I was a pretty avid Dragon Ball Z fan back in the day, and I remember skipping out on school play practices to watch the show on the first Toonami block at 5:00PM. This was back when we didn’t know cartoons could have story arcs, and if you missed one episode, you missed a lot of information.

The kids nowadays are spoiled with a wide selection of great Dragon Ball Z games, like the Budokai series. We old timers had to import games from Japan and find ways to outsmart the region locking on our PlayStations. It was either that or cough up $200 for that horrible Dragon Ball GT game, the only one localized at the time.

I took the import route and somehow survived Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22, a horrible, horrible fighting game. but I also stumbled across Dragon Ball Z Legends, which I remember fondly. Check out YouTube for a decent look at its original spin on the fighting genre.

Only the bad games were localized and the high-flying style of Dragon Ball Z: Legends still remains relatively unknown.

I’m mentioning this because this new Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z looks like it borrows a few pages from Dragon Ball Z: Legends. More than just a one-on-one tournament fighter, this new game pits up to eight players in duals to the death with a wide open sky as the battleground, and single player revolves more around recreating famous fights from the series.

This batch of screenshots shows off Goku’s bouts against the evil Saiyan Nappa and the Ginyu Force. Also making appearances are important characters like Vegeta and small fries like Tien Shinhan. It gives the long running series a Super Smash Bros. “everything but the kitchen sink” vibe to its lineup.

I’ve become so far estranged from the Dragon Ball Z loop that it has now crossed over into the realm of nostalgia. Come to think of it, I never finished the Buu Saga. Maybe its time to finally dive back in and put a little closure on that period of my life. The game looks like a decent place to start. Let us know what you think below.

No release dates yet, but it’s being developed by Artdink for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and Xbox 360. I’ve never heard of them, but they seem to be well versed in anime games. The only title to their credits I recognize is No one Can Stop Mr. Domino on the original PlayStation.