The Magic Box has posted some new information from Atari. On 29 June 2004, “Dragon Ball Z: Super Sonic” will be released on the GameBoy Advance — this will be a new RPG (no word on any relation it may have to the “Legacy of Goku” series).
Also, there is “unconfirmed” news that “Budokai 2” will hit the GameCube in August of this year (also, no word on whether or not it will have any of the Japanese version’s extras, but it is unlikely).
If you have been reading “Neko Majin Z”, no doubt you have become familiar with Kuriza, Freeza’s son. He is making another appearance in the third “Neko Majin Z” chapter, but that is not all…
Our old buddy Greg Werner, who is hiding out in the streets of Japan, sent us over two pictures of Kuriza popping up in “Budokai 2”! Unfortunately, he is only in the Japanese version of the game (called, simply, “DragonBall Z 2”). Here are the pics (taken on his cell phone):
Thanks, Greg!
As reported by FUNimation’s Lance Heiskell on the Anime on DVD forums, the (actual) first two volumes of Dragon Ball GT will be released on 13 July 2004, with three episodes per volume. The first 16 episodes (being referred to as the “Lost Episodes”) will span five volumes, which results in a typical 3/3/3/3/4 (or similar) type of episode distribution.
Regardless, they are coming out, and the GT TV special has been assured for after the completion of the entire TV series.
A couple people have been “concerned” about FUNimation’s changing of the name of Dragon Ball GT‘s last arc to the “Shadow Dragon” saga. Julian actually typed up something about this on alt.fan.dragonball earlier today, so I’m going to paraphrase it below:
The “evil dragons” are not “___ shenron” but are actually “___ shinron” — “Xing Long”, or “Star Dragons.” For example, Sūshinron is Si Xing Long, or the 4-Star Dragon. Remember that Toriyama’s written-out names for the Dragon Balls, themselves, are all in Chinese, with his own intended pronunciation written above in kana. The dragons that come out of the Dragon Balls are no different.
The evil version of Shenlong that comes out initially when they try to call the Dragon is called “Kokuen no Ryū” in Japanese, or “Black Smoke Dragon” — “Shadow Dragon” is not all that far off, if you think about “black smoke” causing “shadows”.
(Of course, nobody can dispute the complete wackiness of the names they made up for the individual Star Dragons such as “Nuova Shenron” and “Eis Shenron”.)
BestBuy.com is listing several of the remaining “Cell Games” discs as being released on 30 September 2003… which is silly, because it is 2004, now. However, these are the DVD releases in their database, and it is strange to see them there…
None of this can actually be confirmed, but it is interesting information. We are supposed to be getting these discs this year, and with the “Cell Games” starter-set coming out on the 27th (box + first two “Cell Games” discs), it is a pretty good indication that we will indeed be getting them soon. More info to come… ?
The Magic Box reports the first “Budokai” game for the PlayStation 2 came in as the number eight console game in Japan for the 2003 year, with 538,734 units sold.
The Magic Box has released a set of new images from Banpresto’s upcoming Dragon Ball Z fighting game for the GameBoy Advance in Japan, now titled 舞空闘劇 or “Bukū Tōgeki” (roughly, “Flying Battle Show” — and yes, they transliterated the title wrong on their page). This is the game that will be done in “Marvel vs Capcom” style with 3-vs-3 fights, and apparently backgrounds that span up to four screens. Pretty interesting stuff!
Toei has announced a new “Dragon Box” for release in Japan! This time around, the entire 153-episode Dragon Ball TV series will be released on R2 DVD by Toei Animation. Some of the details we have translated from the page include:
This new set comes after the two-set Dragon Box releases of the Dragon Ball Z TV series released in March and September of this year. Can we assume a Dragon Ball GT Dragon Box in 2005, perhaps…?
The very end of Jeremy Dunham’s review of “Budokai 2” for ign.com reads:
And with Dragon Ball GT headed for the PlayStation 2 sometime next year it’s a possibility we can certainly anticipate; but only the passage of time and the cries of its fans can make it happen.
A new GT game? Interesting. We have not heard anything from Atari on this, but it certainly should not come as a surprise to anyone — the “Budokai” games have been doing extremely well. That being said, it would be really funny if they just re-released “Final Bout” on an unsuspecting crowd of newbie gamers. Is it just a misinformed statement, though? Perhaps elements from Dragon Ball GT being included in the next game? Time will tell, I suppose!
Not one to be outdone by Atari in America, Banpresto (a subsidiary of Bandai) of Japan is currently in the process of creating their own Nintendo GameBoy Advance fighting game for the franchise! Unlike previous fighters, this will be a 3-on-3 fighter (a-la “Marvel vs. Capcom”). You can check out some early screen-shots via The Magic Box.
Note that this game is currently slated for a Japan-only release, and is in addition to Banpresto’s Japanese release of “Taiketsu” for the GBA.