After over nearly 15 years since the last entry, Bandai Namco reveals that a new game in the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series is currently in development. It was revealed during Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour 2023, an event hosted by Bandai Namco that is focused exclusively on games based on the enduringly popular anime property. It included a tournament for Dragon Ball FighterZ, a card game tournament, and even occasional musical interludes with Hironobu Kageyama, the singer of many songs made for Dragon Ball Z. One of the biggest surprises that caught fans off-guard was the announcement of a new Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi game.For the uninitiated, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is a series of 3D arena fighting games that were developed by Spike during the mid-2000s, which were released for both the PS2 and Wii. There were three games made for this subseries, with each game getting a bigger roster and the third game having the largest of the lot, containing several popular and deep cut fighters in its roster. Besides a PSP spin-off, fans didn't see another entry in the series for several years, with games like Xenoverse taking up the reigns as the de facto DBZ 3D arena fighter. With this in mind, it is no surprise that the announcement of a fourth game in the series after such a long absence was a big shock to nostalgic fans.The trailer started off with old footage straight from Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, where it showed off various special moves and transformations, such as Vegito, Super Saiyan 4 Goku, and Ultimate Gohan. It then cuts to Goku's transformation into a Super Saiyan, rendered in the same old graphics from the older games, before immediately switching art styles and having Goku power up not to a Super Saiyan state, but his Super Saiyan Blue form instead.
This art style utilizes the same cel-shaded art style seen in Dragon Ball FighterZ, giving the game a sleek new anime look. Fans cheered at this reveal, with many on Twitter being similarly ecstatic to see a nostalgic franchise make a comeback. No gameplay was shown in this trailer other than Goku's transformation, which seems to be modeled directly after the scene where Goku transforms into Super Saiyan Blue during Dragon Ball Super: Broly.
As mentioned above, the last Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi game had one of the largest rosters in fighting game history, spanning across the original Dragon Ball, Z, the DBZ movies, GT, and even Dr. Slump. This game seems like it will cover Dragon Ball Super, with it being too early to tell if the roster will be streamlined in size to include the popular picks, or will go out of its way to have some more obscure characters. Regardless, fans are already hyped to see more of this game.
A new Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi game is currently in development.