We currently live in a time where fighting game competition is at its greatest. Every time a fighting game releases, players immediately start creating competitive communities, hosting tournaments, and sharing strategies. This happened with Dragon Ball Sparking ZERO as well, even having it’s first big offline major tournament. However, there are a group of folks in the fighting game community (FGC) that have a problem with this for some reason. They think that Sparking ZERO isn’t competitive and that the game is way too unbalanced due to broken characters. But is this true? Is Dragon Ball Sparking ZERO not competitive? Before we get into that, let’s talk about the difference between competitiveness and balance.
Competitive vs Balance – Yes, There’s A Huge Difference
To put it simply, any activity where you are competing against a person to achieve a desired goal is competitive. Shooters, MOBAs, card games, fighting games, racing, etc. These are all competitive because you are going against players. That’s why when I see people say that Dragon Ball Sparking ZERO isn’t competitive, it just doesn’t feel right. Just like any other fighting game, Sparking ZERO puts you up against a person in a highly intense match, with both players wanting to win. How is it not competitive? It makes zero sense to say it’s not competitive, especially when the game itself has a ranked match mode filled with people who try so hard to beat their opponents. Do I have to repeat again that the game was actually at a major fighting game tournament? Check out the tournament video yourself below:
Now, I know what you’re thinking; “But this game is heavily unbalanced, right?! I mean, it’s another one of those broken anime arena fighters!”. Actually, you are completely wrong! Most of the characters in this game are competitively viable for tournaments, as most of the cast can deal with the strong mechanics in this game, such as vanish wars, perception, and super counters. Sure, other characters can deal with them better than others, but that’s just the nature of fighting games. There will always be stronger characters, and that’s completely fine! It also helps that the competitive format is 3v3, so different strategies can be useful when using even the weakest of characters.
Having said all of that, there are a few broken characters in the game. Characters like Yajirobe, Android 19, and Dr. Gero are banned from competitive play because they have insane healing abilities. In particular, Dr. Gero and Android 19 have super armor skills and infinite dragon dashing along with their healing, making them stall games until they win. Keep in mind, though, that making changes to the game to help the balance is no different from the way how Super Smash Bros does it, such as turning items off.
Pointing Out The Hypocrisy
But again, this is a conversation about balance, not competitiveness. With the argument some of you in the FGC make about anime arena fighters not being competitive due to balance, can you also say that games like Marvel vs Capcom 2, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Street Fighter 3: Third Strike aren’t competitive? In those games, if you aren’t playing the top-tier characters, you aren’t gonna have a fun time competitively. Only a few characters are competitively viable in those games. If the argument is that Sparking ZERO can’t be competitive because its unbalanced, then what about these games I listed? Do you see how flawed this thinking is? The games will literally always be competitive because that’s what they are by nature.
Sparking! ZERO Community, Stand Proud!
Quite frankly, I also think there are a lot of FGC players trashing on Sparking ZERO that haven’t even actually played it. As someone who is a competitive fighting game player myself, I found that Sparking ZERO has tons of depth. As I stated in my review, the game consists of many defensive mechanics, attacks, and approach options that players can utilize. Despite the overwhelming amount of tools within the game, there’s pretty much a way to deal with everything. It honestly never really feels like there is no solution to a problem that you have. This makes it so that the game is filled with Yomi situations where you go back and forth with the opponent, making adjustments to what you are losing to a lot. A simple strategy, mentality, or option could be the solution you need for any problems you come across.
I also think the competitive Sparking ZERO community has done an excellent job of teaching new players. On social media such as YouTube and X/Twitter, cool new strategies are being shown to players worldwide, showcasing the depth of the game. There are even EVO top 8 competitors teaching the game, so it’s quite a diverse community already.
Regardless of how the rest of the FGC feels, I hope the Sparking ZERO community keeps this momentum. The Smash Bros community did the same thing, and look where they are now. Hundreds of thousands of competitive players across the world, and they even have their own yearly offline major tournament called Supernova, previously called Super Smash Con. I think the anime arena fighter community would really benefit from having its own yearly offline major tournament as well. Thankfully, we do have an online yearly major tournament called Ultimate Burst, hosted by YouTuber Globku. With so much support this game has, it’s wild calling it not competitive.
Is Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO Competitive? – My Final Words
You know, it would be nice if we didn’t have this conversation every time an anime arena fighter came out. I wish people would just mind their own business and enjoy the games they enjoy without slandering others. Unfortunately, that’s just wishful thinking, as the FGC loves to argue on X/Twitter. All I can really say is that not every fighting game will be for you. Some games have broken strategies, whereas others are more tame. But that’s the beautiful thing about fighting games, isn’t it? There are like hundreds of fighting games out there, so there’s bound to be one for you. Just let people enjoy the ones they already found and stop saying they aren’t competitive when I’m seeing actual competition for them.
