In conjunction with the “DRAGON BALL Games Battle Hour” event yesterday, Bandai Namco and their partners revealed that a new entry in the Sparking! series of Dragon Ball video games is currently in development:
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「ドラゴンボール Sparking！」シリーズ
最新作情報が解禁！
＼映像はコチラから↓#ドラゴンボール #バトルアワー pic.twitter.com/VMMPWWeSUr
— ドラゴンボールゲームスバトルアワー2023公式 (@db_eventpj_jp) March 5, 2023
No additional information — including that of a specific developer (beyond the publishing duties of Bandai Namco), a formal “number” or title for the game, etc. — were made available alongside this initial announcement.
The three Sparking! games — the original, NEO!, and METEOR — hit the PlayStation 2 over the course of 2005 to 2007, with the Nintendo Wii also receiving ports of the second and third games. The game series was released numerically under the “Budokai Tenkaichi” moniker internationally. A fourth games — Tag Vs. in Japan / Tenkaichi Tag Team internationally — was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2010.
As opposed to the completely separate Dragon Ball Z (“Budokai”) series developed by Dimps which came before it, the Sparking! series — developed instead by Spike — featured 3D arenas with an over-the-shoulder camera angle.
Spike (as Spike Chunsoft) later went on to also develop the crossover fighting games J-Stars Victory VS in 2014 and Jump Force in 2019.
In the 30th Anniversary: Dragon Ball Chōshishū –Super History Book– released in 2016, Sparking! series producer Ryō Mito reminisced about development on the series and in particular METEOR‘s reputation as not just a “God-tier game” but “a Dai Kaiōshin-tier game.”