New Dragon Ball Budokai Game Coming Soon

The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series is easily one of the best-licensed anime games to me. As a big fan of the series, these are the games that truly capture the essence of the DBZ anime and manga. Though the actual gameplay is hugely unbalanced, that’s part of what makes it fun. Characters are scaled based on their power levels within the source material. It is that same commitment to the source which truly immerses players into the world of Dragon Ball Z.

Every character has their most iconic moves from the show and the rosters have always been incredibly expansive. That allows you to create any dream matchup between your favorite characters. The final game in the series Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was released over 10 years ago in 2007.

It was certainly a fitting conclusion for the series given it was full of modes and characters from throughout the entirety of Dragon Ball, DBZ, and the unofficial sequel series Dragon Ball GT. Budokai Tenkaichi 3 even contained campaigns and characters from all of the Dragon Ball Z TV movies. It contained all of the Dragon Ball-related content released at the time.

However, since 2007 Dragon Ball has returned. Creator Akira Toriyama has continued to add to the world with the Dragon Ball: Super series. Many of these new characters and storylines have been adapted into new modern Dragon Ball video games such as Dragon Ball: Xenoverse and most importantly Dragon Ball Fighterz.

While this game was loved by fans and newcomers alike, its success seemed like it ensured the Budokai Tenkaichi series would never return. Fighterz delivered an incredibly polished and balanced 2D Dragon Ball fighting game, and I think most fans of the series believed it would dictate the new direction for future fighting games.

As luck would have it, this is far from true. Yesterday at the Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour event, Bandai Namco announced the continuation of the Budokai Tenkaichi series with a short teaser trailer. This trailer was since then posted on Youtube by a variety of channels and shared on Twitter by the official event account.

As of now, there is no confirmed release date or platforms it will be on. The trailer shows off the protagonist, Goku transforming into the Super Saiyan Blue form. This indicates this new title will most likely focus on the characters and events from Dragon Ball: Super and the related films. I couldn’t be happier to see this series come back once again. I love it when old franchises get revived despite all the odds. Considering the in-engine footage looked polished and the positive fan response, I’m expecting to see more gameplay soon enough.