Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors sequel DS-bound

According to the latest issue of Shonen Jump, Bandai is currently making a sequel to Dragon Ball Z: Bukuu Tougeki (Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors). While Bukuu Tougeki was released on the Game Boy Advance, the sequel, titled Dragon Ball Z: Bukuu Ressen, will be hitting the DS. The game is in development for a fourth quarter 2005 ship date in Japan.

Dragon Ball Z: Bukuu Ressen is a 2D fighting game with a team battle system similar to Capcom vs. SNK 2's ratio system. Each character has a different "dragon power" assigned to him or her, which ranges from one to seven depending on strength. The player is free to organize a team of up to three characters within a designated number of total dragon powers. From the character select screen, it seems that the game will have a total of 16 characters, including Goku, Gohan, Super Sayan Goku, Piccolo, Cell, Android #20, and Android #18. Shonen Jump reports that some of the characters--such as Dende--will be dedicated to supporting the battling members, suggesting they won't be controllable fighters. Broli, Freeza and Majin-Buu are also seen in screenshots in the magazine, though it isn't known if they are player characters or just computer opponents.

Additional screenshots show that the DS's top screen will be used for combat. The bottom screen features pictures of three characters and will most likely be used for summoning them into battle or ordering them to execute unified attacks. The game also features a story mode similar to Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors, although the addition of branching plotlines has been implemented.