A burst of ki, arenas shattering apart, and the Dragon Ball fan dropping straight back into childhood.

First thing, and it surprises. When the community picks on pure gut feeling, Sparking! Zero only edges out a handful of games, right near the bottom. And yet, criterion by criterion, it's a different story. For the desert island question it beats more than eight games out of ten, with controller feel close behind. Fun lands too, you get going fast. Careful though, all of this rests on very few votes, so take it as early signals. The one real weak spot is the soundtrack, sitting near the bottom. That's the tension here, it wins you over the moment you look at the detail, but the instant pull isn't there yet.

In the fighting genre, this is a spectacle more than a technical tournament, like the Tenkaichi series it comes from. You show up for the excess, not the millimeter precision of a Tekken.

So who's it for? You, if you love Dragon Ball and the gleeful chaos of fights that flatten mountains. Much less if you want a memorable OST or surgical versus mechanics.