,

those, you know, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, all that it's all that kind of side scroll 2d looking type thing, even if it's got some depth to it. This is a full on 3d world where. You fight and battle and you do these combos and you're the other opponent flies 300 yards away. Cause you crash them through a building with some blast, you know, and then you got to go back and you got to shoot over to him and fight him more, you know, and so the world is so expanded. Your playing field, your battlefield is so large. It's, it's almost a different game than just these standard fighting games.

Like you still have your attacks, your counters, your power ups, your charges, and all these things, but, um, it's just, it's, it's, you're playing on a different field because you have, like Ace said, you're most of it's in the air. I, I, I thought basically half of a percent on the ground, like you start there or something, if you're lucky, and then all of a sudden you're in the air And then that's how you battle that's how it is in Dragon Ball Z, you know and all those things anyways, so Just gives you more ability to circle around and transport and stuff. So yeah, it's it's similar, but there's just a lot more There's just a lot more to it to where you can go around. You have a lot more travel.

There's, it's not just back and forth, you and you doing combo to combo. Like there's, there's a little bit more to it. So if you knock a character 300 yards away through a mountain or something, like, do you have to like fly back over to that character? Can you do things in the meantime, or is it more just like, I'll tell you what, you're not waiting, they're coming back to you. What you do is you charge as fast as you can. You're like, okay, he's away, I'm gonna charge.

Ah! And you just charge. You charge up as fast as you can because you have your Kai, Ki, Kou, whatever you wanna call it. Like, that's your energy. So you have different levels of it and those things unlock abilities.

So as you charge up and as you grow stronger, you're able to do different attacks, different blasts and stuff. And then when you supercharge, if you have enough time, then you can do like your specials and stuff. So it does allow for, you know, different abilities, but, you know, utilizing that time, sending somebody down that way, you know, but utilizing that time, sending somebody down that way, down to the ground with the combo, then you can charge up and then you can be ready for another attack. So it is unique in the ability to kind of not just

punch, punch, punch, punch, kick type stuff. Right. Yeah, and you build up that gauge that you can also enter your transformations, which gets you back your health and also changes up your moveset completely sometimes, which is cool as heck. Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine like, do you get to go Super Saiyan? As like, you know, like, yeah.

Oh yeah. All right. So guide me down like the actual fighting in this. Is it, is it like, you know, quarter circle forward, like to throw a Hadouken is this more like smash Smash Bros where it's just, hey, push the one button in a direction to pull off a move? Like, how does the actual fighting kind of go down? Are there combos? Are there ultimates?

Are there, you guys mentioned a charge gauge? Like, you know, as somebody that's familiar with fighting games, like. Give me the style, I guess, or the kind of flow. Go ahead, Ace. I was going to say it's all honestly almost more combo based, like give me the style, I guess, or the kind of flow. Go ahead Ace. I was gonna say, it's honestly almost more combo based, like a Devil May Cry game than anything else. Like where you're-

Oh really? Okay. Yeah, honestly, yeah. It's almost like a button masher with like a 20 hit combo kind of thing. A button masher with button combos you do to pull off certain moves, but like you're not just like gonna keep spamming the same thing over and over again,

or you're gonna get humbled real fast. And you use a, you'll use a ranged attack to interrupt your opponents during their moves to stop them from charging up or pulling off an attack you really don't want to be part of. You'll use certain abilities to just straight up dodge your opponent's attacks with instant transmission, which is annoying as heck when you're in the middle of a combo and your opponent pulls off a perfect like block parry and teleports behind you. Wham.

That's pretty hammer fist you into the ground. It is cool. Like I said, man, there's, there's a lot, um, there's a lot more to it to where there, there is simple combos and simple things you can do, but a lot of it comes down to just good blocks and parries counters, and then utilizing your, uh, specials, like having the ability to charge up and get your specials to blast off, like that is the name of the game. Uh, you can dodge them if you're able to, but it's very hard to do. But, uh, yeah, but man, it's, it's, that's the name of the game is, is, is these,

these combos, get your 2030 hits in and then, and then it's the transport, transport, hit them to the ground and then you charge up and then you can do your super, you know, that's kind of the, the sequence. I did find it a little bit repetitive with the ability to do that is when you fall back, okay, well, this is the easiest way to win is to continue to do this. It's the same. It's not the same like button mashing, but it's the same sequence. You know, if you know what I mean, like you're, you're trying to get to the

same ending attack every time, how you get there, it doesn't matter, but as long as you can get back to that, I'm going to do my super and then just spam it as many times as I can and charge up and do that over and over. That's what you do. Yeah and whoever gets super first basically is gonna win the first fight usually. Yeah that's that's kind of any fighting game though is like you can absolutely just spam an ability over and over again and it's like it's your opponent's job to learn how to deal with that you know I mean I know a lot of times gamers will be like that's super cheap like if you're just to Hadoken me to death and throw a hundred of these, you know,

okay, but it's not me to figure it out. I mean, that's what I'm saying. Right. Exactly. So I think that's just inherent in the genre itself is like, yes, there are moves that are easy to spam. And if you don't know how to deal with it, somebody could wear you down like that and it could feel repetitive.

But at the same time, that's like the evolution of getting better at these games and stuff too. So did you feel like this stayed true to the Dragonball you know anime to the formula to the characters did it seem like they took any liberties was just like bro this felt like I was playing Dragonball. To me like I said, as a lifelong, since I was a little kid, I had, and DBZ fans, you know this, I had the entire Cell Saga and the Boo Saga on VHS. I would record it on Toonami every day. I'd record the two episodes and then I had them and I would pause it during commercials and then restart the recording and stuff. So this I was, I am, I am a hardcore DBZ fan and this felt so good.

And I don't understand why I didn't pick it up before. Like I, I maybe I was fatigued. Maybe I just didn't feel like playing a fighting game, but this thing to me felt true to what DBZ is. It was, uh, it was comical in parts, it was fun, it felt true to the nature of what these characters represented. Everything about it, it was just true to DBZ, the story, the way they captured all of it, the other side quests, the side missions you can do, the training aspects, there is a training combat area you can do to learn. And you can have like Gohan with Piccolo, which was, you know, OG canon, like that's how he learned and that's how Gohan was trained and stuff. So it's really unique and I think they did a really good job staying true to what Dragon Ball was and is. So yeah. Do you think a fan of fighting games but not a fan of Dragon Ball?

Or somebody that knows nothing about Dragon Ball? Do you think that this game would land the same way? Or is it like you really kind of need to be a Dragon Ball fan to really get the most out of this? Or do you think the combat and just the fighting stands on its own? I think that if you don't like this because of other fighting games, then that kind of shows how you're, you know, focused in on just this one type.

I think it stands alone on its ability to be a fighting game. I think it's very, very good. I think it is very polished. This is one of the best fighting games I've ever played as far as the polish goes. It is crisp, it is clean, the counters are amazing, the attacks are amazing, the cinematics and the ability to charge up and do these things. It just looks fantastic and it's responsive. So if you don't like it because it doesn't fit your play style, then maybe you need to

expand. Um, and that's a you problem, I think. So yeah, I think, I think if anyone who's a big fighting fan doesn't like it, I think it's just kind of prejudice on their part than the actual game itself. Right. All right. So I was going to say, uh, if someone who likes fighting games doesn't like this, I would say that the issue would be

because the characters are not balanced super well, because they are more accurate. They are more accurate to their power levels. So if you pick like, Super Saiyan God, Goku versus Mr. Satan, you're gonna have a bad time. So the game actually leans into like, Yes it does.

The strength of the characters and stuff? It does. Yeah, it's pretty more accurate to what that's crazy to what the characters are. So it does make it, it makes it unique when you have like, you know, um, you know, like a super saying, God Goku. And then you're like, we said Mr. Satan or something, you know, it's, it's pretty tough. You know, yeah, it's, it's, you know, uh, you know, it's, it's hard to do. So it, but I find that, uh, I find that refreshing to where they didn't just balance everything out just cause it's like, no, these are the characters. Like, you know, if you want to be this and then try to be like, yeah, dude, I beat you with Mr.

Satan, what are you going to do? You know, like that's, I think that's cool. So I liked that they made it more lore accurate than just balancing everything equally. You know there's some sweaty dude out there that's picking the weakest guy in the game. Oh, there is. There's a guy who's beaten all the ranks with like Chiazou.

Yeah, where it's just like the, you know, it's like, oh man, like this feels so bad. This guy just whooped me. Yeah. All right, Ryan, we're getting close to the end of this episode. What works the best for you and what was your least favorite part about it?

Oh, man. So what works the best? I think it was very... I would say nostalgic, but also enjoyable to just play through the sagas and the stories of these characters. Like I mentioned before, you can start as Goku, you play all the way through from the Saiyan Saga to the tournament, the Universal Tournament with Zenu and everything. So you get to see everything you've watched but be a part of it, which is really cool. And I really enjoyed how they did it.

It's very quick, like, hey, now's very quick like, hey now you're here, you know, oh now you're here and stuff so but once you get it done there's a little teeny bit of dialogue but you get to see the battles, destructive environments, things blow up like it's really cool how they did that. I think the gameplay like I said was crisp, it was beautiful, very very well polished. I think they did an amazing job at this. Overall, just as a general, not even as a fighting fan, or I mean as a DBZ fan, but just a fighting game fan, like it was very well polished and very well done. As far as what I didn't like, I didn't like the ability to where I just found myself starting to get in the same sequence of movements like I

Knew that this worked and I knew that I could kill everybody with that and then he's kind of becomes repetitive like I Know I go as as a as Goku and then I go into you know Kyle can ten or whatever else and you know charge up and I could do these attacks and I know what attacks to do and I know how to charge them up. And it kind of is almost like a cheat code, but once you figure it out, like you just fall into that naturally instead of having to, you know, navigate or adapt to different, different things within your combat. But that's the nature of fighting games. I get it. You know, and that's, that's playing AI and playing the computer and stuff like that. I didn't get much of a chance to play a lot of other people.

Cause I probably would have got absolutely demolished. Oh, you would have got it handed to you. Absolutely destroyed. You would have absolutely got it handed to you. I did, I did ask Ace, I'm like, I know you have this game. You mentioned you had it. Like, is it cross play? Do we have it?

Unfortunately, it's not cross player. It wasn't, you know, when we talked before and he's like, no, I got it on PC. Cause I was hoping we could get in and play to see what that level is, you know, and stuff, especially with him not playing for a while. Yeah, you might've got, you might've beaten me a few times. That's my child. Well, hold on, hold on. What do you mean might've bro? Hold on. I mean, there's only one way to settle this. Yeah. Okay. But overall, you know, pretty solid. Okay. So that's, that's the next question is how would you rate this game? I mean, on a scale of one to 10, how do you rate

this? And again, I know you've been a fan of fighting games. So, you know, I mean, this is like, here's my thought, right? I recently started playing street fighter six, which I am having a blast with. Yes. It's not the kind of game that I'm going to play for four hours a day, but like, when I have friends on, I, you know, shout out to spoons and next of is when I see them and they're like, Hey, do you guys want to play some street fighter? I'm like, dude, I would love to hop in and play some and get my butt kicked. So, you know, but it's like, I'm not at this stage of my life right now where I'm going to sit and grind street fighter six for like, you know, 20 hours a week to try to move up into the ranks. But I say that

because naturally when you talk about fighting games, you're kind of instantly comparing them to the greats of the genre. You know, every fighting game ever will be compared to Street Fighter. It will be compared to Mortal Kombat. It will be compared to Marvel versus Capcom to Tekken, you know, and that kind of thing. So knowing that, where do you rate, you know, on a scale of one to 10, like, how do you rate Sparking Zero? This one was hard for me because I mean, I, it is funny, like the timing between you guys getting in on Street Fighter and then me playing this because I haven't played truly a fighting game like this in a long time.

And then I started to think like, why am I not? Like what's the reason? Because like, this is fun, dude. Like I'm having fun. I sat with my son, Jack, I love you buddy. And we got through and we destroyed everybody. We ran through Goku's saga.. We ran through Goku's saga, then we ran through Vegeta's saga.

I mean, I put 15, 16, 17 hours through just running through all these guys. And it played out well and it just made me miss like fighting games. And it made me reminiscent of what I used to enjoy, which was awesome. So I think this game, it holds on its own. I think it is it is awesome. I think it's it is gonna be Amazing for anyone that loves Dragon Ball Z anyone who has a connection with that world or that environment

Is gonna love this game. It is it is awesome. I think it holds true to the story It's very canon based the it is awesome. I think it holds true to the story. It's very canon based The fighting is awesome the way they stood stayed true to the lore with the character levels like how powerful they are I would say that for this game. I would It's not it's not just kind of an average game. I say it's a little bit above average. I would give it an 8.3 I would say that's pretty good for a fighting game I say there's not much of a campaign that you don't know if you if you don't know it you'll kind of learn a lot of the lore especially if you go through all the different characters you learn each side of them but it was it was an awesome experience. I got to play it because otherwise I guarantee I would have never probably touched it But I dude I freaking love Dragon Ball Z and I love that I got to play this game. So I am so stoked Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And and yeah, this is a quality good game That's domain. Oh

Man, it's hard. It's hard to go off Goku, man Okay, it's not like it's hard not to I am, man. Okay, fair enough. It's hard not to. I am a... I play cooler. Okay, cooler, that's a good one too. So for our DBZ guys, I'm gonna go off on a rant here. Cell Saga, by far and away, the best saga there is. Teen Gohan, the best character there ever was.

His dad, which let's be honest, Goku's a pretty crappy dad, Teen Gohan when he charged up and he destroys Cell, which is the sickest thing in cinema ever, animated cinema for sure, that is amazing. So having the ability to experience that and play these characters is so cool to me and I just I just freaking love it so any DBZ fan if you have not played this game please try it out please check it out it is cool it is awesome it is crisp it is still quite pricey I think I think I got it on sale for like 45 bucks it's 69.99

on Steam yeah so that's what I looked on Steam and then I looked on the PS Store and it was on sale like 25% off or whatever and it was like $43.99 or whatever it was. So, yeah, but I would definitely recommend this game to anyone and especially Dragon Ball Z fans. You will not be disappointed. It is awesome. So you're not the only person that thinks that Ryan, as I was looking on Steam, you know, like I said, price is 69.99, but the reviews, 89% out of 45.5,000 reviews, dude, so this game's getting a lot of- They sold over five million. It sold five million copies?

I just looked it up. Yeah. 5 million copies, uh, since launch in October, 2024. One day, one piece. I'll get a good fighting game. That's a, that's, I mean, that's a lot and that's good praise. And especially from you, you know, to go into this, not having played a fighting game in a long time, you know, as a fan of dragon ball Z, um, sounds like Panzer picked a good game for you then, man. No, he did. No, thank you so much. Fans are like, it was perfect. It was awesome. I even like, I hit up Greg, cause I know Greg, you know, you were playing Mortal, uh,

or not a street fighter street fighter. I had a Greg. I'm like, Hey, you got Mortal Kombat. And he's like, I was like, which one you got? I was like, well, Mortal Kombat 11 is on game pass. I'm like, I'll play that. Cause I just wanted to play more fighting games after this. It definitely scratched the itch and made me want to play more of this genre and this style. And I mean, that's what the games are supposed to do. They're quick.

They're fast. I've been having, like I said, I've been having a blast. I'll say this, Street Fighter, I was in a gaming lull big time. We all get them. We've talked about it. But I was in this big gaming lull big time. I mean we all get them. I you know, we've talked about it, you know But I was in this big gaming lull and then Street Fighter 6 is absolutely the game that like got me out of that lull And again, I'm not playing it a lot, you know I mean this is not something I'm dedicating all my time to but man when I can hop in and play

Four or five ten matches and then hop out, you know And it's just fun man Especially if you have people that you know to play with where you're not trying to get ego involved or you're just having a good time. There's something to be said for fighting games and the camaraderie and the competition that goes along with those. If you have cool people to play with.

I'll be honest, if I only had me to play online against strangers, I don't know that I would enjoy that nearly as much, but having people that you can say, hey dude, you wanna hop on and play a few matches? And they're like, yeah, I'll be right there. Dude, there's few experiences like that. And so the fighting genre really can kind of fit in.

I love that it's alive and well, but I think a lot of people are intimidated by it that aren't maybe really big fighting game fans. And the answer there is honestly, find somebody to play with. Invite a friend, you know, to just say, hey, do you want to play this with me? And then you two can be on the same level

and figure out the moves together and have a lot of fun. But that is a key to just really enjoying the fighting game genre. If you want to go further, you absolutely can. I mean, the skill ceiling on these things is ridiculous but they are very approachable for people. So don't shy away from them if you are somebody that hasn't really gotten into them. Come to our Discord server find somebody to join you. I mean, you know, this is something that we say all the time, but we have you know over 1,100

amazing gamers in there. You can find somebody that will want to join you and play this with you. And so if you're not really into the fighting game genre, give it a shot, man, because it's, there's a reason it's an entire genre and it's been around for a very long time. So awesome, man. Well, I'm, you know, Ryan, these hijacks, they're always, they're always a risk, man. We never know. We never know what we're going to get. We never know how we're going to like it.

We've been on a pretty good roll lately. And that's really awesome to see, too. The community, they're trying to pick games that they think that we would enjoy or have a chance of enjoying anyway. So listen, if you would like to force one of us to play a game and we play it, that's the agreement. Like, you pick it, we play it. You can do that. Uh, we, this is a perk that is available to our

Epic and legendary tier members. You can check those out on Patreon. There's a link in the episode description. It's one click to check those out. It helps support the show. We're going to play the game. We're going to talk about it. Uh, and so that's always a really good time. Plus we get exposed to games that we normally wouldn't play. Like you said, Ryan probably never play this game if it wasn't for this. So, um, but you know, come join our community, come talk about the games, come find people to play with. It's awesome. It's family friendly. There is zero toxicity. It really is the Oasis of the gaming world.

And we would love to have you if you're the kind of person that thinks that that sounds awesome. Remember to follow the show, hit that plus button, that subscribe button so you get our episodes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, so that we can keep the content flowing out there to everybody. And if you didn't leave us a review or rate us five stars, remember to take a second to do that as well. Thanks once again Panzerfaust Ali we love you buddy thanks for picking Ryan

to play this and until next time happy gaming. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEE EEEEE E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E