Namco Bandai Games America Inc. and Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising (Fox L&M) announced the planned release of Dragon Ball: Evolution for the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system on April 8th, 2009. Based on the 20th Century Fox feature film of the same name, Dragon Ball: Evolution promises to be the perfect companion for the movie by incorporating all of the characters, bone jarring fights and spectacular special abilities that fans have come to expect.
In Dragon Ball: Evolution for the PSP system, ultimate powers collide as 1-2 players match up against their favorite characters from the film release and battle for control of the seven sacred Dragon Balls that have the power to grant any wish. Dragon Ball: Evolution employs an easy-to-learn yet difficult to master fighting system which provides everyone the power to pull off stylish and dynamic attacks. Ki (energy) management will be essential to gain the upper hand and unleash a devastating attack on their unsuspecting opponents.
Participating in intense battles, gamers are invited to follow the path of Goku to his predestined fight against the evil Lord Piccolo in Story mode. Players can also battle against a number of opponents in Arcade mode, accept challenges in Mission mode or hone their technique in Training mode. Dragon Ball: Evolution also lets players challenge friends to online feats of strength in Network Battle mode for infinite+ replay value.
The motion picture Dragon Ball: Evolution, starring Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds), Emmy Rossum (The Day After Tomorrow), Jamie Chung (Samurai Girl)) and Chow Yung Fat (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End), along with James Masters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Eriko Tamura (NBC’s “Heroes”) and international pop sensation Joon Park, will be released by Twentieth Century Fox April 8, 2009. The film is based on one of the most successful manga series of all-time, which boasts more than 500 animated television episodes, 14 video games, 17 features and over $4 billion in related merchandise sales.
I have no idea why they’d release such a popular gaming series only on the PSP, which NPD says is outsold by the DS, Wii and Xbox 360 every month of the past year. It’ll be tough enough for the movie to do well at the boxoffice after all the character changes they made to the series, but to not make the movie-based game a multiplatform release on the PS2 and other systems almost seems like they want it to fail. When I was looking at the other DBE screenshots, it looks fun too, so I don’t understand they’d make it a PSP-exclusive?
Update: Here’s a Dragon Ball Evolution game demo from NY Comic-Con 2009!