Street Fighter producer surfaces with new arcader

Since his retirement from Capcom in March, Noritaka Funamizu, the company's former executive director, has been relatively quiet. He established an independent game development studio, Craft and Meister, but said little about his business plans.

That silence was broken today in the current issue of Shonen Jump. The popular weekly revealed that Craft and Meister is currently working on an arcade Dragon Ball fighting game for Banpresto. The game will be titled Chou Dragon Ball Z (Super Dragon Ball Z).

A number of screenshots in the magazine reveal that Chou Dragon Ball Z plays with 3D graphics rendered in cel-shading, similar to past PlayStation 2 releases of the franchise.

Chou Dragon Ball Z will be Craft and Meister's debut title and is slated for release before the end of the year. Funamizu is best known as the producer of Capcom's Street Fighter II series. He founded Craft and Meister with ex-Capcom producer Katsuhiro Sudo. In addition to Chou Dragon Ball Z, Craft and Meister is also developing a single PSP title.