DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is now available in early access for players who pre-ordered the Deluxe or Ultimate editions, and one colossal ape is already pushing them to their limits, leaving many battered, bruised, and desperately holding onto their sanity.

Sparking Zero’s Great Ape Vegeta Leaves Players Mimicking the Yamcha Death Pose

Bandai Namco Joins the Fun as Gamers Struggle Against the Great Ape

Boss fights in any game are designed to test your abilities and deliver a rewarding sense of victory. But then there's Great Ape Vegeta in DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO—a challenge on another level. As one of the game's earliest major boss encounters, he unleashes brutal, hard-to-counter attacks that have thrown the community into chaos. The situation has gotten so intense that even Bandai Namco joined in on the memes, fueling the buzz around a battle that's become a widespread struggle.

If you’ve witnessed Vegeta’s Great Ape transformation in Dragon Ball Z, you already understand the scale of destruction he brings. Sparking Zero takes that legendary power and cranks the difficulty far beyond 9,000! Right from the start, he unleashes a storm of beam attacks, like the notorious Galick Gun, and a grab move that can wipe out a massive portion of your health. The match feels less like a fight and more like a desperate survival effort, with players doing everything they can just to stay alive. It’s so punishing that many immediately reset the battle the moment he readies his Galick Gun.

Complicating things further, players meet Great Ape Vegeta early in Goku’s Episode Battle, creating a massive hurdle for newcomers to Dragon Ball fighting games, since he can instantly open with a barrage of super moves.

Instead of rushing out a fix, Bandai Namco leaned into the player outcry with some humor. As frustrations mounted online, the publisher’s UK Twitter (X) account jumped in with a perfectly timed joke: "This monke got hands," paired with a GIF of Great Ape Vegeta overwhelming Goku with relentless energy attacks.

That said, it’s worth noting that Great Ape Vegeta has always been a tough foe in Dragon Ball fighting games. Many veteran players still remember intense showdowns with him in the original Budokai Tenkaichi, where survival was the only goal.

Great Ape Vegeta wasn't the only obstacle in Sparking Zero. Even on Normal difficulty, CPU opponents could land punishing combos that were tricky to escape. On Super difficulty, the AI felt overwhelmingly powerful, chaining together long attack strings that left little room for reaction. Often, the only option left was to swallow your pride and drop the difficulty to Easy.

No matter how many are being tossed around by Great Ape Vegeta’s "monke hands," the new Dragon Ball game—which revives the spirit of Budokai Tenkaichi—is already making waves on Steam. Within hours of early access launch, it reached a peak of 91,005 concurrent players, ranking among the top fighting games on the platform before its official release. DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO has even outperformed giants like Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat.

This success isn't entirely unexpected. While not formally branded as such, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO serves as the long-awaited return of the Budokai Tenkaichi series, a revival fans have anticipated for years. Game8 gave it a 92 score, stating, "With a huge roster, stunning visuals, and plenty of modes to explore, this is the best Dragon Ball game in years—nothing else comes close." For more details on our perspective, take a look at the article below!