Bandai Namco has brought Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi back from the dead, after years of ignoring the arena brawler. While lacking the technique and skill of FighterZ, no game in the series outside of Xenoverse 2 can top Budokai Tenkaichi for fanservice.
The announcement was made during the end of a FighterZ tournament via a short teaser trailer. In the video, we see footage of the first Budokai Tenkaichi before transitioning to the new game where Goku transforms into Super Saiyan Blue. Of course, true fans call it Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan but we’re not here to judge.
Despite being really short, that was enough to get fans everywhere excited for a new Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi. No official name was given to the game, though they made sure to tell fans that Budokai Tenkaichi would be in it. Since Super Saiyan Blue is in, don’t be too surprised if it ends up being called Dragon Ball Super Budokai Tenkaichi.
For those unfamiliar, the Budokai Tenkaichi games are arena fighters where players can fight as their favorites in fast-paced flight battles with huge areas to smash their foes into. Mechanically, it was very simple compared to most fighters but the huge cast of characters was enough to get fans interested.
Prior to this announcement, we haven’t had an official game in the series since Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii. It was the first time fighters from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT could duke it out. There were even fun “What If?” stories to play through, like Eighter (Android 8) fighting Android 16 to protect Kid Goku.
Sure, there was Ultimate Tenkaichi on PS3 and Xbox 360 but that game was horrible. Rather than continue the trend of being a fanservice fighter, Ultimate Tenkaichi removed what little depth there was in the mechanics and replaced them with Rock, Paper, Scissors. It also had a mostly Z roster with two GT characters.
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No release date or platforms were named for this new Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi game but expect more announcements soon. The closest things fans have to a Budokai Tenkaichi game are either Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 or Dragon Ball Z Kakarot.