Today in a press release, Atari has announced Harukanaru Densetsu, a new entry in the Dragonball Z video games which is hitting the Nintendo DS handheld. And the gameplay formula may seem a little familiar.

Harukanaru is unlike it’s other show-turned-game adaptions. We’ve seen Budokai Tenkaichi (PS2, PSP) work wonders with the fighting genre, while The Legacy of Goku (GBA) utilizes RPG elements with a little action.  This new game is all about strategic card-based gameplay, which ultimately makes the player take time to muse about upgrading character stats, strengthen and create new techniques.

Players will utilize a numerous amount of cards marked with eight different types of actions, power levels and guard levels. Just like Baten Kaitos (GCN), you’ll be given a randomly shuffled deck (which requires careful thinking in which cards you plan to use) each card containing one of the eight abilities. Players can create combos with specific cards, and even the most powerful cards won’t grant you special attacks.

DragonBall Z: Harukanaru Densetsu is being published by Namco Bandai Games Europe and Atari is distributing the game in New Zealand and Australia. The game is planned to be released in June 2007 in these locations.

The press release can be found here. Keep WiiDS.co.uk on top of the deck for more news…