Dragon Ball Z’s Forgotten Fighters Get Their Moment in Sparking! ZERO’s Latest NEO Showcase

The biggest names in Dragon Ball Z were never the problem. Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell and Majin Buu already had their place. SUPER-LIMIT BREAKING NEO instead digs into the corners of the Z era that fighting games often leave behind, and the latest DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO character showc

The biggest names in Dragon Ball Z were never the problem. Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell and Majin Buu already had their place. SUPER-LIMIT BREAKING NEO instead digs into the corners of the Z era that fighting games often leave behind, and the latest DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO character showcase puts that philosophy front and center with Bardock (Super Saiyan), Tora, Fasha, Chilled, Salza, Zangya, Pikkon, Mighty Mask, Supreme Kai and Uub (Kid).

Released as a new post-launch spotlight for the massive expansion that arrived on July 30, the trailer is not announcing another character pack. It is highlighting one section of SUPER-LIMIT BREAKING NEO’s 33-fighter roster, focusing on characters associated with Dragon Ball Z, its movies, television specials and the final stages of the original manga storyline. Some are returning faces from the old Budokai Tenkaichi era, while others finally give Sparking! ZERO the obscure roster depth that made those earlier games so beloved.

That philosophy extends well beyond fighters. NEO is the largest DLC released for Sparking! ZERO to date, adding the Limit Breaker Journey solo mode, four new Episode Battles, additional Extra Battles, more than 20 customization options and four new stages, while a companion free update introduced Sparking! Boost, Chain Blast and three additional stage variations for everyone.

This Showcase Is About the Characters Between the Major Sagas

The most interesting thing about the new trailer is what it does not focus on. There is no new transformation for Goku or Vegeta carrying the marketing. Instead, Bandai Namco is dedicating an entire showcase to fighters who historically lived around the edges of Dragon Ball’s biggest confrontations.

Zangya comes from Bojack Unbound. Salza represents Cooler’s Armored Squadron. Pikkon belongs to the Other World Tournament material developed for the anime. Tora and Fasha come from Bardock’s history with the Saiyans, while Super Saiyan Bardock and Chilled draw from Episode of Bardock. Mighty Mask is the extremely questionable disguise used by Goten and Trunks during the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament, Supreme Kai represents the divine side of the Majin Buu Saga and Kid Uub reaches all the way to the final chapters of Dragon Ball Z.

Strict canon classifications become messy when all of those characters are placed under one “Dragon Ball Z” banner, particularly with material originating in films and specials. As a showcase of the Z era, however, the selection makes considerably more sense: it celebrates the characters surrounding the main story rather than repeating fighters already thoroughly represented in the base roster.

Super Saiyan Bardock Finally Gets His Own Slot

Bardock was hardly absent from Sparking! ZERO, but Bardock (Super Saiyan) is treated as a separate playable addition rather than simply another costume. The form originates from Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock, where Goku’s father survives his confrontation with Frieza, is thrown into the distant past and eventually transforms while battling Chilled.

It is exactly the kind of character variant the Sparking series has always embraced. Dragon Ball fighting games frequently treat transformations as mechanically distinct roster entries because each can carry different attacks, animations and battle statistics. NEO follows that tradition instead of trying to compress every possible version of one character into a single interchangeable skin.

The inclusion also creates a direct connection with Stratosphere (Planet Vegeta), one of the expansion’s new stages. Players can now reconstruct Bardock-era battles in an environment specifically designed around that period rather than approximating them on an unrelated arena.

Tora and Fasha Complete More of Bardock’s Story

Adding Tora and Fasha makes Bardock’s presence much more interesting than simply giving him another transformation. These are members of his original Saiyan squad, characters remembered primarily through Bardock-focused specials rather than the central television storyline.

Their inclusion fits producer Jun Furutani’s stated objective for NEO: deepening the ability to recreate specific Dragon Ball situations rather than merely increasing the raw roster number. A game with more than 200 playable fighters can always add another version of an established hero, but characters such as Tora and Fasha expand the number of actual matchups players can reconstruct.

That is one of the areas where Budokai Tenkaichi 3 built its reputation. Its roster was memorable not only because it contained every obvious hero and villain, but because it seemed willing to include characters nobody expected to be playable. NEO increasingly feels like Sparking! ZERO leaning back into that philosophy.

Chilled Makes the Bardock Corner Even Stranger

Then there is Chilled, the ancestor of Frieza introduced in Episode of Bardock. He is exactly the kind of addition that demonstrates how deep Bandai Namco and Spike Chunsoft are prepared to go.

Chilled is not essential to understanding the main Dragon Ball Z storyline, nor does he belong to one of its famous television sagas. His relevance comes almost entirely from his connection with Super Saiyan Bardock and the expanded mythology surrounding Frieza’s family.

For a roster-driven game, that is enough. Chilled turns Super Saiyan Bardock from an isolated novelty into part of a small playable narrative cluster. NEO repeatedly uses this approach: characters become more valuable when they bring opponents, stages and customization capable of supporting the scenes associated with them.

The expansion is therefore building scenarios, not merely adding portraits to a selection screen.

Zangya and Salza Restore More of Dragon Ball Z’s Movie History

The showcase also gives Dragon Ball Z’s theatrical side additional representation. Zangya, one of Bojack’s Galaxy Soldiers, returns as a playable fighter, while Salza brings Cooler’s Armored Squadron back into the mix.

Neither competes with the franchise’s major villains in terms of cultural recognition, but both occupy a particular nostalgic space for players familiar with earlier Dragon Ball games. Characters associated with the Z movies were heavily represented throughout the Budokai Tenkaichi series, where unusual matchups between movie villains and television characters became part of the appeal.

Their return reinforces that NEO is not trying to curate only the “most important” fighters. The objective is closer to creating a Dragon Ball toy box where players can assemble battles that never happened.

That philosophy also works naturally with Custom Battle, one of Sparking! ZERO’s defining systems. Zangya or Salza may not require entire story campaigns of their own to become useful; sometimes the point is simply having enough pieces available to create the scenario yourself.

Pikkon Remains One of the Most Requested Anime-Era Fighters

Pikkon is perhaps the least surprising character in this particular showcase because he was one of the most obvious omissions from the initial roster. The warrior from the Other World Tournament became a fan favorite despite originating in anime-exclusive material, and he had already appeared in earlier Budokai Tenkaichi titles.

His fighting style is especially suitable for Sparking! ZERO. Pikkon combines rapid martial arts with techniques such as Thunder Flash and Hyper Tornado, giving Spike Chunsoft plenty of material for the exaggerated high-speed combat the game is built around.

He also represents an important category of Dragon Ball nostalgia. Not every character fans remember most strongly came directly from Akira Toriyama’s manga. Decades of television specials, filler arcs, movies and videogames created their own recognizable roster, and the Sparking games historically embraced that entire expanded history.

NEO continues doing exactly that.

Mighty Mask Is the Kind of Ridiculous Addition the Series Needs

At the opposite end of the power spectrum sits Mighty Mask, or more precisely Goten and Trunks attempting to pass themselves off as an adult fighter by wearing his costume and standing on each other’s shoulders.

From a conventional competitive-fighting-game perspective, Mighty Mask is absurd. From a Budokai Tenkaichi perspective, Mighty Mask is almost perfect.

The character exists because Sparking! ZERO is equally interested in Dragon Ball’s comedy and spectacle. The franchise has never been exclusively about planet-destroying gods. Some of its most memorable scenes involve ridiculous disguises, failed plans and characters vastly overestimating how convincing they look.

Mighty Mask also creates something the game did not previously have: a playable representation of one of the Buu Saga tournament’s strangest sequences. It is another example of NEO valuing specificity over conventional roster prestige.

Supreme Kai Fills an Obvious Buu Saga Gap

Supreme Kai is a much more consequential addition. Shin plays a central role in introducing the threat of Majin Buu, yet he was missing from the original Sparking! ZERO roster despite being playable in earlier games.

His return expands the divine side of the Buu Saga and makes several canonical and hypothetical matchups possible again. Supreme Kai can confront Dabura, Majin Buu and Babidi’s forces directly, but Sparking! ZERO also allows the obvious nonsense: Shin can fight Beerus, Zamasu, Whis or virtually anyone else from different eras.

That freedom is what distinguishes a huge arena fighter from a tightly curated story game. Historical importance determines why Supreme Kai belongs in the roster; the fun begins once players stop respecting history entirely.

NEO’s customization options push that further by allowing additional costumes, Super Attacks and other modifications designed around recreating particular scenes or inventing completely new versions of them.

Kid Uub Brings Dragon Ball Z All the Way to Its Ending

The inclusion of Uub (Kid) is particularly interesting because it reaches toward the actual ending of Dragon Ball Z. Uub is the human reincarnation of Kid Buu whom Goku encounters during the World Martial Arts Tournament years after Buu’s defeat, eventually leaving with him to begin training.

GT already had an older Uub represented elsewhere in Dragon Ball games, but the younger version is tied specifically to one of the final moments of the original Z storyline. His addition therefore fills a surprisingly important chronological gap.

It also works thematically with Limit Breaker Journey, NEO’s major new solo mode. Uub begins as an extraordinarily powerful child who has barely learned how to control what he can do; taking a character like that through a system designed around repeated training, stat development and specialized builds is an unusually appropriate pairing.

Limit Breaker Journey Is the Real Centerpiece of NEO

The 33 additional fighters generate the most immediate attention, but Limit Breaker Journey is arguably the expansion’s largest structural addition. Players select any unlocked character and move across an interactive map containing fights, events and other encounters, gradually developing that fighter across repeated runs.

Movement consumes stamina, and using too much can reduce the amount of health available when the next battle begins. Opponents are represented through SP values, with more dangerous encounters offering greater rewards. Special events can provide additional training opportunities, Battle Arts or other benefits, while earned points are distributed across six parameters to customize the character’s development.

Most importantly, that progression is not locked inside the mode. Trained characters can be brought into offline battles and Player Matches, giving players a reason to invest deeply in fighters who might otherwise receive little attention.

That makes NEO’s obscure additions more valuable. Someone who genuinely likes Tora, Zangya or Supreme Kai can now do more than occasionally choose them in casual fights; they can build an entire progression run around making that character increasingly powerful.

Four New Stages Give Those Fighters Somewhere Appropriate to Fight

NEO also addresses another major request from the community: more arenas. The expansion adds Kami’s Palace, Kame House, Bitter Tundra and Stratosphere, with the latter supporting Earth and Planet Vegeta settings.

Those environments broaden the number of battles players can recreate and address one of the base game’s comparatively limited areas. Kami’s Palace and Kame House are especially significant because they are among Dragon Ball’s most recognizable locations, while Stratosphere naturally complements Bardock-focused material.

A separate free update added three additional variations of existing stages, meaning even players who do not purchase NEO benefit from some expansion of the battlefield selection.

This again reflects the DLC’s overall philosophy. Characters matter more when the correct environment and moves exist around them.

Sparking! Boost and Chain Blast Were Free for Everyone

The July update also changed combat independently of the paid expansion. Sparking! Boost allows a fighter in Sparking! Mode to spend a significant amount of Skill Stock for a temporary surge in attack power. The trade-off arrives afterward, when the character suffers a temporary reduction in statistics, making the mechanic a calculated attempt to finish an opponent rather than an automatic upgrade.

Chain Blast expands team combat by letting players continue an attack after sending an opponent flying. A reserve fighter can switch in and follow the launch with a predetermined Blast attack, creating another route toward high-damage team sequences.

Both mechanics were distributed through the free update, so they affect the broader Sparking! ZERO combat environment rather than being locked behind NEO ownership.

That distinction is useful because the expansion adds enormous roster breadth while the accompanying patch modifies the actual fighting system everyone shares.

This Trailer Is a Reminder, Not Another DLC Announcement

The September character showcase is best understood as part of Bandai Namco’s continuing effort to highlight different portions of an expansion too large to summarize effectively in one trailer. SUPER-LIMIT BREAKING NEO has already been available since July 30, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, while Bandai Namco’s current official documentation still lists the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 version of the NEO expansion for a later release.

The publisher has therefore begun separating the roster into more focused showcases. An earlier video highlighted characters drawn from the original Dragon Ball, while this latest presentation shifts toward the Z era and its surrounding films and specials.

That structure makes sense with 33 new fighters. A launch trailer can establish scale; character-specific showcases give each section of the roster enough time to actually be noticed.

NEO Understands What Made Budokai Tenkaichi Special

The lasting appeal of Budokai Tenkaichi was never simply competitive balance or technical complexity. Part of its identity came from the feeling that almost everyone was playable. Characters who received one important fight, appeared primarily in a movie or existed mainly as a joke could stand next to Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta on the character-selection screen.

Sparking! ZERO launched with more than 180 fighters and subsequently passed 200 through updates and DLC, but there were still gaps. SUPER-LIMIT BREAKING NEO is deliberately filling many of the strange ones.

This new Dragon Ball Z showcase demonstrates that better than another montage of Goku transformations ever could. Super Saiyan Bardock brings an alternate-history special into the roster. Tora and Fasha deepen his Saiyan squad. Chilled provides the opponent. Salza and Zangya rebuild movie-era representation. Pikkon restores an anime favorite. Mighty Mask preserves Dragon Ball’s comedy. Supreme Kai repairs a major Buu Saga omission, and Kid Uub finally brings the original story’s closing chapter properly into the fight.

That is what a roster of this size should be for.

Not merely collecting the strongest characters.

Collecting the entire history around them.

SUPER-LIMIT BREAKING NEO is available now for DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, with its 33 additional fighters, Limit Breaker Journey, four new stages, Episode Battles, Extra Battles and expanded customization.

The iconic Z fighters are back.

More importantly, so are some of the wonderfully obscure ones.