A new Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is coming, 16 years after the last

Dragon Ball FighterZ has been a big success in the fighting game scene, and it's probably thought of as the best way to experience the famous anime in game form - complete with an endless barrage of multicoloured punches. But growing up, the Budokai Tenkaichi series were the Dragon Ball fighting games, and 16 years after the last entry Bandai Namco have announced a new Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi title.

The announcement trailer doesn’t give too much away apart from a stylish glimpse of Goku transforming into Super Saiyan Blue form. Although, I did enjoy the nostalgia of seeing the older games displayed on a chunky CRT tele. The Budokai Tenkaichi games were 3D fighters that were known for their (almost excessively) large rosters and beloved for the ways they let you play out the Super Saiyan fantasy.

3D stages gave you the space to zip across large arenas - sometimes breaking through the terrain - to replicate the anime's over-the-top, aerial action. In this sense, they were less technical and competitive than the recent Dragon Ball FighterZ, but arguably more fun because of that casual nature.

The new Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi doesn’t have a release window yet, and there are also no announced platforms. The last major DBZ games (FighterZ and the RPG Kakarot) have both launched on PC, so it’s likely this one will, too.

Dragon Ball FighterZ is one of the best fighting games and one of the best Japanese games on PC, so Budokai Tenkaichi has big shoes to fill, especially with almost two decades of fan expectations on its back.