Atari announce Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for Wii & PS2

Atari has just announced that Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is currently in development for the Wii and Playstation 2. Atari say that they will be improving last year’s game with more characters, enhanced fighting techniques, refined effects and shading techniques making each character’s effects more realistic, and over 20 battle stages. The Wii version will also include a improved control system allowing you to pull off moves easier than before. The game is set for a Holiday 2007 U.S. release but no local release date has been announced yet.

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PRESS RELEASE: Atari Announces the Ultimate Chapter in the Dragon Ball Z(R): Budokai Tenkaichi Series
Press release supplied by Games Press 14:40 (GMT) 21/05/2007

NEW YORK, May 21 – Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) one of the world’s most recognized brands and a third-party video game publisher, today announced that Dragon Ball Z : Budokai Tenkaichi TM 3 is in development for Wii TM and PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 combines the lightning fast fighting and action that have made Budokai Tenkaichi 1 and Budokai Tenkaichi 2 the #1 fighting games of 2005 and 2006. Developed by NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. / Spike, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is slated to release during the 2007 holiday season.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 delivers an extreme 3D fighting experience, improving upon last year’s game with over 150 playable characters, enhanced fighting techniques, beautifully 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 favorite memories from the show.

The immensely popular Dragon Ball Z series is the gold standard of anime-based video games, with more than 25 different games and over 10 million units sold since May 2002.

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Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is set for release this holiday season. For more information on Dragon Ball Z video games, please visit http://www.atari.com/dragonballz.

About FUNimation Entertainment

FUNimation Entertainment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation and the market share leader for the home video sales of Japanese animation in the United States. FUNimation is known for acquiring top-rated anime series from Japan and for developing some of North America’s most popular anime series. The company has a proven formula for launching and advancing brands, and manages a full spectrum of rights for most of its brands including broadcasting, licensing, production, internet, and home video sales and distribution. The company’s most recent initiative is the FUNimation Channel, which is a 24/7 digital channel programmed with top-rated anime series from Japan. The FUNimation Channel is now available to over 34 million households throughout the United States. For images, or more information on FUNimation or any of its properties, contact Jeff Dronen at pr@funimation.com.

About Atari

New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is a third-party publisher of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company’s 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre- defining franchises such as Test Drive ; and mass-market and children’s franchises such Dragon Ball Z . Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext – ISIN: FR-0000052573), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com.

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Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and all logos, character names and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of TOEI ANIMATION. Developed by NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. GAME: 2007 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. Marketed and distributed by Atari, Inc., New York, NY.

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