Atari has announced that Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is in development for Wii and PlayStation 2. Developed by Namco Bandai Games Inc. and Spike, Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is slated to release during the 2007 holiday season.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 delivers a 3D fighting experience improving upon last year's game with over 150 playable characters, enhanced fighting techniques, and refined effects and shading techniques, making each character's effects more realistic, and over 20 battle stages. In addition, an improved control system for the Wii will allow players to easily mimic signature moves and execute devastating energy attacks as they are performed in the Dragon Ball Z animated series.

"Atari is incredibly excited to offer the ultimate chapter in the Budokai Tenkaichi series with over 20 new characters that have never been seen in any other DBZ video games such as Nail, King Cold and King Vegeta and battle stages that fans will love," said Emily Anadu, Senior Product Manager, Atari, Inc. "Each year, the developers refine the game to bring fans closer to feeling like they are actually playing the show."

In addition to the unprecedented number of characters and improved Wii control system, the environments have also been enhanced to feature day and night stages. The power of the moon in the night stages gives players additional ways to transform their characters and lets fans recreate some of their favourite memories from the show.

The popular Dragon Ball Z series features more than 25 different games and over 10 million units sold since May 2002. For more information, visit atari.com/dragonballz.